Schwarzenegger -- What Might've Been

I’m happy to see Arnold up off his knees a little and feinting an attack of sorts at ObamaCare, but in her column at Real Clear Politics, Debra Saunders looks back at six years of wasted opportunities:

Mention Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger — you need only say his first name — and many Californians respond with a long sigh, then with words like “squander” or “waste” or “missed opportunity.” Those in the political class look at Schwarzenegger and see what might have been.

Close your eyes and think back in time six years. There was excitement as Schwarzenegger delivered his first State of the State address in 2004; international, Washington and Southern California media flocked to sleepy Sacramento in such numbers that Capitol workers had to put up a tent to contain the overflow. The larger-than-life action figure garnered more raw votes in the crowded recall race than ousted Democrat Gov. Gray Davis won in the anemic 2002 general election. He could not exactly pronounce Cah-lee-fornia, yet he bounded into office with so much force that even before his first State of the State, he revoked the car tax and stared down the Legislature until it repealed a recently passed law to allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver’s licenses. Democrats held comfortable majorities in the Assembly and Senate, yet six years ago, many were terrified — they lowered their voices when they talked about him — at what the muscle man might make them do.

On the right, the big fear was that Schwarzenegger’s need to be liked would keep him from doing what needed to be done. As it turned out, Schwarzenegger pushed for budget reform and a tough pension overhaul to end pricey defined-benefit pensions for new state employees. Sadly, once his plans met resistance, rather than regird his loins, the governator slinked off the set in search of a new script.

Wednesday, Schwarzenegger acknowledged that he starts the year facing a crushing $20.7 billion shortfall that will require painful cuts.

Throw in the fact that he has to work with a dysfunctional tax system and a Legislature dominated by hacks and zealots, and Schwarzenegger is back where he started six years ago.

Read the whole thing — Arnold is relying on plenty of Hollywood-style accounting to make a craptastic CA budget look marginally better than the trainwreck it truly is.