Ahhhhnuld's scare tactics don't seem to be working

[marmar]

from the LA Times:



Schwarzenegger needs a boost, but his chances recede with the economy
His razzle-dazzle dims as polls show his ballot measures are in peril.

By Cathleen Decker
May 10, 2009


As he stood before the cameras in Santa Barbara last week, the freewheeling showman that Arnold Schwarzenegger used to be was evident only in his attire.

He was clad in a shirt that was blindingly white, as if daring the ruinous soot from the Jesusita wildfire to soil it. Around him were arrayed workers and officials whose muted workday clothes only emphasized Schwarzenegger's primacy.

He stood behind the lectern marked with the governor's seal, the symbol of distinction earned more than five years ago when he swept into office vowing salvation for California. But he was not what he once was, and he could use a little salvation of his own.

The bombast was gone, and with it the tricks of past years -- the giant green credit cards representing debt he promised to stem, the vats of pseudo red ink spewing from a spigot that he theatrically twisted closed, the wrecking ball dropped on the Oldsmobile as his emphatic end to the car tax.

Passion burst forth, certainly, when he praised the firefighters for their dedication, but it was too easy to remember the vitriolic battles he had with them only a few years ago. When it came to the fate of the May 19 ballot measures he has cast as the only way out of the state's dire financial problems, his choice of words was unwittingly illuminating. ........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-week10-2009may10,0,5435880.story