Posted on 06/07/2005 7:53:26 PM PDT by SmithL
San Francisco -- Author Laurence Leamer paints a flattering portrait in a new biography of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, comparing the actor-turned-politician favorably to California's best known Republican icon, Ronald Reagan.
But Leamer also paints a cautionary tale in "Fantastic: The Life of Arnold Schwarzenegger," suggesting the gifts the governor shares with Reagan — a contagious sense of optimism combined with a righteous populist anger — may not be sufficient to push through a business-backed government reform agenda out of step with the state's heavily Democratic population.
Schwarzenegger's remarkable personal story has been told many times before: that of the penniless Austrian bodybuilder who emigrated to the United States to become a one-man business and entertainment empire before turning his focus to politics. In the book, Leamer weaves the story together in exhaustive detail, offering new insight into Schwarzenegger's rollicking years pumping iron in Gold's Gym, the calculations behind his choice of movie roles, and his relationship with his wife, the television journalist Maria Shriver.
A member of the famously Democratic Kennedy family, Shriver is depicted as a perfectionist whose professional ambition rivals Schwarzengger's but who is plagued throughout her life with personal insecurities and fear. While Republicans have expressed deep suspicions about Shriver's influence over her husband's policy decisions, Leamer describes her as a committed partner whose only agenda is that he be well served by those around him.
Nowhere is that focus more vividly explored than in the chapters describing Schwarzenegger's upstart run for governor in the 2003 recall election.
According to Leamer's account, Shriver engineered the ouster of her husband's longtime friend and campaign manager George Gorton in favor of GOP consultant Mike Murphy after Schwarzenegger stumbled in several early television interviews.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
IMHO Any time a politician is compared to Reagan, it just shows how "un-Reaganesque" they are.
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