All signs point to Arnold Schwarzenegger’s rapid demise as governor of California. His polls have plummeted, his special election he had heavily promoted backfired when none of the measures on the ballot were passed, and now even members of his own party (republicans) are looking to remove him and replace him with someone else.
Mike Spence, the president of the California Republican Assembly, have gone on record saying he would like to have Mel Gibson as the next republican to run for Govenor. The good folks over at Guardian give us this:
“He’s (Gibson) shown himself to be both fiscally and socially conservative,” said Mr Spence, “and the success of The Passion of the Christ shows that he has the ability to reach out to people”.
“In public relations terms it’s a disaster,” said Democratic party official Bob Mulholland. “Not only are the Republicans disappointed with him losing all the ballot propositions but they think he’s throwing the Republicans over the side.”
Ouch! I guess there isn’t going to be a Christmas card exchange this year.
My biggest question for my American friends is this… why on earth did you guys elect an actor in the first place? At least Regan (God rest his soul) had a lot of political experience before running for any office. So why Gibson? Don’t get me wrong… I like Gibson a lot… but has he ever been a mayor? Has he ever served on a local council? Is he involved with any political organizations? Why would he… an actor… be a good leader for a state instead of some guy/woman who has lived there their whole lives, served the community and understands the needs of the people and has the experience to know how to do something about it? Just a thought from a Canadian observer.
(Oh yeah… like Canadians have never made political blunders before)
I doubt Mel could get elected.
Once the anti-semitism stuff began getting major press, that’d be it for him.
No one wants even a whiff of that stuff and sadly Mel is covered in it.
I can’t imagine anyone would want to support a guy whose father is a known Holocaust denier and who’s never publicly said his father is wrong, etc.
He MIGHT take the election in the mid-west or someplace, but not in CA.
In any case I’m guessing he knows that, which is why he’d never run for office. Also, he can promote his message (whatever that might be) much more successfully when the only spotlight on him is the one created by his movies, etc.
If people start digging around in his background- it would probably really slow him down and/or finish him off for good.
Which might not be such a bad thing.
MEL FOR GOVERNOR!!
Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected as a mid-term replacement for Gray Davis. Though I was not living in California at the time, I understand that Davis was considered (by the press at least) to be a do-nothing Governor so Schwarzenegger and 134 other hopefuls threw their hats in the recall election ring.
Schwarzenegger played on the no-nonsense attitude of the characters he portrayed on film. Yes, the terminator would be better than Davis. He won’t take any crap and get the state back on track. So Schwarzenegger road into office much the way he used to ride to the top of the box office- wink and a smile and the promise of a good time for all. The same way Clint Eastwood was elected as Mayor of Carmel.
Reagan started his career as president of the Screen Actors Guild from 1947 until 1952, and then again from 1959 to 1960. In this position, he testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee on Communist influence in Hollywood. He also kept tabs on actors he considered “disloyal” and informed on them to the FBI under the code name “Agent T-10,” but he would not denounce them publicly.
He did what he could. He did try to make a difference. He was better than the last jerk that we kicked out. In about two years I’ll be moving to Colorado. It is cheaper to live there. I can’t afford to live in California any longer.
Donna A.
I just wanted a governor who would get rid of the giant vehicle license fee tax that everyone in CA had to pay. Once Arny was elected I got a big fat VLF refund.
I agree, Gibson would be a bad idea – he’s had no political experience. But notice he’s not the one bringing up the idea, someone else is. I don’t think he’s interested in running. Its just something a politican threw out to see if Gibson cares. I don’t think he’ll bite.
But it’s not like Schwarzenegger had zero experience. He was the head of the first President Bush’s Council on Physical Fitness – not exactly Secretary of State, but it involved campaigning. Schwarzenegger also led a campaign for a Calif. ballot initiative a few years ago – he was at my college talking about it.
The best man to replace him would be Carl Weathers, one of the other actors in Predator. If he runs and wins, that’ll be three people from that movie that became a governor of a US state (Jesse Ventura being the other).