Political Forecast

Reading CNN.com last night, I saw an interesting headline: “Schwarzenegger to Limbaugh: I’m not selling out” Curious, I clicked.

The synopsis? Rush: Arnold is a “closet liberal.” “Why are you selling out instead of being the true conservative you are?” Schwarzenegger: “”I’m the people’s servant of California.” “It’s just doing work for the people. … I can understand where you’re coming from ideologically, but when I became governor, I became the people’s governor.” He also called Rush “irrelevent.”

Few things have made me smile like reading that. I spent a few days in northern California this past week, and it certainly is a curious state. I don’t feel like I can say much about how it is compared to any previous state of California (no pun intended)–this was my first visit. Nonetheless, it seems like a pretty great state, or at the very least, one that is doing fairly well.

I must admit, I’m growing to like Arnold. My brother Alex, a pretty staunch Democrat and denizen of the Bay Area, told me he would undoubtedly vote for Arnold for a third term if he could run again. It seems that Arnold’s success is well deserved–his rhetoric matches his record. It’s refreshing to see a Republican governor support stem cell research, support a minimum wage of $8.00, as Rush notes (which may be a bit low for living in California, but you do what you can,) and fighting global warming, among other things.

Certainly, Arnold has the popular support of a pretty solidly Democratic state. In 2004, California reelected Barbara Boxer by a margin of about 20 points. Diane Feinstein, the state’s other Democratic Senator, won reelection in 2006 with a margin of over 24 points. And the Governator? Won with 55%, and a margin of nearly 17 points.

Now, any good liberal can probably find a thousand reasons not to like Arnold. And that’s okay. But politics is about compromise, and I think few governors have learned to compromise (you know you’ve done a good job when nobody’s happy) like Arnold. And it’s hard not to like the man for at least that. Success in politics is 25% good policy, I think, and 75% good public relations (”spin.”) Arnold’s definitely got both covered.

So, Schwarzenegger for president? Probably not–we’re definitely too lazy for any sort of constitutional amendment. But it’s an interesting thought.