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American Morning
Challenges for Governor-Elect Schwarzenegger
Aired October 08, 2003 - 07:08 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.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: More now about how the race to replace Gray Davis turned out and what the governor-elect, Schwarzenegger, has ahead of him.
With us today in Washington, Jonah Goldberg, editor of the "National Review Online." Good morning, Jonah. Nice to see you here.
JONAH GOLDBERG, "NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE": Hey, Bill. Good to see you.
HEMMER: And Peter Beinart, editor at "The New Republic" with us as well.
Peter, why don't you start us off? What does this race say to you? Is this a statement against Democrats or just exclusively Gray Davis, do you think?
PETER BEINART, "THE NATIONAL REPUBLIC": I think mostly Gray Davis. I think if you look historically, you see that California -- when economic times are bad, California has this history, this tradition of these kinds of right-wing populist revolts. You saw it in the late '70s with Prop 113 against taxes. You saw it in the mid- '90s with Proposition 187 against illegal immigrants. And I think you're seeing it again, because the economy is in bad shape, and because Gray Davis is a very unpopular personality. I still think that California remains a very liberal Democratic state.
HEMMER: Jonah, do you agree with that? Or is there a larger statement involved in this vote last night?
GOLDBERG: Well, I agree with some of it. I certainly don't think this is the right-wing conspiracy that Gray Davis complained about, and I'm not sure how right-wing and populist this revolt was. Certainly, the right-wingers voted for McClintock, who is who I would have voted for. But at the same time, this really was a disaster of Gray Davis's own making. You know, in many ways, it was a perfect storm. Because of the low voter turnout in the last election, they could have a -- they didn't need that many signatures for the petition.
But this never would have happened if it weren't for the fact that Gray Davis and the liberals in Sacramento had created the perfect conditions for this to actually happen. Remember, there have been plenty of recall attempts in the last 92 years. This is just the first one that worked, and there's a reason why.
HEMMER: Yes, Peter, what does it say about one in four Democrats consider themselves very liberal? This is based on the exit polling of last night. Twenty-five percent voted in favor of the recall. To you, that says what?
BEINART: Well, it says that Gray Davis was always an unpopular politician, even amongst many Democrats. He made a lot of enemies amongst Democrats with some very vicious attacks on his fellow Democrats over the years. And he was considered by many Democrats to be not someone who had core beliefs like them, but to be the kind of quintessential politician who was more interested in fund-raising than anything else.
So, it's not surprising, I think, that there was a lack of deep passionate support for Gray Davis. I think the real question is: Is how it was that Arnold Schwarzenegger managed to convince enough Californians that he was competent enough to do this very difficult job that they were willing to replace Davis with Schwarzenegger? I think that's the real remarkable story in this campaign -- not that Davis is unpopular, but Schwarzenegger was able to win.
HEMMER: One of the stories circulating here in Los Angeles, here the day after, Jonah, is the reflection back on the "L.A. Times" and these allegations of women who have come forward -- 16 in all to this point -- over the past week. Those allegations really did not stick last night. Do you have an explanation as to why?
GOLDBERG: Well, you know, I think part of the story might be, in fact, thanks to Bill Clinton. I think Bill Clinton was remarkably popular in California, and, in many ways, those sorts of stories, the merits of them notwithstanding, are seen as something Californians, who are basically liberal voters, do not like. And when it was Schwarzenegger's turn to be on the receiving end of them, California voters just sort of turned their backs on them. Also, you know, I think the alternatives to Schwarzenegger were so terrible that a lot of California voters just decided to hold their nose.
I'm not sure, though, that this doesn't stick to the Democrats as much as Peter would like to think. We saw for the last month virtually every single national Democrat in this country rally to Gray Davis's side, and as of last night we were hearing Paul Begala on this network talk about how the Democrats are going to try to recall the recall and all of that sort of thing, which may create a terrible image for Democrats in California and nationwide.
HEMMER: Jonah, one final thought here. Do you think this puts California back into play for Republicans, knowing the race for the White House is now 13 months away?
GOLDBERG: I think it's way too soon to say whether it actually makes California competitive for George Bush, but I think it definitely means that Democrats will probably have to spend a lot more money in California to keep it in their column. And that alone will be bad news for Democrats, because they are in all likelihood going to be pretty cash-poor come election time.
HEMMER: Jonah, thanks. Jonah Goldberg back in D.C. Peter Beinart with us as well. Thank you, gentlemen. Have a good day, OK? Appreciate you getting up early with us today.
