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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Tom Clarke who wrote (12306)	10/15/2003 6:49:03 AM
From: LindyBill	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793648

Good column in "The Hill" on Arnold. Money Quote: There’s something else about him, Cannon observed, “which is that like Reagan, he has a stage presence, he’s very comfortable in press conferences and doesn’t resort to a lot of notes. And Maria helps a lot. You can be sure the Shrivers wouldn’t have been there election night if he was a right-winger. He’s very much in tune with the broader currents of society in this state.” ______________________________________________ Albert Eisele On the Record Albert Eisele is editor of The Hill. Comparing the Gipper and the Groper Arnold Schwarzenegger is Ronald Reagan with bigger muscles, a harder-to-pronounce name and a German accent. That was my conclusion, even before I talked with Lou Cannon last week. Cannon is the former Washington Post reporter and pre-eminent biographer of the former California governor and two-term president. We worked together in the Washington bureau of the Ridder Newspapers (now Knight Ridder) until Cannon went to work for the Post and covered the Reagan White House. Cannon has been writing about Reagan for 36 years. He came to Washington from Sacramento, where he covered Gov. Reagan for the San Jose Mercury News. He had just written a dual biography of Reagan and his chief political nemesis, the late California House Speaker Jesse Unruh (D), and since has written four more books on Reagan, including the newly published Governor Reagan: His Rise to Power. In short, Cannon knows more about Reagan and California politics than anyone, which is why I called him to test my theory that Schwarzenegger has a lot of Reagan’s political magic, a quality that should help him in Sacramento. “There’s an opportunity for Schwarzenegger if he takes it, which is that he has a real mandate,” Cannon said from his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Summerland. “Both he and Reagan won rousing victories after being demonized.” Schwarzenegger’s mandate was very broad-gauged, Cannon noted. “He got more votes than the recall vote and more than [Gov.] Gray Davis got in 2002,” Cannon said. “He got nearly as many women’s votes as Davis, nearly a third of the Latino vote and even a fifth of the black vote. No Republican running for governor has gotten that many since Earl Warren.” As a result, Cannon argued that Schwarzenegger can do what Reagan was able to do when elected governor 37 years ago, which is to go over the heads of an unfriendly Legislature and appeal directly to the people. “Everybody up in Sacramento is well aware of that,” he said. “Legislators can be recalled, too, and all are as unpopular or less popular than Davis. They can undermine him, but they know that the people have spoken.” Although Cannon doesn’t think California’s record budget deficit is as great as advertised, he predicts that Schwarzenegger “will have a harder row to hoe” than Reagan when it comes to holding the line on taxes because “Republicans as a party in this state are much more dug in on opposition to taxes than they were in Reagan’s day.” Also, social conservatives are uneasy with Schwarzenegger’s lenient views on gays, abortion and gun control, not to mention the fact that he’s married to a Kennedy. But Schwarzenegger has other Reagan-like qualities that Cannon believes will serve him well, even though, like Reagan, he had no prior experience in public office. “There’s no harsh edge to him,” Cannon said. “Like Reagan, he has a lot of charm and shows no anger or bitterness against the press, even though he has more reason to than Reagan did. People who worked with him in films, even actors like Rob Lowe, love him.” There’s something else about him, Cannon observed, “which is that like Reagan, he has a stage presence, he’s very comfortable in press conferences and doesn’t resort to a lot of notes. And Maria helps a lot. You can be sure the Shrivers wouldn’t have been there election night if he was a right-winger. He’s very much in tune with the broader currents of society in this state.” thehill.com