Dan Schnur Quotes (19 Quotes)

It's politics as usual. He can blame Sacramento -- I don't think that's his first or his best option but it's a fallback.

This isn't what term limits were supposed to do. While they've brought new faces and a diversity of backgrounds to the Legislature, it's taking awhile for the new faces to seep upwards because the old faces don't want to leave.

Political freaks like me have heard every one of the lines before, from both sides. Normal people haven't. The best thing that could have come from a forum like this is simply having a larger audience for his message.

His target audience are the people who voted for him in the recall election, but who drifted away. My guess is that those people are willing to put the special election behind them if they see him talking about issues that are more important to them.

In the days before term limits, politicians who knew they weren't ever going to be governor were content to stay in the Legislature. They knew that being a Senate committee chair was a better job than being lieutenant governor.

By nature, Kennedy and Schmidt are both the type of people who administer with a very strong hand. But the most important thing is for Schwarzenegger himself to vest them with that authority.

The Democrats are in exactly the same position as the Sunnis in Iraq. From the very beginning, they have done everything they can to disparage the process. Now they have to turn around and convince their supporters to participate. That is a pretty quick pivot.

Schwarzenegger's critics last year argued that voters didn't care about what he was trying to fix. You can't say that this year.

This is very much in keeping with Cheney's persona, but it is also a natural byproduct of what you will find with a politician who has already run his last campaign.

Fundraising can make normally sane people pretty crazy. They both have political goals for which they are raising money, and they are drawing from the same base.

For the last several years politicians of both parties have learned the best way to handle a problem like this is to bare their souls. Cheney is a throwback to another era.

It's very hard to see why he'd want to spend another four years working under the same set of restrictions. Legislators in safe districts and a budget process that doesn't work -- that doesn't seem like a fun way to spend four more years of his life.

Arnold is not moving substantively very far at all, but he is dramatically changing his emphasis. Almost every policy proposal that's come out of the Governor's Office over the last week or two is not significantly different from things he's talked about in the past. But he's making a much greater effort to emphasize a more moderate and conciliatory approach.

If the situation in Iraq has not improved, and if the hurricane causes an economic downturn, then Republican candidates have something to worry about.

He has bet his governorship on these initiatives. He has pushed all of his chips to the middle of the table, and if these initiatives don't pass, it is difficult to see him seeking another term.

Even if you assume he made the decision without political motivations, the political impact or ramifications certainly worked in his favor. All those swing voters who supported him during the recall election support the death penalty.

Last year he was drawing lines in the sand this year he is looking for common ground. He needs to win back the support of Californians who voted for him in the recall election in 2003 but voted against his initiatives in the special election.

I can't think of an education-related or a budget-related initiative over the last 15 years where CTA hasn't been one of the major players. People like teachers, and voters listen to what they think teachers are telling them. Add that overall positive reputation to a huge pile of money, and you've got a pretty formidable political force.

Together, they are greater than the sum of their individual political parts. Schwarzenegger may not have picked a running mate like he would have in a presidential campaign, but McClintock provides him the same balance that a running mate would.