California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger Considered Leaving the Republican Party

The Governator may as well have pulled the switch because after the latest California State Budget with it’s massive ($14 Billion) tax hikes, his credibility with California Republicans is ZERO.

A few months ago, Arnold Schwarzenegger and a few close associates discussed whether he should leave the Republican Party, according to two people familiar with the conversation. His friend Mike Bloomberg, the New York mayor, had become an independent. Maybe Schwarzenegger should, too. But the governor and his people quickly concluded that Californians already saw him as independent of the Republican Party. So what would be the point of a switch? (A spokesman for the governor declined comment.)

To people outside the state, Schwarzenegger’s recent battles with Republican legislators over a budget and his criticism of GOP governors and Congressmen for their opposition to President Obama’s stimulus package might sound jarring. Schwarzenegger once was “Conan the Republican” (the first President Bush’s nickname for him), a politician who declared in his 2004 convention speech, “I’m proud to belong to the party of Abraham Lincoln, the party of Teddy Roosevelt, the party of Ronald Reagan and the party of George W. Bush.” Now he is on ABC News saying that “it doesn’t really mater if you’re a Republican or a Democrat.”

Arnold has the ego of a movie star celeb and  has a crying need to be popular. Popularity has served him well in bodybuilding and movies. In politics – not so much

Making difficult decisions as California Governor has placed Arnold in a situation he abhors – making some voters dislike him. Thus, he doesn’t make any decisions unless pressed and then the Republican Party be damned. IT is all about Arnold.

Flap hopes the California GOP has learned a lesson. You can take a popular figure from Hollywood and make him governor. But, if he does not have the requisite skill set to actually govern, then you have a problem.