Arnold will win because he is the epitome of the American dream come true, l. against all odds, he believed despite his name, he could become a star still keeping that name, he was right; 2. he wanted to be a millionire, he became one. 3. He wanted to marry big, marry well, have a family, he did all that. What's not to like about him? Right now, he is better than any politician running and that is the main point that will carry it for him: He has money, he is well known and he ain't NO POLITICIAN! Plus he beat the other odd: A patriotic American with an accent!
In an America that discriminates against accents, he beat all the obstacles hands down! He did it the hard way: through his own hard work, self confidence and perseverence! America loves this kind of success story! How many Americans will proudly stand up and say: I LOVE
America! I think he is the wave of the future! People are sick and tired of POLITICIANS and greedy corporate thieves like ENRON execs! He doesn't need anyone else's money. He has his own!
A SELF-MADE MAN WHO IS GOING IN WITHOUT OWING ANYONE ANYTHING. WHAT A CONCEPT!

Pro, thanks for that informative post. The Lt.Gov. does indeed have a great chance. A lot of people don't know it, but Mexicans can be fiercely patriotic, once they become American. I've seen it with my own eyes, many times. They can become frightly conservative, too, meanint, more conservative than perhaps is politically astute.

We'll just have to wait and see!

Dr. Yeagley, it seems that Democrat Governor Davis of California is willing to sign a bill that would allow "illegal aliens to obtain driver's licenses" (http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/8/11/143206.shtml).

It seems natural for people who are politically conservative to favor recalling Davis. A successful recall, however, could lead to the election of a Democrat as governor of California.

There are four prominent Republican candidates (Arnold Schwarznegger, Tom McClintock, Bill Simon, and Peter Ueberroth) and only one prominent Democrat candidate who has a realistic hope of being the top vote recipient on the ballot (see http://toogoodreports.com/column/general/weyrich/20030817-fss.htm). That Democrat is Cruz Bustamante, California's lieutenant governor.

A recalled Davis might be replaced by Lt. Gov. Bustamante. Will Republicans unite in favor a single candidate or badly split their votes such that Bustamante becomes the candidate with the most votes (http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/recall/story/7234955p-8180200c.html)?

One recent poll finds that Lt. Gov. Bustamante is in first place while Schwarznegger is in second place (http://story.news.yahoo.com/newstmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=564&e=4&u=/nm/20030816/ts_nm/politics_california_dc_69). Other polls show that Schwarznegger is ahead
(http://www.sacbee.com/content/politics/recall/story/7234955p-8180200c.html).

Republican voters need to be aware that this is not a primary election. If the majority of voters vote in favor of the recall and Bustamante is the top vote recipient, Bustamante will become the governor of California.

Newsmax's Chris Ruddy on the California recall: http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/8/10/193802.shtml).

Here are links to two columns by David Horowitz on the California recall:
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/8/11/155920.shtml
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/8/13/140450.shtml

I don't think there's been time enough to know anything about how Arnold really thinks. But I bet if you ask him how he feels about America, he'll say he loves America more than anything else in the world. This is a lot more than many Americans (of any color) ever say, or even feel like saying.

I don't recall saying that fighting for this country is the prerequisite for being considered an American. That would count me out. I was too young for Viet Nam, and too unhealthy to be accepted into the military when I later applied (to all four branches!). That's a different story.

I'm not actually endorsing Schwarzenegger here. I'm just saying I think he'll win, big, and I tried to give reasons why I think he will. That's all.

I would certainly expect that his judgements in California would be far more trustworthy and good for the state than would those of a first generation Mexican immigrant.

I could be completely wrong. He might turn out to be just as destructively liberal. I'm saying I think he will win, because what's left of the white people in California are instinctively going to bank on the hope that he will do things for them. Remember, race is a problem in California. One of the biggest.

The real fact is that this is not a battlefield nor a peace treaty negotiation. You hold respect for your warrior opponent in those situations. This is California politics, where the most convoluted things happen. Imagine that: A Nazi descendant who marries the niece of Ted Kennedy, a liberal member of the American Treason Lobby, whose immigration policies have allowed millions of people to come here from countries with which the U.S. has fought, is fighting, and will fight wars. To bring the enemy into your home is Treason of the highest degree. He is a social moderate, etc, etc. If you stand back and observe the big picture, you note that there really is no difference between Republican and Democrat. They are both part of the same establishment. Arnold would face the same challenges that Davis does, and he would behave the same.

To say that he will be elected because of his Germanic genes is nonsense. I have personally known Germans who were shrimps. I do sometimes admire Hitler myself because he savageley defended his country from the internationalist Communists (he launched a pre-emptive strike). At the same time, I would not want Hitler's policies to fall on me.

Is Arnold an American? If we go by Yeagley's definition, he definitely is not. He never fought for this country. He is just a lucky foreigner. And lately, he is a foreign opportunist. I have no admiration for him as a politician.

Well Dr. Yeagley, I listen to Savage (Weiner) occasionally, I'll find myself saying "yeah, right on, go for it" then suddenly, its like he changes gears when the car is racing down the interstate at 90 MPH - it doesn't sound too good on the gears. My wife makes me turn him off when she comes in the room (and she is a good conservative too!) But I listen because he has made the best seller list and he has developed a large audience. I try to keep tabs on what all the pundits say, but I still make up my own mind.

You are right on the "Germanic" thing and Herr Hitler's thoughts on it. A lot of Austrians thought it was a cool thing to become part of the Third Reich. Those that didn't went to the camps along with the Jews, Slavs, Gypsies and other "misfits." They didn't think it was so cool by the spring of 1945.

