what are his "Republican" positions? From what I read he seems somewhat progressive...what are his conservative positions?

Probably pro-gun, although I'm not 100% sure about that.  Besides that...I think he's a Teddy Roosevelt Progressive, not a modern-day Republican in the Bush/American Theocracy mold. 

The one time I made remarks about Arnolds Progressive Politics, I was questioned too much, so I congradulate you in your BOLD statements.
Reading between the lines, I read the intelligence of the Kennedy Clan shinning, but without the extreme liberal side of Ted.
I hope he can keep his common sense approach to issues and stays with a non partisan bold agenda.
Who knows, if he keeps his smarts about him and continues to do things for the people he may find himself alongside other famous politicians who helped shape this country.

Too bad, I'd love to see him seize back the Republican Party from the theocrats, homophobes, and war-mongering incompetents who have taken it over.

If Arnold was Sec. of State in a "New" Republican Party - Mike Bloomberg as POTUS and Mitt Romney Mitt Romney as VP for example, or a new Independent party, the Constitutional change might not be that difficult - Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan all had enough states to make that kind of change. Either the Dems or the Repubs are about to cast aside their old skin, or both. Whichever does will take the day. The question is, which one will? Arnold's two first advisors were George Schultz and Warren Buffett. Smart men. Anyway, Arnold could run the show from a secondary position, Secretary of Big Boys, as Deng did in China. He's a great governor.

Anybody know what the Governator thinks or has he been
careful to say nothing?

See here.

On a more serious subject, the Republican governor said a "lot of mistakes" were made during the war in Iraq, but ducked a question from Leno about whether Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld should be fired.

"Without any doubt, we have to find an exit strategy as quickly as possible," he said.

am encouraged

Arnold's finest moment came with his response to the  voter smack-down on all of his first (Republican block) initiatives. After that, he chose to honor the voters, and abandoned the RNC playbook. Had he "stayed the course," he would be a pariah by now. Notice that he doesn't hang with GWB anymore, either? There's a lesson there.

Ok, I think that its time we call global warming what it really is; climate change. We are experiencing a climate change. Remember, Vikings made it to the shores of Nova Scotia because that part of the world was WARMER than it is today. Probably not for much longer though.

Regardless, to deny it is stupid, because its adapt or die. If we are having enough of an impact to speed that change- and we are- then we need to take the steps to slow that process so that we AND nature have an opportunity to adapt. I am glad to see Arnold will take those steps, using a VERY true conservative philosophy of states rights.

His approach to improving health care? Sorry, you aren't going to use my tax dollars to fund your idea of a health care solution. At least, not until we have illegal immigration dealt with and resolved. I am not saying build a fence, but I am saying that the US taxpayer is not responsible for the healthcare of Mexico. If Arnold wants to enact such a plan, he can just start billing EVERY employer a flat additional health tax rate rate for every single person on the work site. If you say we can't stop the influx of illegal immigrants- and we can, but thats another story- then we will just start charging the people who benefit from it, instead of placing the costs on someone else. The employers. Maybe you can get a deduction for those employees who actually HAVE health insurance. Contractors can just get hit with an automatic flat rate, since they LOVE to utilize day labour. The nice thing is, this will sock the Wal Marts in too.....

This includes those whining crying farmers who say they can't afford to stay in business if they have to pay more than 2$ an hour. Well, you SHOULD go out of business, because I am tired of paying subsidies to keep your prices up so you DON'T go out of business.

Thats how Europe has done it, and wow, look at how competitive their products are on the market, and the growing Euro.

Calling it "climate change", undermines the threat and hides the need to take immediate action.

I remember that he didn't like it when bush said he could control the state national guard without governor input.  That may have caused a split.

I will never forget his part in the Enron scandal in California that took Davis down.  He met in that hotel with the players to plan the "energy crisis."  He was getting into position to take over.  Bad karma as far as I'm concerned.

If he wants to stay governor of California he will have to represent the Californians. 

but I can think of many other Governor's I like more - Kaine, Patrick, Spitzer, Schweitzer, etc.

a state that is larger than most nations, and he's been staking out very aggressive positions on some of the most important issues of our day.  I love all the other governors you mentioned, but Ah-nuld really is impressing me.

Arnold split with Bush on energy saying very simply: "The federal government doesn't believe in global warmming. We believe in global warming." When Davis was Governor, the state was on the brink of bankruptcy and being compared with Venesuela by liberal economists like Paul Krugman. Now it is a state again. The thing about Arnold is he makes everybody else look small.

"The old labels of liberal and conservative no longer apply."  Ah-nuld is unique, sort of a Teddy Roosevelt Progressive.  Whatever, I like it...the Republican Party more as it used to be, when I was a Teenage Republican back in the late 1970s.

Arnold runs the state of California from a tent set up on the lawn of the state capital in Sacramento, so he and his first lieutenant, a well-known Democrat and lesbian-feminist from the Bay area, can smoke cigars. It is illegal to smoke in state buildings in California.

And Arnold is the only politician with a natural sense of humor since JFK.

He can make children laugh.

I bet he flops and becomes a Dem.

Having an enlightened cousin-in-law has to help too.

The Health Access blog in California is a place to go to follow the California plan:
http://www.health-ac...

I guess in Virginia if we can't even figure out how to finance and build an adequate road system, not much hope for health care reform.

would be easier to solve in some ways than transportation, which divides just about everybody (greens, developers, anti-tax, anti-sprawl, NOVA vs. RoVA, etc., etc.).  If Republican governors and Democratic legislatures in Massachusetts, Vermont and California can figure out how to cover everyone in their states, I see no reason why we can't do it in Virginia.  But maybe I'm just naive, and maybe Virginia's political culture is simply dysfunctional as long as the Bob Marshalls, Jeff Fredericks, Dave Albos, and Bill Howells of the world control the House of Delegates (not to mention the Jay O'Briens, Ken Cuccinellis and Jeanemarie Devolites-Davises of the world in the Senate).

Take a gander at this article by Newt Gingrich in Forbes:
http://www.forbes.co...

Gingrich loses me right away with his first cornerstone:

"First, we must get information technology into the hands of health care providers. Compared to every other sector of society, most physicians and other providers step back in time when they enter their offices, giving up computers and the Internet for pen and paper. We simply cannot deliver better quality, eliminate waste and improve efficiency without equipping doctors with the point-of-care patient information and decision support tools. And the technology must be interconnected, or interoperable, so that every information technology system, no matter where it is, can deliver the right information on the right person at the right time."

My perception of reality is that when the dot.com bubble crashed, it was a set-back for everyone EXCEPT the medical profession, which had the funds and motivation to keep developing their information technology systems, and they did.  The medical profession now has incredible resources for information technology, including online access to thousands of medical journals and hundreds of medical texts.  Doctors and nurses have been equipping themselves with point of care information tools, like pdas. I just don't think what Gingrich is saying is true for the medical professional as a whole.

The rest of his proposal sounds weirdly like the theory behind the Republicans plan to reform the educational system.  I.e., measure performance and cost, publicize the results, and the market will reward the good institutions and punish the poor ones: 

"Fourth, we must change the way we pay for care. In our current system, hospitals and providers that deliver better care are reimbursed, for the most part, at the exact same rate as those who provide poorer care. That is like paying the same price for a new Cadillac as you would for a used Yugo. This egregious approach must change so that better performers are rewarded."

It sounds like he is saying that people who are economically well off should be able, when they are sick, to go buy their Cadillac health care and not have to sit in the same waiting rooms as the plebes who only rate Yugo-style health care.