The movie Junior aside, Arnold Schwarzenegger had never failed at anything he attempted between the time he won the Mr. Universe title in 1967 and his election as California governor in 2003.
So the man can probably be forgiven for any belief he had that transforming the state’s highly dysfunctional budget process into political and fiscal victory would likely mirror the arc of one of his action flicks, in which all manner of obstacles, from evil androids to extraterrestrial hunters, were inevitably destroyed by the third act.
If the budget wars under Arnold did resemble a movie, it was Heaven’s Gate: tedious, seemingly interminable, and inducive of near-bankruptcy. Relatedly, Schwarzenegger leaves office with an approval rating of 23 percent, besting Gray Davis, the man he ousted as governor mid-term, by a single point.
On his Capital Notes blog, KQED’s John Myers takes you through the complete history of Arnold’s wrestling of the budget, an excellent companion to his piece today on The California Report.