September 08, 2003

Department of Cheap Shots

Posted by Brian

From the campaign trail:

Schwarzenegger, campaigning in a heavily Hispanic Los Angeles suburb, said his pronunciation of “California” was just one of the words Davis didn’t like to hear. “He doesn’t like ‘lost jobs,’ he doesn’t like that word,” Schwarzenegger said.

Of course, Arnie comes out of this exchange looking much better than Gray Davis, whose pathetic appeal to anti-immigrant sentiment started it all. Davis should be feeling ashamed of himself, but instead he’s reverting to the time-dishonoured ‘it was all a joke’ defence.

Posted on September 8, 2003 05:10 PM UTC
Comments

Excellent point. Now the question is, of course: What are California Democratic leaders such as Bill Lockyer going to do, since they had warned Davis to avoid “puke politics” — or else?

Posted by Robert Tagorda · September 8, 2003 06:10 PM

This is completely unacceptable. I can’t remember who said it, but I saw a great quote about Davis: “There’s no middle ground on Gray Davis. Either you hate him, or you really dislike him.”

Posted by Ted Barlow · September 8, 2003 08:46 PM

Of course, Arnie comes out of this exchange looking much better than Gray Davis…

Not really - Ahnold still looks like an idiot, especially in this obviously-scripted, forced “ad-lib.”

Of course, Davis could put the whole issue to bed quickly if he said “Did I say you shouldn’t be governor if you can’t pronounce California? I meant you shouldn’t be governor if you can’t spell California!”

Anyway, the Davis comment is getting very little play here, beyond the usual wingnut outlets.

Posted by dave · September 8, 2003 09:14 PM

Davis should be feeling ashamed of himself, but instead he’s reverting to the time-dishonoured ‘it was all a joke’ defence.

Well, was it a joke?

How about Arnold bashing on Bustamante for being bald?

—Kynn

Posted by Kynn Bartlett · September 8, 2003 10:55 PM

What in the world does making bald jokes have to do with making ‘jokes’ about immigrant accents?

Posted by Jay Caruso · September 9, 2003 03:38 PM

Kynn,

Arnold’s bald joke is childish. But there’s not much more that you can say about it.

Davis, on the other hand, is appealing to a prejudice that we’ve got to outgrow- the idea that a foreign-born person, no matter how long they’ve been here or how much they embrace the United States, is something different than a “real American.” It’s a deeply unamerican idea, and he should apologize (if he hasn’t already).

Posted by Ted Barlow · September 9, 2003 05:51 PM
Followups

This discussion has been closed. Thanks to everyone who contributed.