What Was I Thinking?

It occurs to me that there is a Supertanker-sized hole in my discussion over the past few days of Schwarznegger and Obama and their respective legislatures (link, link).

First, I responded with studied irony to the idea that Obama seems to be having trouble coming out of the box with the legislators in his own party.

Then in a heartbeat, I turned around and said that Schwarzenegger could have dented California's budget problem if he had moved aggressively at the beginning of his term when his popularity was still high.

Hu-lo. Aren't they the same? And if we live in an age when an Obama has trouble, wouldn't a Schwarzenegger have had trouble, too? Answer: very likely. What we may be seeing here is evidence of a governing system so out of whack that nobody can do anything. My only out, I suppose, is to fall back on the fear factor: to declare that Schwarznegger might have been able to scare the socks off his legislators even though Obama may not. That's my bet shot, and I'm inclined to doubt it. Looks like I was wrong the first time.