Arnold “The Worst Governor In History” Schwarzenegger went home to his native Austria to pat himself on the back because after seven years of his governorship, there’s apparently no one left in California who will still do it for him.
Awwww. The Governator claims that two terms of disserving the people of California cost him at least $200 million.
Reuters has his odd combination of self-adulation and self-flagellation:
Counting expenses and lost income from acting in Hollywood films, “in all it is probably more than $200 million,” he told Krone when asked how much his two terms in Sacramento had cost.
“But I’m not sorry. It was more than worth it,” he said.
“What was much worse was the damage my time as governor did to the family. There is a lot there that needs to be repaired,” he said, recalling the many Sunday evenings when his wife, Maria, and children broke out in tears at his heavy work schedule.
“We hate your job,” Schwarzenegger quoted family members as saying during his early years as governor when he would leave his Los Angeles home every Monday morning for the capital, Sacramento, and not return until the end of the week.
“It was heartbreaking every time,” said Schwarzenegger, a Republican who served as governor from 2003 until early this month. “In my second term of office, I did better. I tried to fly home every evening.”
The people of California had such high hopes for Arnold when he entered office. He said all the right things and started off as a good, hard-ass conservative. But when he lost the first battle to control state spending and his personal approval rating plummeted, the Governator clearly decided that being popular was more important than being a good governor.
In the end, he was neither.
But give us a break here, Arnold. Who the hell was going to pay you $200 million dollars to make movies? You entered politics because your movie career was over. Finished. Through. Kaput.
In 1996, Eraser stunk up the joint. In 1997, Batman & Robin bombed. In 1999, End of Days was a huge failure. In 2000, The Sixth Day and Collateral Damage tanked. And in 2003, Terminator 3 barely paid for itself. By late 1993, politics suddenly looked like a brilliant way to gently ease yourself out of failing career in Tinseltown.
A little known fact is that Arnold has probably made far more money in real estate than he made in movies. He owns half of toney downtown Santa Monica. In fact, he was once the Editor’s landlord in a beautiful building above Schatzi on Main, his Austrian restaurant. We shared the floor with Johnny Carson’s and Antonio Banderas’ production companies.
In the end, the state of California would have been much better off if Arnold’s post-Hollywood career had been devoted to real estate instead of destroying a great state.
Source: Reuters
H/T: KQ
This post was last modified on January 26, 2021
View Comments (12)
I can't believe that Grey "lets give all the illegals a drivers licence" Davis isn't considered the worst governor.
But in my defense, I did miss all of Arnold's second term, so I might be way off base.
I mean really am I supposed to feel sorry for this guy? Was he expecting pity...? Overall I feel bad about his family missing him and all but I am revolted that he would actually be complaining about personal costs in light of his disservice to the state.
Those of us who have lived in CA the entire time he has been Governor, actually since before he even came to this country, wish he had kept making movies, raking in the big bucks, (?), rather than being Governor. I voted for him, both times actually. But that was only because of rotten excuses for human beings that were running against him.
I voted for Arnold the first time despite knowing that Tom McClintock was a far better candidate. Problem was, he couldn't win. Second time around I stood there in the voting booth and just couldn't bring myself to vote for Arnold. I think I voted for the Libertarian candidate.
Hey, Administrator, did you ever vote for Arnold?
It is awful when your choices are both wrong you have to chose what you think is the least disastrous one.
Ahnold’s nearly eight years in office left the good citizens of the Golden State with a budget deficit of 19.1 billion dollars while only losing him 200 million. At that rate he’d have to remain in office for another 752 years before costing the people of California anywhere near as much as he’s cost them.
Arnold folded like a bad poker hand after the spending vote failure. He caved totally after that and was a real disappointment. Maybe he felt if the voters were going to reject his proposals he would reject the voters.
Based on the photo his new title should be "The Flabbinator"
“In my second term of office, I did better. I tried to fly home every evening.”
Doesn't Arnold want to become part of Baracks green thinking crap committee? Is a daily commute via air considered a green commute?
How much did his time as governor cost California?
Those numbers are still coming in. It will take quite some time to add all of them up.
I'm not sure, but I will say inot as much as it would have if Grey Davis were still in the Governor's Mansion. Arnold was a major disappointment, but Davis was lousy, & Brown will eff things up worse then he did the 1st time he was gov.