Arnie’s Army is baaaacccckkkk!

*Arnold wants to be the next Senator from California…and
he is wasting no time letting people know that his hat is
in the ring. What he doesn’t talk about is that with the
Sub-Prime Market Collapse…tax revenues are going to fall
like a rock in the next two years. Pensions may fracture,
Health Systems may flounder! Should the Equity Markets in
fact fail and the Hedge Fund and Derivative Markets tank…
there will be a lot of empty houses in California. His job
should be to go out now and bring buyers into the State that
want those houses and are buyers “that can qualify” for the
necessary loans. Arnold can do this…he is uniquely
positioned on the world stage. Will he do it? That will
we have to see!
=======================*Below is his first Campaign Speech
for the Senate….at least as we see it.

Monday, September 10, 2007

TRANSCRIPT AND AUDIO OF GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER’S FALL 2007
CALIFORNIA REPUBLICAN PARTY STATE CONVENTION SPEECH

Below is the transcript of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s
speech at the California Republican Party Fall Convention on
Friday, September 7, 2007 at the Renaissance Esmeralda Resort
in Indian Wells, CA.

Download the audio of the Governor’s remarks
approximately 17 minutes).

Begin Transcript:

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you very much. (Applause)
Thank you. Thank you very much. And Steve, thank you very
much for pumping me up like that. I always thought that I
need weights to pump up, but man, you did a better job than
weights could do. I mean — thank you for that pump. I feel
good now, all powerful with all this great buildup. So thank
you very much, and thank you also for the great job you are
doing. You’re really doing a spectacular job, and we are
very proud of you. Give him a big hand. (Applause)

Well, good evening. And let me just say to you how happy
I am that I’m with my Republican friends here, and it’s always
great to come back to the Convention and to talk to you. And
I just want to say thank you to so many people that are here
today. First of all, I want to say thank you very much to
Governor Perry and Governor Crist, who came all the way out
here to be here to be here. Thank you. Give them a big
hand. (Applause)

Two great leaders. And you know when they come out here,
what that means. Those are maybe the candidates for president
in 2012, who knows? (Laughter) That would be great, actually.
I mean, two good candidates; I love it. Now you say, “Wait a
minute, don’t blow it for me.” Okay, I’m not going to talk
about it. We’re not going to talk about our secret
conversations. But anyway — (Laughter)

But anyway, it’s great to have you both here. I also want
to say thank you to the organizing committee that is really
responsible for organizing this great dinner and this great
evening here today, and let’s give them also a big, big hand
for their great work. (Applause)

And I also want to say thank you to Ron Nehring for being
such an extraordinary person, feeling so passionate about
the Republican Party, and of course for all the great work
that he is doing for the Party, and for having such a great
relationship and working so closely with me. So thank you
very much, Ron, for your great work. A big hand to Ron.
(Applause)

And then I also want to say thank you very much to Mike
Villines and to Dick Ackerman for their great leadership.
(Applause)

And especially on the recent budget, because let me tell
you something, that three and a half years ago we had a
16.5 billion dollars structural deficit. Today we have
zero because of those two gentlemen, so a big, big, big
hand for them. (Applause)

And on top of that, we are fully funding education, and we
are fully funding public safety, and we are paying down our
debt, and for the fourth year in a row we are not raising
taxes, so I think this is quite an accomplishment. (Applause)

And the new budget contains less — I mean the spending has
gone up only by less than 1 percent, which is also a great
accomplishment. I think the federal government should be so
lucky, to have a budget that we have here in California, let
me tell you that. (Applause)

And, of course, I also want to thank the thousands of
volunteers who are making our party really possible, so a big
hand also to all of our volunteers. (Applause)

Now, ladies and gentlemen, this is not going to be a typical
convention address. I did not come here with a bunch of
applause lines, but instead, I came with some concerns about
our party and some hopes, of course, too. There is no better
place, of course, to raise them than right here at this
convention, because the people that are in this room love the
Republican Party, because otherwise you wouldn’t be here.
Since I know you want our party to flourish and to be the best,
this allows me to speak frankly about how we can make it
stronger, and how we can ensure that it is not relegated to
the margins of California’s political life.

