There has much written about the Governor’s comments, yesterday, at a conference in Sacramento where he made some "generalizations" about legislators from "small towns" — remarks that I’m sure the Governor now wishes he had phrased a little differently. Our own Adam Probolsky penned a sharp-witted post on the Governor’s remarks that appears a few items down.
I thought it might be helpful for FR readers to see the Governor’s remarks in full context, so I am putting the full text of the Q & A between Michael Milken and the Governor below. I italicized and placed in red the part of the Governor’s remarks that has drawn the attention…
MICHAEL MILKEN:
Quincy Jones told us the other night that 25 percent of the people in Congress do not have passports and only half of those with passports travel outside the United States. And only 11 percent or so, or less than 10 percent of Americans, have passports. Unlike many of our political leaders, you have traveled the world and you’ve had a chance to meet with other world leaders, you’ve had a chance to see with your own eyes what they’ve done. What are some of the lessons that you’ve seen that you’ve tried to bring back here that could be used in building out these infrastructure issues?
GOVERNOR SCHWARZENEGGER:
Well, I mean, if you go and — you just talked about the high-speed train, high-speed rail. I think that when you go to France, like I was the last year and visited President Sarkozy — and I remember after that meeting we went directly from his palace to the train station and I wanted to ride their train. And I couldn’t believe with my own eyes that that train was going 350 kilometers an hour. And I was right there in the front watching that speed on those gauges and it was extraordinary how smooth that it rode.
So of course you come back to California and you have this renewed kind of energy and again this vision about we’ve got to have this in California. And so you go and you look back into again the high-speed rail that they have been talking about for 10 years, or maybe longer, in California and make sure to put this on the ballot and to let people vote on that and to get the matching funds and to get the public-private partnerships going again and to make the federal government come in with their money, all of those kinds of things.
So I think when you travel around it gives you a renewed kind of ideas and energy and you get inspired, inspiration. I mean, if you go to China — even though I don’t prefer their political system by any means — but when you see that in 2000, in the year 2000 we were over there talking to their leaders about Special Olympics. That was what the trip was all about in the year 2000 with my in-laws, who had the International Special Olympics Games in 2007. And there they were talking about that they want to build this new airport in Shanghai and they had this vision and all those kind of things. And then you go back in 2007 for the International Special Olympics Games and the airport is there, you know? And the runways are there and with the best technology and the most futuristic kind of airport that you can think of.
And not only that, but there is a high-speed rail that goes 450 kilometers — not the 350 I went, that’s already old — 450 kilometers in six minutes from the airport, which is, I think, 40 miles away — six minutes into Shanghai. So you know, when you see that of course you get motivated, you get inspired by those kind of things. Then you come back and you push even harder when it comes to infrastructure.
So as I travel around — when I was in Canada, in British Columbia and I see the extraordinary work that they are doing, how they are building bridges and airport buildings and schools and everything and transportation and onramps and offramps, all kinds of things and all through public-private partnerships. So yes, you come back and you immediately have a meeting again with your legislative leaders and you say, "Guys, I’m traveling around the world. They’re doing such an outstanding job, they’re beating us in this. We don’t deserve that. We can do better than that. Let us be number one. Let’s get together and make a decision." So, you know, you move things around.
So I think traveling around has a great impact, because I have learned — you know, everything that I’ve ever done, it was always global. You know, the bodybuilding sport was global. I traveled around the world and trained and had seminars all over the world. In entertainment it was global. You know, we went around and made movies around the world and then promoted them in all the countries and you see all the things.
Now in politics you meet the political leaders around the world and you see — your interests are different. You look at the infrastructure and all the things that they are doing, their political system and how they get things done, their efficiency level and all those things.
So I think it’s exciting and it’s motivating, so it has a terrific impact. And that’s why I always encourage the legislators in Sacramento, because some of them come from those little towns. (Laughter) You know what I’m saying? They come from those little towns and they don’t have that vision yet of an airport. (Applause) Or of a highway that maybe has 10 lanes or of putting a highway on top of a highway. They look at you and they say, "Well, we don’t have that in my town. What are you talking about?" So they are kind of shocked when you say certain things.
So I like them to travel around. And I think I’m always against when the media beats up on them for traveling around because someone else is paying for their trips and all of those things. I mean, so what? If they would take the money from the taxpayers, then they will be complaining about they’re using tax dollars to travel around the world and live in luxury and all this. So I think it’s great when they go to Russia and they go to China and they go to Africa, they go to the Middle East and they go to Canada and they go to all different places around the world to get education and to learn what those places do.
Because we don’t have to redesign the wheel all the time; we can go and copy other people. There are so many wonderful ideas and so many bright people out there and think tanks that come up with great ways of moving things forward. I think we should copy a lot of this stuff, you know?
So I love traveling and I love learning from the world, because I always said that the world is my classroom. This is where I get the best education, by traveling around the world