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His heart's in the right place (this from me, definitely not a Republican), but he hasn't got the chops to do anything in Sacramento, especially with a Democrat-led legislature. It's brutal up there.
Richard Riordan, ex-mayor of LA, was going to run if Arnold didn't. But since Arnold's now declared, Riordan won't. Too bad. Riordan did a great job in LA. He's actually hated by a lot of the more extreme right-wing republicans (who dominate the state party machine) because he ran a basically non-partisan, practical administration. He got the job done with the people who could do it best, and it didn't matter what party they belonged to; kind of the original "kick ass and take names" kind of guy, not worrying too hard about who was on the other end of the ass. He's the Republican a lot of Demos would vote for, including me, because he might have a chance of straightening things out in Sacramento.
But now that Arnold's the front-runner (being the only candidate besides Davis that most voters recognize), I predict that the recall will fail. He's a nice guy, but I think that voters will realize that electing him -- a nonpolitical novice in the opposite party from the legislative majority and most other elected state officers, with no support from any powerful interest groups -- will increase the chaos, not lessen it.
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