I’ll Bet Maria Shriver is Very Proud!

Remember when Maria Shriver was inspired enough to publicly endorse Barack Obama during the primaries? She gave a rousing speech at a rally in Los Angeles, in which she described some of the qualities that she most admired about Obama:

“He’s not about himself,” she told a cheering crowd at UCLA’s Pauley Pavilion. “He’s about the power of us and what we can do if we come together… . He is about empowering women, African Americans, Latinos, older people, young people. He’s about empowering all of us.”

I’m guessing she might have a more difficult time finding a similar level of inspiration toward her husband, seeing as how he seems to be exclusively about himself, flaunting what little power he has as California’s governor to veto a budget deal that just might be the only way to save his state from financial ruin, and then babbling to Larry King about how he aspires to be President!


At one time, Shriver was inspired enough to compare Obama to what she saw as being the good in California:

“I thought, if Barack Obama was a state, he’d be California,” Shriver said as the crowd of thousands roared in a chorus that rose as she ticked off each attribute: “Diverse. Open. Smart. Independent. Bucks tradition. Innovative. Inspirational. Dreamer. Leader.”

Her husband, to the contrary, seems determined to do what he can to kill off as many of those qualities as possible, by using layoffs and furloughs to plunge California as deep into economic collapse as he can, without regard to anything but his deluded personal ambition.

Perhaps Brian Leubitz at Calitics describes it best:

Arnold got to talking about vetoing the Legislature's budget plan, and it immediately becomes clear what is going on here: The Shock Doctrine. The Republicans, including Governor Schwarzenegger, are using the budget disaster to destroy labor and environmental gains. At this point they don't even try to hide it: they are going after CEQA, going after labor contracts, and going after the generations old experience of public investment in infrastructure.

This is a stick-up, an attempt to drive us back into the third world of economic inequity, class warfare, and a grim future. Say goodbye to Pat Brown's California, say hello to Kurt Russell's.

Yes, Maria Shriver must be very proud!