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Quotes from Gov. Schwarzenegger’s News Conference
Published: November 11, 2005 12:51 | Last Updated: November 15, 2005, 11:15 am

(AP) - Following are comments from Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger during his Thursday news conference to address the outcome of Tuesday’s special election:

On why he called the election:

“I operate with a different mentality than most people do, which is that I am very forceful and impatient and I always have mapped out my entire life a program and work a schedule and also a schedule of when I want to accomplish things. And I always, you know, was successful with that. ... I think you have to be more patient. And I think I recognize that now, more so than I did before.”

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On the message voters sent in rejecting all eight measures, four of which were his:

“The people said initiatives are fine, but go and work it out with the legislators. There was clearly a supply-and-demand rule here. There was a lot of supply of initiatives but not enough demand for it.”

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Whom does he blame for the election defeat and will he fire any advisers?

“I’m not that kind of a guy. I don’t blame or point fingers at anybody. In fact, I want to do the opposite. I want to say thank you to my team. I want to say thank you for your hard work, working day and night. I also had volunteers working very hard. ... Everyone was trying their best, but the buck stops with me. I take full responsibility for this special election. I take full responsibility for its failure. I take full responsibility for everything.”

“If they would have all gone through and if all the initiatives would have made it, I would have been the big hero. ... I will never blame anyone on my team because it was my idea to have the special election.”

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How does he win back Democratic and moderate voters?

“A lot of work. I’m willing to work hard to do that. I’m willing to work hard to get people back and show them I am not to the right or left, that I just see things best for California. I just think about what is the right idea for California.”

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What might he have done differently?

“It’s always easy to look back. As a matter of fact, you know, if I would do another Terminator movie, I would have Terminator travel back in time to tell Arnold not to have a special election. ... I should have also listened to my wife, who said to me ‘Don’t do this.’ But anyway, the bottom line is we did it, the bottom line is that we didn’t win. See how I’m making this glass half-full? We didn’t win. We lost. The bottom line is that we’ve just got to go and now, look at the reality of this (and) shift gears, because in the end, remember I came up here for one reason, and this is to serve the people of California.”