Lunch on Arnold

Today there was a big pro-Arnold rally at the capitol. When I heard about it, I wasn’t exactly motivated to get out of my seat and walk three blocks just to see the body-builder, turned actor, turned politician.

But then … I heard that they were giving away free lunches.

For some people (e.g., Kevin), food is not a motivating factor in their lives. For other people (e.g., Amy), food will make them move mountains and swim shark infested rivers. So … pretty soon I found myself at the steps of the capitol listening to a bunch of pro-Arnold rhetoric.

Arnold is a good governor insofar as he has some excellent ideas for fiscally salvaging this mess-of-a-state. And he’s willing to stand up to the special interests. And, let’s not forget that he’s “hip.” Like a friend of mine said, there aren’t too many people who could ride around the state in a hummer talking about pension-plan reform and make it sound "cool" (or at least "palatable" to the common man). But, somehow, Arnold pulls it off.

What I don’t like about Arnold is the fact that he’s in bed with the Kennedy family (literally) on all of the social issues that I care about most. But, let’s not talk about that right now …

The free lunch ended up being a hot dog. (I should have guessed.) You know, I honestly can’t remember the last time I’ve eaten a hot dog. Maybe ten years? And, just in case you care to know, I don’t feel badly attending his rally just for the free lunch because I did end up signing five of his initiatives. So, at least in a small way, I contributed to the good cause.

Oh, and Tom Arnold, the actor, was also there. He (a “proud democrat”) made some inflammatory remark about how you know you have a good governor when he can honk off both the extreme left and the extreme right. And then he added, “Sorry Rush.” This statement was interesting only considering the fact that most conservatives wouldn’t think of Rush as “extreme right.” What I happened to know (that Tom Arnold didn’t know) was many of the people I saw in the crowd are farther right than Rush. And most of the core activists in the GOP party are farther right than Rush. It was a major faux pas. But Tom’s from Hollywood … so we don’t expect much from him.