JOEL KOTKIN: Hasta La Vista, Failure. “Schwarzenegger’s fiscal street cred was undermined by his support for unessential new bond issues for such things as stem cell research and high-speed rail. He threw financial prudence out the window in order to appease his business cronies and faithful media claque, particularly those working for mainstream eastern media.”

And, I think, his wife. In retrospect, you could have predicted this just from knowing that Arnold was married to Maria Shriver. If you want to know whether a male Republican politician is likely to go squishy, it pays to know his wife’s politics. Not sure if this works the other way around. . . .