Arnold Was Detached As Gov.

John Seiler:

As I’ve said before, the problems between ex-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his estranged wife, Maria Shriver, are their business.

But news articles on their split have brought up some interesting tidbits about why he was such an abysmal governor. The L.A. Times reports:

Several who worked for the governor said that during Schwarzenegger’s first term, he spent about three nights a week in Sacramento, but that once he was reelected in 2006, he spent less time in the capital. At his wife’s request, said one, Schwarzenegger would usually fly from Brentwood to Sacramento in the morning and be home by evening.

But the essence of politics is schmoozing, including with the opposition party. Even in these days of cell phones, the Internet, Facebook, Twitter, etc., personal contact is essential to get people involved in major political change.

You have to “press the flesh.” The most successful politicians all were masters of it. Bill Clinton obviously comes to mind. And Ronald Reagan used to quip that he gave speeches at a thousand rubber-chicken dinners.

Arnold, essentially, was detached from his job. He should have been wining and dining members of both parties to advance his agenda. Instead, he flew back to his massive compound in Brentwood.

Then there’s the massive hypocrisy of Arnold’s own life. He was forcing Californians to sharply downsize their lives and jobs with AB 32, his jobs-killing global-warming bill that forced a 20 percent reduction in state greenhouse gases by 2020.

Yet he lived in that Brentwood mansion. Why didn’t he down-size to a more modest abode?

And the Times writes:

On Tuesday, [son] Patrick tweeted about his family drama: “Appreciate all your messages. Small speed bump I’n life, luckily we own hummers, we will cruise right over it. All will be okay. #peace.”

“We own Hummers.” Those are the massive, gas-guzzling, quasi-military vehicles Arnold popularized a decade ago.

But with his global-warming obsession, shouldn’t Arnold and his family have downsized from its panzerkorps of Hummers to a single Prius?

Then there’s this hypocrisy:

On Sunday, Mother’s Day, the family gathered at Santa Monica’s Ivy at the Shore. But Shriver and Schwarzenegger left in separate cars.

Maria also is a big global-warming fanatic, and was deeply involved in Arnold’s political life. So, shouldn’t they have driven home in a single car to save on gas, and therefore protect the environment from destruction?

This hypocrisy was a constant cognitive dissonance permeating the Schwarzenegger administration, another reason his seven years in office were so disastrous.