Experts Expound

What impact, if any, will the taped comments by the governor and his chief
of staff about Assemblywoman Bonnie Garcia and leading Republican lawmakers
have on the November election?

None. Arnold has smoked pot on camera, danced with half-naked women at
Carnivale in Brazil and posed completely nude. He told Esquire magazine that
a woman he’d met was as smart as her breasts were beautiful. What’s left?

None.

Leave it to the Angelides campaign to make the easy ones look tough. The
Schwarzenegger camp appears to have recovered the fumble.

Zero. Not even worthy of footnote status. Of more interest is whether Susan
Kennedy stays on George’s Plescia’s Christmas card list.

None. But Susan Kennedy–if she’s standing near stairs or a pool–shouldn’t be
turning her back on George Plescia anytime soon.

It will destroy Schwarzenegger because the people of California won’t
tolerate this kind of bigoted attitude from the governor. The people will
rise up in righteous indignation and vote Arnold out of office in Novem …
in Novem … in Novem. Oh, sorry, a Democratic operative had seized my
brain.

None on the election, but look for visitors to want to ‘take a walk’
Goodfellas-style rather than sit in the governor’s office and talk.

Actually the electorate will welcome the “new ways” of the governor,
speaking with his mouth and not with his hands. As for his COS, I always
thought it was a doe in the headlights, not a buck. I guess it is just a
matter of perspective.

None. The news media cleaned up the governor’s stupid remarks. When Arnold
was talking about “hot” he wasn’t talking about her “temperament.”
It will have no impact.

They will have little effect on the November elections but will probably
have great affect on future negotiations with Republican lawmakers.

None. The election is the governor’s to lose and this did not hurt him.

The people from whom we sought opinions: Andrew Acosta, A.G. Block, Roy
Behr, Don Wilcox, Jon Fleischman, Evan Goldberg, Deborah Gonzalez, Dan
Schnur, Jason Kinney, Tom Kise, Karen Hanretty, Kevin Spillane, Michael
Houston, Adam Mendelsohn, Matt Ross, Sam Delson, Mike Madrid, Morgan
Crinklaw, Dave Lesher, Richard Zeiger, Mike Madrid, Margita Thompson, Ralph
Simoni, Bob Hertzberg, Scott Baugh, Steve Maviglio, Tony Quinn, Peter
DeMarco, Adam Probolsky, Barbara O’Connor, Jack Pitney.