It appears as though the stream of accusations against Arnold Schwarzenegger have already backfired on Davis’ smear machine. 58% of those polled in the SurveyUSA flash poll say that Arnold is being smeared by the allegations. Arnold has actually gained support because of the accusations levelled against him.
The smear that Arnold was an admirer of Hitler is particularly disgusting especially since early media reports actually misquoted what he says. It is certainly not anti-Semitic to say that Hitler was an exceptionally great orator, as Mitch Berg points out. In no way does that correlate to support of his policies, Nazism, and anti-Semitism.
Arnold made it clear that Davis would do whatever he could to smear him, and it appears that this is indeed the case. However, the voters of California are sick of Gray Davis’ disgusting slash-and-burn politics. If anything, these scurrilous accusations are a sign of the desperation of the Davis campaign as they realize that they will lose on Tuesday. As I’m fond of saying, it couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people.
You must be on crack if you think all this bad press is gonna help Arnold. The guy just lost the endorsement of one of the few newspapers that had previously endorsed him. These are serious charges (particularly the multiple incidents of sexual assault) and will not set well with the “swing voters” who are not yet committed to casting their ballot for him, as well as some former supporters who now can no longer hold their nose and vote for Clinton’s GOP counterpart.
To suggest that Davis and the Democrats (or whoever brought attention to the issue) should not have made this information available to the public shows that partisan advantage outweighs all else in your mind….not to mention that you contradict your numerous previous statements about people deserving to be held accountable when they say or do something stupid, as Arnold has clearly done as many times as humanly possible. It should be clear to everybody that you’re a buffoonish hypocrite who is more interested in blind allegiance to your party’s short-term advantage than any serious political discussion, and that nothing you say can be taken seriously from this point on.
The process of letting the air out of your head is likely to start with the self-inflicted defeat of Schwarzenegger on Tuesday, despite your leap of faith predictions that groping women and praising Hitler will warm California voters up to him even more.
If you cannot debate respectfully on this site you will be banned from leaving comments. This will be your last warning.
As for your argument, it is clearly contradicted by the poll results which show that there has been an increase in support for Arnold since the smear campaign.
Furthermore, what Arnold did may have been crude, but it is in no way sexual assault. If Arnold starts having sex with an intern after being elected, then he should be punished. However, if boorish behavior 20 years ago is enough to bar someone from office damn near every politician in the country should be kicked out of office.
Ignoring or banning posters who disagree with you is the ultimate act of cowardice. If you feel my freedom of speech is as perilous to your credibility as the Democrats speech is to the Schwarzenegger campaign, by all means, take the easy way out and “ban me.” The whole prospect is more than a little hilarious considering you called me an “idiot” in no ambiguous manner earlier in the week, as well as letting our good friend the Sargeant’s post filled with profanity and personal attacks slide while celebrating how “colorful” it is, and now have the stones to lecture about “respectful debate.” I guess it should come as no surprise that your standards on “respectful debate” are about as consistent as your standards on everything else, particularly dealing with the consequences of publicly saying something stupid as Arnold did.
By the way, I’d like to see the “poll numbers” that have come out since yesterday afternoon that show this surge in Schwarzenegger’s popularity based on his history of sexual assault and Hitler sympathizing.
You don’t have any freedom of speech here. All comments are at my discretion and are subject to whatever terms I want. I can and will remove abusive posts and I can and will ban people for abusing their posting privileges. So far I’ve only had to do it twice, and I’d rather not have to do it often. The only thing I will not do is edit anyone’s comment. If a comment is abusive it will either be ridiculed publically or removed, but it will not be edited. Again, if you disagree with these terms, then don’t comment. (And as for Dave, I give him more slack because we went to high school together, he is a Marine, and he buys me drinks.) Again, if you want to control the debate, you are free to get your own blog.
As for your request for the poll numbers CLICK ON THE BLOODY LINK! That little dark blue thing that underlines when you mouse over it is called a link. It takes you to the things I am discussing. If you don’t want to look like an idiot you should click on them first before commenting.
If you cannot debate respectfully on this site you will be banned from leaving comments. This will be your last warning.
You don’t have any freedom of speech here. All comments are at my discretion and are subject to whatever terms I want. I can and will remove abusive posts and I can and will ban people for abusing their posting privileges.
A few remarks:
1/ French-bashing is clearly respectful
2/ Mark obviously adds much value to this not-too-visited site
3/ I’ll ban myself if Mark is banned (I know it’s no big deal for you Jay, but it’s a question of principle).
Don’t let the door hit you on the a** on the way out…..
I guess you did link to a Survey USA poll that suggested most Californians felt Arnold was being “smeared” by the simple revelation of his unsavory past. Fair enough, but it conflicts with the poll numbers I saw on the Sunday Evening news showing the race narrowing after the revelations. I will say that I may have overestimated the standards of any electorate that doesn’t flinch after learning the President of the United States manipulated the intelligence that led to a long and bloody war which shows no signs of ending. Then again, this is California and I stand by my predictions that a history of Hitler sympathizing and pathological sexual assault against women will be a scandal worthy of alienating “swing voters.” Couple that with the fact that so many conservatives who couldn’t bring themselves to voting for a “baby killer” will go with McClintock and Schwarzenegger’s base narrows considerably. I’m surprised it’s still as close as it appears to be, but Davis and Bustamante have gotta be looking pretty good right now to any soccer mom whose had to deal an ass-pinching boss who Schwarzenegger now personifies times ten.
You are correct that since this is your blog, you can control the content of the discussion. But your blatant double standards in regards to “respectful discussion” should definitely give pause to anyone who values intelligent discourse. From day one, I considered you a coward for pounding the drums of a war that you have absolutely no intention of fighting yourself. However, I never considered you a coward when it comes to debate until now. You have systematically contradicted nearly every one of the points you have made over the past six months that I’ve posted here and have conveniently ignored responses that lay your hypocrisy out for all the world to see. That’s your prerogative and it only strengthens your dissenters when you expose your weakness, so I have no problem with it. But when you proceed to call someone an idiot and praise the “colorful” nature of a post with endless vulgarities, slander, and threats of physical violence, and then suggest that someone else calling you a hypocrite crosses a line of acceptable conduct and is grounds for banning them from your board, you make yourself look weaker than I ever could with any of my strongly-worded criticisms of your posts.
Think of it this way Jay: if you ban Mark the dialoge here would drop to about nil. Do you really want that?