Ahhnold Vins!

Jackie Mason | October 8, 2003
[hidden by request]

Anna Gregoline | October 8, 2003
And he's a disgusting, sexist, racist pig besides. Great job, California.

Kris Weberg | October 18, 2003
There was a pretty good editorial in the NYT about the way that Ahnuld's win seems to herald the official dissolution of the line between entertainment and politics. While you can point back to Reagan, he really ran and was covered as a politican with a specific and identifiable ideology, not a celebrity. And while Jesse Ventura may seem like a proto-Arnold, the media treated him more like a strange novelty than a legitemate "entertainment" candidate. Arnold, though...Arnold was portrayed just as he would have been in any movie publicity junket, and his positions received less attention than whatever lame catchphrase could be fit into a headline. Particularly disturbign, as Anna suggests, was the tendency of the media to treat his crude, misogynist, and possibly felonious antics as though they were part of Colin Farrell's last wacky bender instead of serious challenges to his integrity as a potential (well, now actual) governor.

Scott Hardie | October 20, 2003
Welcome back to the site, Kris!

The element I found most disturbing about Arnold's candidacy was the lack of specific details in his platform, save for a few promises like repealing the car tax. In the first few days of his campaign, when he offered only ambiguous platitudes, I figured he'd certainly get some votes, but there was no way that entire state would fall for such a smoke-and-mirrors act. Obviously I was wrong. It reminds me of the "Cheers" episode where Philip Baker Hall guest-starred as a candidate for city council: He came into the bar, delivered a pointless speech about how he'll "stand up for the little guy" and "sweep the corruption right out of City Hall" and so on, and got enthusiastic applause for it, so Frasier decided to run Woody as a joke candidate with an even more empty platform... and Woody won.