Arnold Schwarzenegger on Meet the Press: 'Pay No Attention to My Crumbling Administration'!

It's not often that an earthquake hits while the Governor of California is being interviewed for Meet the Press. But watch the picture fall at about 25 seconds. Schwarzennegger quips, "pay no attention to the picture ... these things happen all the time in California ..."

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I guess you'd have to be a Californian to appreciate the symbolism. Earlier in the interview Schwarzenegger protests that California is getting "ripped off" by the Obama administration's healthcare reform:

DAVID GREGORY: Is that how you think about health care reform? As something that ultimately would beat up on California?

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER: Yes, it is. Right now, it is-- and I just cannot imagine that why we would have-- like I said, you know, for instance, you know-- our Senators and Congressional people, how they would vote for something like that. Where they're representing Nebraska and not us? And-- by the way, as I said in my State of the State, that's the biggest rip-off. I mean that is against the law to buy a vote?

DAVID GREGORY: You're talking about Senator Nelson?

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER: Senator Nelson. That's like buying a vote. To say, "Hey--"

DAVID GREGORY: The Federal Government will pay for their Medicaid expansion

GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER: "I'm holding out my vote, unless I get some extra kind of benefits here." I mean if you do that in Sacramento, you know, you'll be sued. It is illegal to do that, to buy votes.

But if this isn't pure posturing, what is? One of the most vivid memories I'll have of this administration is of the governor flying to Washington to make deals with President Obama and the Democrats on cap and trade legislation:

This was May 19, the same day that voters crushed Schwarzenegger's ballot initiatives that would have increased taxes by $16 billion! It wasn't until July that Schwarzenegger saw the light, seen in the governor's total flip-flop with the launch of "Stand for California," his limited-government media initiative.

He's been all talk and swagger, while the walls have been falling down around him. Schwarzenegger predicts that this will be a Republican year, that the party is going to make big electoral gains. The "momentum" is shifting back to the GOP he says, but that's because voters are rejecting the spineless big-governmentalism that Schwarzenegger represents. Like the 6.5 quake that hit the state on Saturday, government has crumbled under Schwarzenegger's leadership in Sacramento. We need an administration that will make tough choices, not one that looks to free ride off those who do.

See also, Left Coast Rebel, "The Ghost of Ronald Reagan Has A Message for Arnold Schwarzenegger or Was it the 6.5 Magnitude Quake?"