Fabulous Delivery but Try It Again With Content

Sacramento

It was warm and fuzzy and historic. But it was not very stimulating. Not real inspiring.

Nothing to leap out of your seat and shout about. No statesmanlike call for citizen sacrifice to heal the state’s fiscal ills.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger did a terrific job of delivering his inaugural speech -- the best inaugural delivery since Ronald Reagan stood near the same spot on the west steps of the Capitol about 37 years ago.

Schwarzenegger read the text flawlessly with just the right emotion in that soothing, baritone voice.

He made people feel comfortable and proud to be an American. “I have an immigrant’s optimism that what I have learned in citizenship class is true: The system does work.”

But let’s be honest, it’s the delivery -- the polished performance -- that saved this speech. Its content was a disappointment. A dud. Unlike Reagan’s which was inspiring.

OK, this constant comparison to Reagan is unfair. Guys like me, who covered Reagan, are especially guilty. But face it, the Reagan comparison is what lent Schwarzenegger political credibility all through the election campaign. If one movie actor could succeed in Sacramento, why couldn’t another?

The Gipper paved the way to Sacramento for the Terminator. For now, the Reagan analogy is the best we have to go on in assessing Schwarzenegger, because the new governor has virtually no past political record.

So let’s recall some lines from Reagan’s first inaugural:

Budget deficit: “We are going to squeeze and cut and trim until we reduce the cost of government.”

UC student protesters: They should “observe reasonable rules and regulations [or] get their education elsewhere.”

Complex problems: “The truth is, there are simple answers -- there just are not easy ones.”

Reagan -- like Schwarzenegger -- was light on specifics. But unlike Schwarzenegger, Reagan also was provocative. Rousing.

I felt Schwarzenegger was talking down to people:

“My administration is not about politics. It is about saving California.”

“Our founding fathers knew that the fate of the union was in their hands, just as the fate of California is in our hands.”

One decent, humble line: “I realize I was elected on faith and hope. And I feel a great responsibility.”

The most intriguing line, one that made me want to hear more: “To an immigrant like me, who, as a boy, saw Soviet tanks rolling through the streets of Austria ... who came here with absolutely nothing and gained absolutely everything, it is not fanciful to see this state as a golden dream.”

He can do better. I know, I’ve heard him be thought-provoking in interviews -- long before he began running for office.

As Gov. Schwarzenegger, he’ll have to do better -- be bolder and more energizing -- or sacrifice a rare, priceless opportunity to lead California back from the abyss. He has a one-time chance to ride his election momentum.

Schwarzenegger complained again Monday about the “years of partisan bitterness” and “politics as usual” in Sacramento.

Yes, partisanship is a problem and both parties are guilty. But Schwarzenegger will learn soon enough that it’s not just party competition, but deep policy chasms that lead to gridlock.

Don’t bother asking Senate leader John Burton (D-San Francisco) to cut health care for the aged and disabled. Don’t waste your breath talking to Sen. Tom McClintock (R-Thousand Oaks) about tax hikes. Both are sincere ideologues.

Politics as usual?

In Sacramento -- and Washington -- politics as usual increasingly has meant borrowing from the future to pay the current bills. Schwarzenegger apparently is getting sucked into proposing the biggest credit card charge of all time.

(One rumor Monday was that the charge is being pared to $15 billion over 15 years, rather than the $20 billion, 30 year-obscenity previously thought.)

Politics as usual for Republicans also has meant backing into a no-tax corner and refusing even to consider a temporary revenue hike to make ends meet. Schwarzenegger is following them into the same trap.

The new governor should read up on Reagan, the conservative who spoke of simple answers that aren’t easy. He quickly enacted the biggest state tax hike in history. Never hurt him; cured the state.

Politics as usual for Democrats is refusing to consider a tight spending cap.

End politics as usual: Negotiate a package of temporary tax increases, a real spending cap and minimal borrowing.

We and Arnold should pay our own way -- not saddle the children with our burden.

Ordinarily, I’d say this was the new governor’s day. Salute and hold the shots. Allow him his rhetoric. A honeymoon. Throw rice, not rocks.

But, naw.... He needs to throw us some meat.