[quote=Djshakes]
I wasn’t around when Jerry was in office before. I hear from some that he is a loon, some say he is in the union’s pockets, some liked him. I have never heard anyone give him rave reviews….which makes me wonder why this state would elect him a second term.
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I wasn’t in California for his first term, either. What I know about him is his record, what I read about him, and what I hear when he talks. When he served as Governor in the ’70’s he was somewhat fiscally conservative. I like that. He used to show up on KNX 1070 regularly, and I liked what he had to say and how he said it. He doesn’t talk like a politician and he doesn’t appear to think like one. He had a lot of common sense ideas on a lot of things (I must admit I don’t remember what they were. I just remember thinking that they sounded like good, sensible ideas.) Not sure if that qualifies as a rave review, but I really like him.
As far as giving him a second chance, he said he’d take the real actions necessary to fix the budget. I’m probably giving the voters too much credit to think that’s why they elected him. But that’s why I voted for him. Some say that Whitman would’ve been better for the budget. But, really, when’s the last time you saw any politician take the kind of steps Brown is taking right now? And would we really expect her to take them? He’s making hard, unpopular, real choices that are necessary to fix our budget. You can argue that higher taxes will cause more harm than good to an economy and therefore a budget. But right now there just isn’t enough that you can realistically cut and make it work without raising taxes. Unless you count the unrealistic “greater efficiency” goals that many put forth. I’m all for efficiency in government, but you have to be realistic when saying that you can reduce spending by drastic amounts just by improving efficiency.
[quote=Djshakes]
I’m all for giving someone a second chance. I am apprehensive as if you can’t get it done the first time than most likely the same approach won’t work a second. However, maybe he will take a different approach. We will have to see.
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I wouldn’t say he didn’t get it done the first time (fiscally). And I think he’s already taking a different approach from last time, because the situation is different. We’ll see if it works or not.
[quote=Djshakes]
I don’t think the thread is about his performance as he has recently been elected. I think it is about the years of politics that got us into this mess from both sides of the isle and if it is too far gone to fix. Have we passed the tipping point? I think half would argue we have.[/quote]
I agree with that. Have we passed the tipping point? I don’t know. But I think that if we haven’t, then drastic measures are necessary to avoid reaching it. And I think Brown is just the guy to take those measures.
