I'd better hold off on trying to draft Alan Alda for President for awhile.

Something about Arnold Schwarzenegger running for governor of California was bothering me. Of course there's plenty of competition near the top of the acting profession, given the wealth and prestige available. He's shown he's shrewd, tough, hard working, determined, and good with people. But I didn't think he was asking people to vote for him because of that. I considered him to be trying to appeal to people who wanted simple (although not ALWAYS easy) solutions to complex problems - like fighting crime by taking big guns and shooting people.

When I tried to google up some of his speeches, the first useful hit wasn't one of my usual papers, but the Mississippi Sun Herald.

Even though his newest movie, "Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines," is just as violent as his 1980s action flicks, he is considered supportive of assault weapons laws. Schwarzenegger says he believes voters should be able to separate the two.

"I don't run around every day with a gun in my hand," he told Berkeley-based Youth Radio last year. "So I want kids to understand the difference; one is make- believe like we do in the movies. But in reality I'm for gun control. I'm a peace-loving guy."

A little later on:

"After the translator finished, I realized: Yes! I am a Republican," Schwarzenegger said. "I pretty much thought it was as simple as the movies: The Republicans were the good guys, and the Democrats were the bad guys."

Schwarzenegger said he later starting touring the county for the Special Olympics and "learned how America really worked. And what I realized was this: both parties had good ideas. So it's dead wrong to see things only as us versus them."

Does he really give the voters credit for realizing he's not a crime fighting robot, or is he just pretending to while assuming he has the crime-fighting-robot vote sewed up? Even if the latter, it proves HE'S smart enough to know the difference - and willing to endure the headaches of thinking through the consequences.

Some people think the true meaning of being a Republican is cutting taxes for the rich while screwing the poor - but Arnold might not if he listens to his new employee Warren Buffet.

I'm sure he has faults, but I think he's still way better than some of those California voters deserve. The way the recall vote works, whenever anything goes wrong in the state, it's actually EASIER to get elected governor than stay in office, because 51 percent are needed to keep you in office, but when the vote is deeply split a new candidate could get elected by winning ten percent or less. Does Arnold really deserve an endless series of elections?

Which brings me to my decision not to try and draft Alan Alda to run for President just yet. I'm afraid he'll announce he only plays a peace loving doctor in old reruns, and wants to invade Syria and Iraq. If Schwarzenegger doesn't want to solve problems by shooting them, you never know.



Unfortunately, I can't say that no cheap shots were taken in the making of this post. I want to apologize to Calpundit and all other Californians smarter than me, or just plain better human beings than I.