Arnold Schwarzenegger appeared on Meet the Press (video available) today (Sunday, February 26, 2006). 

Russert began by asking about some national issues of note, port security, Iraq, and national guard issues.  He was extremely evasive.  I don’t think he actually answered any of Russert’s questions. He responded to a question about National Guard by issuing a warning about the Delta’s levees: (MTP 2/26/06 (tip: multi-page article, try clicking on “print” and reading there))

MR. RUSSERT: Are you concerned that the Guard is not going to be ready for the floods, for the earthquake because of the shrinking numbers?

GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: I am not concerned about that. I am concerned that we are not acting fast enough to rebuild our levees. Because our levee system is 100 years old, and we have levees that were built 100 years ago by farmers. We don’t even know what they were built of. I think that they’re unsafe. They’re worse and worse conditions than the ones in New Orleans. And I think it is irresponsible for us not to act quickly, and this is why I declared an emergency and also asked the federal government and federal disaster to declare federal disaster in order to get the money as quickly as possible, in order to make the legislators respond as quickly as possible. Because there’s thousands of people that are vulnerable. Thousands of homes and the farms and everything like this. We could have a worse disaster than New Orleans. So I’m concerned about that, that we’re not really doing enough to protect the people. Because that’s our ultimate job.

Now, when it comes to the National Guard, I think that we have to just do everything possible. Remember it’s war time. People feel more reluctant to join because they don’t want to be sent over, maybe, to Iraq. So it is a difficult moment, but I think it’s something that is doable, and we always just have to work together on this.

Well, I’m VERY strongly in favor of increasing the visibility of the levee issue (both before and after Katrina).  But, he didn’t address the critical issue of whether our National Guard is prepared to respond to disasters in our state.  We are losing National Guardsmen a lot faster than we are replacing them, and he responds by highlighting the disasters for which we need them?  Yes!! We need them, we all agree with that.  But where are they coming from? Arnold has no thoughts on that.

More on the flip…

Also quite interesting?  His new opinion of campaign finance:

MR. RUSSERT: But you said when you ran at first, “I don’t need to take money from anybody.” But you’re going to be raising thousands and thousands of thousand dollars from people who do business and have contracts with the state government.

GOV. SCHWARZENEGGER: I want to correct you. I said I would never take money from unions, that I would never take money from Indian gaming tribes. I take money because you need to take money. The important thing here is, is when you take money that they buy into your philosophy and into your program, that you don’t buy into theirs. And that you never can be bought, that’s the most important thing.

So, it’s okay to take corporate funds, but not from unions and Tribal concerns.  So, wow, he must be really holy, now that it’s okay to take money from all the people that he takes money from.  It must be really bad to be a Democrat and have to take all that tainted union money.  C’mon, this is a ridiculous argument.  Yes, campaign finance is FUBAR, but what do you plan on doing about it?  Well, Arnold plans on selling to the RIGHT bidder, as long as the donor is anti-labor and anti-Indian gaming.

There are a bunch of other interesting quotes in there about his polling numbers and his spending habits.  A worthwile watch (or listen), especially now that you can watch online or download the podcast. (Good Job NBC!!!)