Arnold Schwarzenegger is a superstar. There is no denying that fact. It’s what swept him into office in 2003, and pretty much his modus opperandi since then. He governs and promotes programs like you would promote an action movie. You call the other action movies in the theaters, umm, “girlie-men”, and then go speak to every camera you can find about how awesome you are.

But, I must say, this is something new:

Schwarzenegger has been touting a need for transparency in the face of evidence that Californians don’t trust their government. He even says he would like his office to be a “glass house” so visitors can see inside.

“Everyone will be performing more, but I think eventually they will get used to it that there is cameras around,” he said in a recent interview. (LAT 7/6/09)

At this point, it is hard to tell when the man is being serious, when he’s posturing, and when he’s making some sort of bad joke.  His first budget, the one that completely cut Cal-WORKS was apparently a posture, as the next one contained the stuff he really wanted: massive long-term reforms that would take the state on a hard-right turn. Then he revealed this latest budget, which doesn’t have the big news-grabbers like the elimination of welfare in California.  However, it does have the suspension of Proposition 98’s education funding guarantees. And his push to include long-term reforms is ultimately what is making a short term deal impossible.

Yet, Arnold is a showman and will be a showman until the day he dies.  And at this point, he’s abandoned all notion of governing and is instead just gone back to being a showman. It’s easy to bring your approval ratings up if you simply cater to the the insanity of the right-wing that had formerly abandoned you. It’s easy to say you are like Ronald Reagan, but Arnold hasn’t even brought Reagan’s level of negotiating seriousness to the table. He hasn’t shown any interest whatsoever in doing what it takes to build a consensus that 2/3 of the legislators could sign on to. It’s not for lack of trying on Speaker Bass’s part, and certainly not from Sen. Steinberg. Arnold has showed absolutely no leadership since he finished threatening people on May 19.

Of course, there are reasons other than Schwarzenegger for our state’s failures. Calbuzz covers most of that ground today, pointing out that the supermajority rules and term limits make the state ungovernable. (I would quibble with the gerrymandering claims, because you could draw districts in random squares across the state and still have strongly partisan seats. That’s a different subject though.)  

But, Arnold at this point isn’t doing the work that Willie Brown and Pete Wilson did back in the day. If Arnold is simply doing the job for his legacy, or out of some perverse sense of spectacle, and isn’t in it to actually solve problems, he should pull a Sarah Palin, and resign. It would be better for the state, and better for him.