I know there are some of you who now think, “Well, who is
Arnold to talk about Republicans? I mean, he’s not really
a true Republican.” Well, let me tell you something, that
I have been a Republican since Richard Nixon, and I have
been — (Applause)

And I have been a Republican in spite of the years of debates
with Maria, and the entire Shriver clan, and all the Kennedys
up at Hyannis Port. And believe me — (Applause)

And believe me, it would have been far easier to abandon my
Republican identity years ago, but I did not, because I love
the Republican Party. Being a Republican is very important
to me. (Applause)

And this party here is very important to me, and I am proud
to be a member of the party of Abraham Lincoln, who righted
the greatest moral injustice in this nation’s history, the
party of Teddy Roosevelt, the enthusiastic reformer and
conservationist. And I am proud to be a member of the party
of Ronald Reagan, the pragmatic conservative who reached out
and captured the political center, and won 49 out of 50
states in 1984. (Applause)

Now, where is the party today? In California, as you know,
our party is losing numbers. An astonishing 30 of the 32
Republican Assembly districts lost registered Republicans
this year. Since 2005, we have lost 370,000 registered voters,
all Republicans. And in just the last eight months, our
numbers have declined by 120,000. In movie terms we would
say we are dying at the box office. We are not filling the
seats.

Now, while the number of California Republicans has been
declining, the number of independents has been growing.
They may well outnumber both of the parties in just 20 years.
So, who are these people? According to the Public Policy
Institute, 70 percent of independents own their own homes.
Most are graduates with incomes of more than $60,000. They
are younger and more likely to be employed than members of
either major party. They describe themselves as moderates.
They often hold conservative views on fiscal policy and
law-and-order issues, while taking more liberal stands on
social and environmental issues. And they can be reached;
they voted for me, 59 percent to 33 percent, over my
opponent last year.

The real opportunity for Republicans is that independents
generally agree with our core principles. Like us, they
believe in limited gov
ernment that is not wasteful. They
believe taxes should be as low as possible, because the
more you give to government the more it will spend. Trust
me, they’re right. They believe in individual freedom and
the responsibility that goes with that freedom, and they
believe in the importance of public safety. And they
believe that economic prosperity comes from the energy of
the marketplace, not from the heavy hand of the state.
I want to make the Republican Party welcome these
independents. (Applause)

Now, the reason why I’m mentioning this is because there
were some Republicans who had proposed that we should not
allow independents to vote in our Republican primaries.
What kind of sense would that make? I mean, the Democrats
have already made it clear that they welcome the independents
to their primary. I think that we should welcome them as
well. (Applause)

I mean, research shows that the party that you vote for
in the primary is usually the party you vote for in the
general election, so it makes sense to welcome them.
The goal of any political party is to win elections, to
become a majority and to advance its ideals. (Applause)

Now, how do we succeed in that? By being inclusive, by
including, not excluding. By being open to new ideas, not
rejecting them out of hand, and by expanding into the center,
not falling back upon ourselves into a smaller and smaller
corner. Our party — (Applause)

Our party has lost the middle, and we will not regain
true political power in California until we get it back.
(Applause)

I am of the Reagan view that we should not go off the
cliff with flags flying. I did that in 2005, trust me.
(Laughter) In 1967 — here’s an interesting thing — in
1967, when Ronald Reagan spoke to the California Republican
Assembly, he said: “We cannot become a narrow sectarian
party in which all must swear allegiance to prescribed
commandments. Such a party can be highly disciplined, but
it does not win elections. This kind of party soon
disappears in a blaze of glorious defeat.” That’s what
Ronald Reagan said in 1967, think about that.

So in business, of course, it’s the same. In business if
you lose market share, you do something to about it. But
I wonder if we have been so beaten down by our minority
status that we’ve developed a bunker mentality? I wonder
if we have come to believe that our only remaining power
is to say no?