Arnold. Where does that leave him? Do we hold the sons accountable for the sins of the fathers?
If Arnold's candidacy is derailed because his dad was a Nazi, when he himself has demonstrated no Nazi proclivities then we have real problems.
We are saying that people can never escape the skeletons of the past.

But this is happening only because Arnold has (R) besides his name. If he had (D) besides his name, the civil libertarians would be crawling out of the woodwork to defend him saying "you can't pin the sins of the father on the sons."
It doesn't matter that Arnold's rhetoric is closer to a liberal Democrat than a conservative Republican. All that matters is the (D)and (R) on the ballot ticket. Don't believe me? Joe Kennedy was a pretty outspoken Nazi sympathizer in the 30s. He was ambassador to Britain and was still rooting for Hitler, even after he had invaded France and sent the Luftwaffe on its merry way above the skys of England. FDR recalled him and sacked him. Yet no one, ever questioned the loyalty of the Kennedy boys when they ran for office.

Arnold is not a Reagan Republican. But California has drifted so far left, I doubt that person like Reagan could get elected today. The political reality is that Arnold may be as good as it gets.
But he came to America with nothing, couldn't speak English and built up a successful acting career and is a businessman to boot. If he uses some common sense, he won't be as bad as the "professional" politicians.

But whoever is elected governor of California has a tough row to hoe. I'd think anybody would be nuts to want the job.

President Carter. A decent, honorable man but one without backbone of conviction. After some of resent dissing of Bush, I lost whatever respect I had for him. In all my life and studies of American history, I have never heard of former presidents dissing like that. I expected it from Bill but not Jimmy. It was unseemly and dishonorable and it wasn't like he had a stellar record of his own to compare Bush's to anyway.

On the matter of distinguishing a German from an Austrian...perhaps there is a point to be made. I knew Schwarzenegger was Austrian. More than one of the links I used were direct references to his birth and background.

The reason I didn't bother to distinguish is because I don't think the American mind of today (except for older folks) distinguishes. It's almost like distinguishing between a Sicilian and an Italian. (Or maybe even a Greek from a Macedonian.) Remember, Adolf Hitler was Austrian also. He was born (April 20, 1898) in Braunau am Inn, a small Austrian village across the border from German Barvaria.

In Mien Kampf, Hitler says that as a pre-high schooler, he had read his father's books on the Franco-German war of 1870, and from that time was deeply troubled at the separation of German states. Why did some Germans fight, and not others? "Why hadn't Austria taken part in this war?" he asks. "Are we not the same as all other Germans?

I suppose this set my disposition toward Schwarzenegger as a German. Perhaps I should have used the term, "Germanic." The Austrians are a Germanic people with German customs, German language, German food, etc. That they were not part of the "country" Germany, was a mere detail, and one which annoyed Hitler himself, as an Austrian.

Just as soon as he had power, he used it. He had come to despise the failures of Vienna, and considered Austria totally impotent. The potential action was in Germany, whither Hitler ended up the stunning political leader we all know. He annexed Austria to his new Germany in 1938, along with the South Land (Sudentenland).

I don't know that any of these details will play into Schwarzenegger's present political life, but I'm sure there will be those who continue to dramatize it as much as possible, on the liberal side, to lessen his chances of winning the gubernatorial race.

Thanks for that clarification, Gator. Mine was a superficial report, indeed. I know a lot of people like Michael Weiner; I'm just not sure he is particularly stable. He was ready to stop the world to defend Kobe Bryant, then more of the Bryant story came out. We "news" commentators really should be more patient. It's too easy to grab something and make it explode.

Today Jamie Lee Curtis said she thought Schwarzenegger would make "a wonderful president." Personally, I've already expressed my opinion about foreign presidents. Reza Pahlavi is the best man available. http://www.badeagle.com/journal/archives/2003_06.html#000290

That we would even have such an idea to consider says terrible things about our confidence level in American politicians.

What kind of a man do we need? Where could we expect to find him? Jimmy Carter was a fine man, personally, but one of our weaker presidents. Clinton is one of the most wicked and dangerous men alive, in my opinion, but look at his strength. He practically ruined the country single-handedly, defying the law daily.

What do we look for, and where?

Actually Dr. Y, I heard Savage a couple of days last week. I was listening when he announced as breaking news Arnold's candidacy. At first he was leaning towards supporting Arnold. Then I listened the following night after a number of news pundits had weighed in that day. He was not supporting Arnold.

But he was excoriating Katie Couric for bringing up the Nazi thing. A lot of his comment was very sarcastic of those who tried to make an issue of his father's past. For instance he played the "Horst Wesel" at the opening of his show where he launched on Katie. Now, if he changed his focus in later shows, I did not hear them. But I know Savage can go over the top and it can be real easy to miss where his invective is aimed.

His concern was that Arnold would be overly liberal as a way to "compensate" for his father's Nazi past. The Kennedy conection (Maria Shriver) also had him concerned about what Arnold would be like poltically. Then at one point he wondered what skeletons' would turn up in Katie Courics closet if she were investigated and asked the same kinds of questions about her past.

Again that anylisis was based on the two shows I heard. I did not see that he brought up the Nazi stuff first. After that I just don't know. Also Austrians are "Germanic" people but they don't like to be called Germans especially since 1945.

Interesting perspectives, Dr. Yeagley. I hadn't examined my subconscious lately, but your points are possible.

I come from German blood, and I can tell you that there isn't one gene in my body that wants to demonstrate anything liberal! :)

Shane