OHIO: AMA Oh Snaps Schwarzenegger

OFF THE WIRE
 Bart Madson Managing Editor

http://www.motorcycle-usa.com/1/899/2/Motorcycle-Blog-Post/AMA-Oh-Snaps-Schwarzenegger.aspx

AMA Oh Snaps Schwarzenegger Bart MadsonManaging Editor

Be it bike tests, feature stories or racing reports Madson is just glad to be one of the 3% who found a career using their English degree. He rides whatever’s in the MCUSA garage - just don’t ask him to wheelie.

Print Share RSS Font: AMA Oh Snaps Schwarzenegger Friday, December 10, 2010 Outgoing California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger must have felt good when he read the headline proclaiming him the 2010 AMA Motorcyclist of the Year. If he continued to read the AMA press release, however, his smile probably turned into that flinty emotionless glare that earned him… well, no Academy Awards.

Arnold Schwarzenegger: 2010 AMA Motorcyclist of the Year.This AMA “honor” is a bizarre backhanded compliment. Last year the AMA chose the kids who ride OHV as MOY, with the big issue of ’09 being the CPSC lead ban. This year the AMA tapped the Governator based on his negative impact on motorcycling after signing into law California Senate Bill 435 – AKA Motorcycle Anti-Tampering Act. Requiring an EPA-approved stamp on motorcycle exhausts, the AMA deems the legislation “poorly crafted” (read the official release AMA Motorcyclist of the Year: Schwarzenegger for the AMA’s rationale).

"Gov. Schwarzenegger signed a piece of legislation that has rocked the motorcycling world, and will impact motorcyclists in other states as well for years to come," said AMA President and CEO Rob Dingman in the AMA release. "This makes him the logical choice for the 2010 AMA Motorcyclist of the Year."

Logical?
Perhaps in AMA terms. It’s the same logic that informs stances like supporting helmet use, yet opposing mandatory helmet laws. But if we’re going by this new logic, shouldn’t the 2009 Motorcyclist of the Year get ripped away from those poor OHV kids and given to the pencil-pushing commissioners on the CPSIA. After all, they are “the person or persons who have had the most profound impact on motorcycling in a single calendar year.” The kids didn't really do nothin'...

Motorcyclist of the Year should be a positive recognition (like giving it to the kids!). Giving it for a negative reason sends a mixed message. In fact, it’s a literal mixed message in the AMA release, as after dissing the Governor for the exhaust law, it then praises Ahnold for previous policy decisions in his governorship – like appointing industry-friendly members to OHV government committees.

The Schwarzenegger joke will fall back on the AMA as time wears on. After all, the headline and eventual Wikipedia entry (bastion of all knowledge in modern society) is this: Arnold Schwarzenegger Motorcyclist of the Year 2010. The footnote will have to explain the joke. And if you have to explain a joke, it’s not funny.
Something tells us the very public bitch slap from the AMA won’t phase a man who once killed a Predator alien with his own two hands. The man can’t be destroyed by anything less than a vat of molten metal, and that mode of destruction we now question after watching him get elected twice to state-wide office in California… as a Republican! With any luck, a staffer told Arnold the headline and stopped right there. Probably made his day.

“Maria. Can you believe dis? Not only do you make sweet love to de two-term Governor of de great state of California. Now I also am de two towsand and ten motahcyclist of de yeeah. And dis and dat and tings of dis nature.”