This very savvy audience here today understands that
saying no is not the basis for a healthy political party.
We need to address, and I repeat — we need to address the
issues that even registered Republicans are urging us to
address. According to the polls, nearly three-quarters
of our own party support the global warming bill that I
signed last year. (Applause)

They want this party to do something more about climate
change than simply doubt it. If it is the party’s policy,
if it is the policy of the Republican Party to ignore the
great majority of the world’s scientists and ignore the
view of 80-90 percent of the young people who believe the
same, then that party is at odds with the future. The
Republican Party needs once again to be the party of
Teddy Roosevelt conservationists. (Applause)

The surveys show that a majority of our own party also
wants us to work on comprehensive health care reform, not
stand in its way. My proposal is not a European socialist
plan. It is not a Canadian single-payer plan that is
driving Canadians across the border to get health care.
Not at all. My plan is a good faith attempt at a
market-based solution. Never in history has medicine
ever been able to make such a difference in peoples’
lives than now, and we will be on the losing end of
history — on the losing end of history — unless we
realize that health care must be addressed.

A majority of our own party supported our transportation
and flood control bonds that were on the ballot last year,
and I want to thank you all for voting for that and for
being such great partners. Yes, it is expensive, the
infrastructure and to rebuild California. But we cannot
allow our levees to break as in New Orleans, or our
bridges to collapse as in Minneapolis. It should never
happen here in our state. (Applause)

Let’s not forget that we are the party of President
Eisenhower, the moderate military man who understood the
need for logistics and infrastructure, and created the
Interstate Highway System and the largest public works
project in history of America. The majority of
Republicans understand that we need to invest in our
future, and I believe we should be listening to the
majority of our party. If our party doesn’t address
the needs of the people-the needs of Republicans
themselves – the voters, registered Republicans
included, will look elsewhere for their political
affiliation. The majority of Republicans prefer
progress with messy compromise over defeat with
pristine principles. Compromise is part of politics,
and it is especially part of politics if you are the
minority party.

California Republicans do not have to be the political
equivalent of the Spartans at Thermopolae. We do not
have to defend the pass alone. Let me tell you, there
are many people behind us. Defeat does not have to be
our future. A large body of reinforcements is right
behind us and it is called the middle, and it’s called
the center. They are the independents, they are Reagan
Democrats, and they are the disenchanted Republicans.
We do not have to give up who we are for them to come
to our aid. They already believe much of what we believe,
but they must also be allowed to believe in other things
too, things that perhaps not all of us agree with. I
think that is fine.

Now, the road to our comeback is clear. The California
Republican Party should be a right-of-center party that
occupies the broad middle of California. That is a lush,
green, abandoned political space, and that can be ours.
We have done so many great things together. I am so
proud of the Republican Party, of what we have accomplished:

We brought back the economy in this last three and a half
years, We reformed Workers’ Compensation, We created nearly
a million new jobs, We eliminated the operating deficit,
We passed the biggest prison construction program in our
history, We protected the Three Strikes, We passed Jessica’s
Law, and the list goes on and on and on. (Applause)

Ladies and gentlemen, let me close with this. When I was
21 years old I lost my first American bodybuilding
championship, which was the Mr. Universe contest in Miami.
I was 100 percent sure that I would win, because I had won
two Mr. Universe contests before in Europe. But I did not
win. I couldn’t believe it, that I lost. I was devastated.
I had let people down. It kept going through my head, that
I’m over here in America, in a strange city, a strange place,
and that I am a loser. I cried all night long. I vowed
to myself that I would work as hard as I could to be strong
and not to be beaten again.

My fellow Republicans, I pledge to you that I will work
hard to make the Republican Party strong. And for the sake
of California and its people, I ask you to join me. Thank
you very much. Thank you. (Applause)

-30-

Paid for by the California Recovery Team,
not at taxpayer expense.
==============================*We think Arnold has been
reading the OC Juice Blog for inspiration!