'Arnold for President' is no joke

LA Daily News | November 25 2004

In the 1993 film "Demolition Man," Sylvester Stallone drew chuckles when his character -- catapulted into the future -- discovered Arnold Schwarzenegger had been a U.S. president.

"Even though he wasn't born in the country, his popularity at the time caused the 61st Amendment," co-star Sandra Bullock explained.

"I don't wanna know," Stallone interrupted with disgust.

Now Schwarzenegger is governor and chuckles have turned to supportive chants -- or gasps -- from America's voters.

As his fans and foes argue through the Internet, the Austrian-born governor rides high in the polls, and congressional efforts are under way to clear a path to the White House for immigrants.

Although he has dismissed a presidential bid as a distraction from his job as California's chief executive, Schwarzenegger told CBS' "60 Minutes" that he would like to run for the White House.

"Anyone with my way of thinking, you always shoot for the top."

Analysts and political observers say his superstar status could help fuel a constitutional change to let foreign-born citizens become president -- and make national politics more exciting.

"Arnold and his wife (Maria Shriver) in the White House would be a human interest story unlike anything we've ever seen before and far more interesting than Ron and Nancy (Reagan) or Bill and Hillary (Clinton)," said Doug Willis, a retired Associated Press correspondent who covered Ronald Reagan from statehouse to the presidency.

"There would be two celebrities, plus the (Shriver) Kennedy connection and four kids! What more could you ask for in a celebrity presidency?"

To promote Schwarzenegger, a pair of Los Angeles entrepreneurs, Marshall Miller and Joshua Mikael, have launched a Web site, www.operationarnold.com. Independently, a Menlo Park mutual-fund manager has founded www.amendforarnold.com and has started cable TV ads.

"Arnold is what a lot of us have been waiting for," said founder Lissa Morgenthaler-Jones.

In a countermeasure, Texas radio host show host Alex Jones has launched www.arnoldexposed.com.

"This is a campaign, and his operatives are pushing it," Jones said. "It deserves to be countered."

Voters across the nation, in interviews, either embraced the idea or said they viewed it more as a scary political cartoon.

"Arnie rocks," said Sid McNicol of Indianapolis, a Democrat who said he would like to see a Schwarzenegger presidency.

"You've got to be kidding," said Kim Trogdon, a conservative Republican school teacher in Centerville, Va., who questioned the socially moderate Schwarzenegger's stances.

Hundreds of others were informally polled by Internet giant America Online under the headline "The Next Ronald Reagan?"

Comments from Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area ranged from "Never!", "I'm moving to Canada," and "Have we lost our marbles?" to "He's in nobody's pockets," "The Constitution needs an overhaul" and "Why not Arnold?"

Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah; Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Huntington Beach; and Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., proposed the amendment to the Constitution to allow immigrants to become president after being citizens for 20 years. Schwarzenegger, 57, became a citizen in 1983.

Amending the Constitution would require two-thirds majority votes in the House and Senate, then approval by three-fourths of the states.

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