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 - 07:08 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
BILL HEMMER, CNN ANCHOR: More now about how the race to replace Gray Davis turned out and what the governor-elect, Schwarzenegger, has ahead of him.
With us today in Washington, Jonah Goldberg, editor of the "National Review Online." Good morning, Jonah. Nice to see you here.
JONAH GOLDBERG, "NATIONAL REVIEW ONLINE": Hey, Bill. Good to see you.
HEMMER: And Peter Beinart, editor at "The New Republic" with us as well.
Peter, why don't you start us off? What does this race say to you? Is this a statement against Democrats or just exclusively Gray Davis, do you think?
PETER BEINART, "THE NATIONAL REPUBLIC": I think mostly Gray Davis. I think if you look historically, you see that California -- when economic times are bad, California has this history, this tradition of these kinds of right-wing populist revolts. You saw it in the late '70s with Prop 113 against taxes. You saw it in the mid- '90s with Proposition 187 against illegal immigrants. And I think you're seeing it again, because the economy is in bad shape, and because Gray Davis is a very unpopular personality. I still think that California remains a very liberal Democratic state.
HEMMER: Jonah, do you agree with that? Or is there a larger statement involved in this vote last night?
GOLDBERG: Well, I agree with some of it. I certainly don't think this is the right-wing conspiracy that Gray Davis complained about, and I'm not sure how right-wing and populist this revolt was. Certainly, the right-wingers voted for McClintock, who is who I would have voted for. But at the same time, this really was a disaster of Gray Davis's own making. You know, in many ways, it was a perfect storm. Because of the low voter turnout in the last election, they could have a -- they didn't need that many signatures for the petition.
But this never would have happened if it weren't for the fact that Gray Davis and the liberals in Sacramento had created the perfect conditions for this to actually happen. Remember, there have been plenty of recall attempts in the last 92 years. This is just the first one that worked, and there's a reason why.
HEMMER: Yes, Peter, what does it say about one in four Democrats consider themselves very liberal? This is based on the exit polling of last night. Twenty-five percent voted in favor of the recall. To you, that says what?
BEINART: Well, it says that Gray Davis was always an unpopular politician, even amongst many Democrats. He made a lot of enemies amongst Democrats with some very vicious attacks on his fellow Democrats over the years. And he was considered by many Democrats to be not someone who had core beliefs like them, but to be the kind of quintessential politician who was more interested in fund-raising than anything else.
So, it's not surprising, I think, that there was a lack of deep passionate support for Gray Davis. I think the real question is: Is how it was that Arnold Schwarzenegger managed to convince enough Californians that he was competent enough to do this very difficult job that they were willing to replace Davis with Schwarzenegger? I think that's the real remarkable story in this campaign -- not that Davis is unpopular, but Schwarzenegger was able to win.
HEMMER: One of the stories circulating here in Los Angeles, here the day after, Jonah, is the reflection back on the "L.A. Times" and these allegations of women who have come forward -- 16 in all to this point -- over the past week. Those allegations really did not stick last night. Do you have an explanation as to why?
GOLDBERG: Well, you know, I think part of the story might be, in fact, thanks to Bill Clinton. I think Bill Clinton was remarkably popular in California, and, in many ways, those sorts of stories, the merits of them notwithstanding, are seen as something Californians, who are basically liberal voters, do not like. And when it was Schwarzenegger's turn to be on the receiving end of them, California voters just sort of turned their backs on them. Also, you know, I think the alternatives to Schwarzenegger were so terrible that a lot of California voters just decided to hold their nose.
I'm not sure, though, that this doesn't stick to the Democrats as much as Peter would like to think. We saw for the last month virtually every single national Democrat in this country rally to Gray Davis's side, and as of last night we were hearing Paul Begala on this network talk about how the Democrats are going to try to recall the recall and all of that sort of thing, which may create a terrible image for Democrats in California and nationwide.
HEMMER: Jonah, one final thought here. Do you think this puts California back into play for Republicans, knowing the race for the White House is now 13 months away?
GOLDBERG: I think it's way too soon to say whether it actually makes California competitive for George Bush, but I think it definitely means that Democrats will probably have to spend a lot more money in California to keep it in their column. And that alone will be bad news for Democrats, because they are in all likelihood going to be pretty cash-poor come election time.
HEMMER: Jonah, thanks. Jonah Goldberg back in D.C. Peter Beinart with us as well. Thank you, gentlemen. Have a good day, OK? Appreciate you getting up early with us today.
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com.
