Arnold
takes office amid worldwide audience
SACRAMENTO (AP) -- Arnold Schwarzenegger,
who arrived in the United States 35 years
ago as a body builder dreaming of fame and
fortune, was inaugurated as California's
38th governor Monday and said he was ready
to take on the "massive weight we must
lift off our state."
With
his wife Maria Shriver holding a 192-year-old
family Bible, Schwarze-negger took the oath
of office from California Supreme Court
Chief Justice Ronald George in a short ceremony
on the west steps of the state Capitol.
Schwarzenegger then gave a 12-minute speech,
repeatedly interrupted by applause, in which
he invoked former Presidents John F. Kennedy
and Ronald Reagan and called himself "an
idealist without illusions."
"Perhaps
some think this is fanciful or poetic, but
to an immigrant like me -- who, as a boy,
saw Soviet tanks rolling through the streets
of Austria. To someone like me who came
here with absolutely nothing and gained
absolutely everything. It is not fanciful
to see this state as a golden dream,"
Schwarzenegger said.
Making
the dream a reality will be a formidable
task for the political newcomer, who faces
a budget deficit that could reach $20 billion
by next summer and an economic climate that
business leaders claim is the nation's worst.
Schwarzenegger,
however, promised Californians he would
spend the next three years to rebuild the
state's economy, protect the needs of children
and the elderly and break the hold of special
interests.
Positioning
himself as a reformer, Schwarzenegger won
with 48 percent of the vote over a list
of 134 other replacement candidates who
ran in the historic recall election.
Schwarzenegger
now leads the nation's most populous state
and the world's sixth-largest economy.
That
economy, while showing some signs of recovery,
is troubled. California's credit rating
is the lowest among all 50 states. State
finances are in disarray, with spending
and tax revenues seriously out of balance.
California's
challenges "may look insurmountable,"
he said. "But I learned something from
all those years of training and competing
... What I learned is that we are always
stronger than we know. California is like
that, too."
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