Posted on 10/28/2004 7:29:17 AM PDT by IndianPrincessOK
Schwarzenegger Says He Won't Travel More for Bush By Adam Tanner, Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO (Oct. 27) - Popular California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Wednesday he spurned White House invitations to campaign more widely for President Bush and has agreed to just one joint appearance.
Such aloofness could prove fatal to an ordinary politician. But the Hollywood superstar and former Mr. Universe, a moderate Republican, didn't seem too worried.
"For me it's a balancing act, of course you know, because if I don't campaign for President Bush, the Republicans will be angry. If I campaign for President Bush the Democrats are angry," he told KTKZ radio in Sacramento.
"I think there is a happy medium which I made very clear. I will not go and travel around the country with the president because my work is here."
Schwarzenegger did travel to the Republican National Convention in August on Bush's behalf in his tight race against Democratic challenger, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.
But he said he had to draw the line at campaigning more outside California and after considerable hesitation, agreed to just one appearance in Columbus, Ohio, on Friday.
He said he only made his decision on Tuesday.
"We were thinking that we would go and then maybe that we would not go and then we finally decided to go," he told reporters.
Schwarzenegger, a fiscal conservative and social moderate, faces re-election in 2006 in California, a state where Democrats are the dominant party and one that will surely back Kerry.
He came to office through California's unprecedented recall election last year, and has become the party's dominant figure in the nation's most populous state as well as a big draw on the national stage.
Friends say the Austrian-born 57-year-old would ultimately like to be president, and he repeated on Wednesday that he favors a change to the U.S. Constitution to allow foreign-born Americans to be president. Bipartisan support would be necessary for any rare amendment to the Constitution.
Schwarzenegger is married to Maria Shriver, whose uncle was Democratic President John F. Kennedy.
He's not getting any. That's the problem.
The interpretation: "If I stump for Bush, Maria make me sleep on the couch when I get home. If I stay home, I can sleep with Maria."
There are a half dozen senate candidates who could use his help.
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