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What Comes Next?

Aired October 08, 2003 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: So to paraphrase Robert Redford playing candidate Bill McKay in that movie of the same name, now what?
For the answer, we turn to CNN's Bob Franken, who's probably wondering now what for himself.

Hello, Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now what? I think just about everybody's dusting off his copy of that Robert Redford movie, and is going to take another look at it.

But this improbable campaign leads now to the question of governing. And Arnold Schwarzenegger has his work cut out for him in a very brief period of time. He's going to become governor sometime in mid to late November, and then he has to, by that time, to start to assemble a team. That is to say, has to have a chief of staff, he's got to have the people around him. That is no small deal. That is something that usually is done in a much faster fashion. This is going to be a transition that's going to be at hyperspeed, a transition, by the way, that Governor Gray Davis said he would cooperate with, as much as he possibly could.

Then there's -- after the governor becomes Governor Schwarzenegger, he's got a budget. It is due January 10, before the legislature. That is not a lot of time, considering the fact that one of the fundamental questions in this entire election was the state of the California budget. He's got to somehow figure out a way to repeal the car tax and to get rid of -- not raise taxes at all, but maintain the priorities he said he would, including education. The politicians are going to be sitting there waiting. You cannot expect that they're going to cooperate that much. It is not going to be much of a honeymoon, Miles, but it has certainly been quite a courtship leading up to the time that he has become governor.

O'BRIEN: Well, I guess a generation ago, in the administration Schwarzenegger admires so much, the Reagan administration, the allegation was it was all voodoo economics, cutting taxes, balancing the budget. He starts off putting himself in a big hole by getting rid of that car tax. I haven't seen any plans for the what next after that. Have you?

FRANKEN: No, because there are no plans. As a matter of fact, the first plan is going to be to try and convince a Democratic legislature to bend over backwards to cooperate, to allow the very, very, very tough decisions to be made without pain. That is not going to happen. O'BRIEN: CNN's Bob Franken, who's been in Los Angeles for as long as we can remember. We wish you happy journeys. Hopefully, you've got a trip coming back home soon some time.

FRANKEN: That's right, and we'll talk about "Total Recall" later.

O'BRIEN: There you go. All right, we'll see you in a bit.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com






Aired October 8, 2003 - 13:00   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: So to paraphrase Robert Redford playing candidate Bill McKay in that movie of the same name, now what?
For the answer, we turn to CNN's Bob Franken, who's probably wondering now what for himself.

Hello, Bob.

BOB FRANKEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Now what? I think just about everybody's dusting off his copy of that Robert Redford movie, and is going to take another look at it.

But this improbable campaign leads now to the question of governing. And Arnold Schwarzenegger has his work cut out for him in a very brief period of time. He's going to become governor sometime in mid to late November, and then he has to, by that time, to start to assemble a team. That is to say, has to have a chief of staff, he's got to have the people around him. That is no small deal. That is something that usually is done in a much faster fashion. This is going to be a transition that's going to be at hyperspeed, a transition, by the way, that Governor Gray Davis said he would cooperate with, as much as he possibly could.

Then there's -- after the governor becomes Governor Schwarzenegger, he's got a budget. It is due January 10, before the legislature. That is not a lot of time, considering the fact that one of the fundamental questions in this entire election was the state of the California budget. He's got to somehow figure out a way to repeal the car tax and to get rid of -- not raise taxes at all, but maintain the priorities he said he would, including education. The politicians are going to be sitting there waiting. You cannot expect that they're going to cooperate that much. It is not going to be much of a honeymoon, Miles, but it has certainly been quite a courtship leading up to the time that he has become governor.

O'BRIEN: Well, I guess a generation ago, in the administration Schwarzenegger admires so much, the Reagan administration, the allegation was it was all voodoo economics, cutting taxes, balancing the budget. He starts off putting himself in a big hole by getting rid of that car tax. I haven't seen any plans for the what next after that. Have you?

FRANKEN: No, because there are no plans. As a matter of fact, the first plan is going to be to try and convince a Democratic legislature to bend over backwards to cooperate, to allow the very, very, very tough decisions to be made without pain. That is not going to happen. O'BRIEN: CNN's Bob Franken, who's been in Los Angeles for as long as we can remember. We wish you happy journeys. Hopefully, you've got a trip coming back home soon some time.

FRANKEN: That's right, and we'll talk about "Total Recall" later.

O'BRIEN: There you go. All right, we'll see you in a bit.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com