Will Arnold Please Go Away?

Anthony Pignataro:

I know Edmund Gerald “Jerry” Brown, Jr. isn’t supposed to seize power until Jan. 3, 2011, but in the mean time, can we please stop listening to our current governor? At the very least, we should all stop paying attention to his Twitter feed, which is just a way for him to tease us gullible, foolish peasants.

I give you @Schwarzenegger’s latest Tweet, sent out yesterday at 4 pm: “Don’t forget to watch The Tonight Show this evening. Major announcement coming.”

Arnold even thoughtfully included a photo of him standing with Tonight Show host Jay Leno.

Isn’t that sweet? Anyway, it almost goes without saying that Arnold made no “major announcement” — or announcement of any kind, really — on The Tonight Show last night. He told a few jokes, got a few laughs, and said a whole lotta nothin. The whole thing was BS — you know, pretty much like his term of office.

Oh, and while I’m at it, can we all stop gossiping about who Arnold voted for? Yes, yes, he said on Election Day that he would tell us all when the polls were closed how he voted, and (after @CalWatchdog sent a nice little nudge that night) he tweeted how he made the call on all those fascinating ballot measures. But as far as the candidates he chose, he’s been silent.

This was a fun game to play on Election Day — now, it’s just annoying. Seriously: no one cares, mostly because it makes no difference. Suppose Arnold says he voted for Meg Whitman for governor. Well then, the pundits will say, he turned out to be a Republican after all. Whereas if he said he voted for Brown, the pundits will turn around and say that Arnold was shrewd and didn’t want to be seen backing a loser.

Thankfully, all this will stop on Jan. 3, and then we can get down to the real business at hand: figuring out what Governor Jerry Brown is talking about…

NOV. 9, 2010