Amazingly, the media collectively exerted such tremendous power, in nearly perfect coordination, without deliberate intention (conspiracies are generally much less necessary than believed). They genuinely thought, I think, that they were reporting the news rather than making it. Did it even occur to them that the entire business was self-referential? Did anyone write about that aspect? With a coordinated action, the media could have chosen any not-completely-pathetic candidate to report as the “front-runner”, and their reporting would thereby have been correct.
For giggles, I found some media coverage of the first recall election candidate I looked up, Iris Adam She was covered in major and minor california newspapers around the state.
And STILL the “major” candidates sucked up our attention.
My interpretation is that the media didn’t pick the major candidates to be major candidates, any more than did the nobel prize pick Einstein to be a Nobel prize winner. The media did its scattershot thing, and the only stuff that rose to the top is the stuff that rose to the top. People voting in that election were looking for a GOVERNOR, not an unpopular individual who would have made a good governor if only things were not the way they are. I was immediately attracted to Arnold as someone who could move the state where I wanted it to move (a technocratic political middle), someone who would command attention both inside and outside the state. The fact that he won with nearly half (48%) of the popular vote in a field of 135 was a major factor in his ability to be effective after the election.
As with so many biological/evolved systems, the causes and the effects are all mixed together. If everyone in the state had made the investment in examining all 135 candidates ignoring the prior popularity, and then picked the best one, we would have most likely had a governor elected with a few percent of the vote that would have absolutely no throw weight with the federal government or with the state legislature. If we had embarked upon some platonic idea of a selection process but allowed consideration of prior popularity and its implications for that very important throw weight, we probably would have wound up with Arnold, but by a lower margin. In this particular case, the feedback of popularity and throw weight on popularity and throw weight CREATED a better governor, as a governor with a pile of people behind him is WAY more effective than one without that.
For giggles, I found some media coverage of the first recall election candidate I looked up, Iris Adam She was covered in major and minor california newspapers around the state.
And STILL the “major” candidates sucked up our attention.
My interpretation is that the media didn’t pick the major candidates to be major candidates, any more than did the nobel prize pick Einstein to be a Nobel prize winner. The media did its scattershot thing, and the only stuff that rose to the top is the stuff that rose to the top. People voting in that election were looking for a GOVERNOR, not an unpopular individual who would have made a good governor if only things were not the way they are. I was immediately attracted to Arnold as someone who could move the state where I wanted it to move (a technocratic political middle), someone who would command attention both inside and outside the state. The fact that he won with nearly half (48%) of the popular vote in a field of 135 was a major factor in his ability to be effective after the election.
As with so many biological/evolved systems, the causes and the effects are all mixed together. If everyone in the state had made the investment in examining all 135 candidates ignoring the prior popularity, and then picked the best one, we would have most likely had a governor elected with a few percent of the vote that would have absolutely no throw weight with the federal government or with the state legislature. If we had embarked upon some platonic idea of a selection process but allowed consideration of prior popularity and its implications for that very important throw weight, we probably would have wound up with Arnold, but by a lower margin. In this particular case, the feedback of popularity and throw weight on popularity and throw weight CREATED a better governor, as a governor with a pile of people behind him is WAY more effective than one without that.