'Governator' shuns Bush ahead of poll

TWO years after lending star power to George W Bush's re-election campaign, Arnold Schwarzenegger has distanced himself from the US president ahead of upcoming polls, analysts say.

The Hollywood actor turned Republican politician is a strong favourite to win November's race in Democrat dominated California, where Mr Bush's approval ratings have slumped to record lows.

But as Mr Schwarzenegger enjoys a commanding lead over his Democrat rival Phil Angelides in recent polls, analysts say the incumbent is wary of being associated with Mr Bush.

Mr Schwarzenegger did not meet Mr Bush during his trip of California today. A spokesman for Mr Bush said the focus of the visit was the congressional races, while Mr Schwarzenegger said there was "no reason" for a meeting.

"President Bush is coming out here not to help California but to do fundraising in California. So there's no reason for me to meet him because I am attending to business," Mr Schwarzenegger said.

Asked if he viewed Mr Bush as a liability, Mr Schwarzenegger replied: "Absolutely not."

Privately, however, Mr Schwarzenegger's campaign will be only too aware that Mr Bush is bad for the electoral box office, say analysts.

Carla Marinucci: The Spin Cycle -- The lonely governor

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's heralded fly-around to promote the bond measures on the November ballot was notable Tuesday for the people who weren't with him.

For one, on a day in which President Bush was in the state picking up campaign cash, Schwarzenegger was asked about the head of his Republican Party -- did he plan to call, talk, have coffee with the president?

"I'm busy with my thing ... I promised the people of California that I would take care of rebuilding California," he said, adding the infrastructure bond package "is more important than a meeting with the president."

The biggest problem with Sacramento is how they live in their own world, completely devoid of any interaction with real humans.

The Bush/Schwarzenegger commercials have been run by the Democrats in the state for about a month now. They have had near zero effect - if you weren't going to vote for Schwarzenegger, you just nodded your head. If you were, you just sighed at yet another stupid commercial.

For those who were undecided, it pretty much appears to have had no effect. No one cares. Undecideds appear to be waiting for something to happen, and those commercials aren't it.

But 'experts' in campaigns are continually putting out that 'any time now' these commercials will have an effect. They won't. If a month of them, appearing once an hour on virtually every channel, doesn't do anything, another week isn't going to do anything more.

Unfortunately, Schwarzenegger's campaign is listening to these mindless drones. The same mindless drones which have sunk virtually every useful program or plan that has come from the governor's office.

If we had real leadership in our party in this state, these drones would have been kicked out long ago. Alas, we have Duff, the poster child for Country Club Republicans who absolutely believe that twenty years ago was a great time and nothing has to change.

Arnold, you do not have to run from the President. You do not have to give in to liberals in the name of compromise, because you're not compromising, you're appeasing. You're getting nothing, just limiting how much they get.

And to the CRA: The quiet protest is wonderful, but this state craves leadership. They'd love for someone to actually stand up and do something. Bustamante was blown to pieces by the combined numbers of people who voted for Arnold and Tom - the difference between Bustamante and the Republicans was that the Republicans had ideas, put forward proposals, offered something different.

Ahh well, spitting in the wind here, and plan on voting a straight Republican ticket next month. But it would be incredibly refreshing to actually vote FOR someone.

Bush is deeply unpopular with liberals. Its funny considering Arnold's refusal to meet with Bush in view of the commercial the state Democratic Party is running to stoke up anti-Bush sentiment. So far as a strategery, its been a flop.

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus

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