Arnold is being sold to Democrats as a moderate.

[AP]

There's a conservative NPR station in SF (88.5) and today a commentator did an opinion piece saying, 'how could Arnold be conservative? All that time spent in Hyannis, he must have picked up something.' I've heard people here say Arnold won't win because he's going to divide the Republican party. Hello. The Republicans can't win in California. They're too small and inconsequential. They can afford to be divided into the majority who are moderate, and the tiny tiny fraction who are hardcore (CA is NOT South Carolina!).

The only way a Republican can win in CA is if lots of moderate Democrats vote for him or her. That's what they're doing with Arnold. In fact, his first commercial doesn't mention the R-word once.

But you know what? No Democrat would be invited to a meeting with Ken Lay to discuss how Enron was going to rip off the citizens of CA. Arnold is no moderate. He's tight with Republicans, and the Bushes, and I hope Democrats wise up to the fact.

[genius]

1. 187 will bring him down

hopefully.

[StClone]

2. Republican deep thinkers

Want the moderate tag for Schwarzenegger and that he is a not a true Conservative to fool the unwary.

I thought this was common knowledge.

[ilpostino]

3. Not that I'm voting for him...

But why have the conservatives mounted a full-out attack on him if this wolf in sheep's clothing strategy is true? Is it possible that there are as many REAL divisions among conservatives (and Repubs) as one might find, say, on DU? Just wondering.

[AP]

4. There are no divisions among Republicans. It's all strategy.

In a state in which Republicans are way outnumbered by Dems and where many Republicans are moderate, the only way they'll win is if they can portray Arnold as not a real conservative. Their softening up moderates to vote for him. But they know, if he wins, he'll be working to make Republcans wealthier (which is all they really care about).

[ilpostino]

5. Maybe this will help

Calif. conservatives bridling at GOP's star candidate
By Yvonne Abraham, Globe Staff, 8/20/2003

Excerpt:
Some of the conservative Republicans who led the charge against Democratic Governor Gray Davis are up in arms since Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican with some views they find heretical, announced two weeks ago that he would run to replace Davis. Infighting between conservative and moderate Republicans has grown increasingly combative, lifting prospects for Democrats to retain the governorship.

Schwarzenegger identifies himself as a Republican, but conservative commentators and his Republican opponents say his support for abortion rights, gay rights, and possibly even higher taxes makes him unworthy of the party label. His Republican rivals are hacking away at his right flank in a bid to improve their chances in the race. "I don't see the point of electing another Republican if that Republican's policies are virtually identical to the policies that got us into this mess in the first place," said state Senator Tom McClintock, a GOP gubernatorial candidate.

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2003/08/20/calif_conservatives_bridling_at_gops_star_candidate

[sungkathak]

6. A patsy

What do you think that Gray Davis would act in film "Terminator"? If Arnold could be a Governor?

When you need a driver, at least he should have some experience to drive. If you need an engineer, he has to have some academic degree on that subject. Will Governor of a big state require some qualification? Is it more important than to manage a small company?

Arnold may guise as a hero before camara. But what kind of political and government experience has he had? He will at last be only a patsy of an insider group. A tool used to steal an important position in a big state.

[AntiCoup2K4]

7. How quickly we forget.....

Bush Jr campaigned as a moderate centrist "compassionate conservative" and managed to get enough of the centrist and indy vote to make the Florida theft possible. Yes he stole the election, but he almost won, due to the false image he was portraying.

And immediately after the Supreme Court installed him, he assembled the most reactionary cabinet of fascists possible, betraying everything he had run on. - Not that it surprised me in the least. :grr:

Having said that, I don't believe Arnold's moderate Republican views - or at least his claims of them - were just invented for this campaign, he has mentioned in past interviews that he didn't have much in common with the extreme right, and one would think that someone in the far fringes of extreme conservatism wouldn't be welcomed into America's most famous Democratic family.

My fears of a Schwarzenegger administration in California aren't so much the Terminator himself as it will be the PNAC - picked team assembled to surround him, and corrupt the state - or more specifically the 54 electoral votes that are crucial to ending the Bush Criminal Empire's brutal regime.

[AP]

8. If he's talking to Ken Lay, he's no moderate.

Like I (think I) said -- the social issue moderation stuff is window dressing. Politics today is about whether for or against a transfer of wealth from the working and middle class to the wealthy, and whether you're for a fair, competitive economy which rewards hard work, not wealth.

Arnold is on the wrong side of both those issues, no matter how moderate he seems on all the window dressing issues.

[mndemocrat_29]

9. Arnold is a conservative Repuke

Democrats should not and will not vote for him on October 7th. Cruz Bustamante or Gray Davis will be governor after all this is over.