Strengthening Constitutional Self-Government

No Left Turns

Arnold vs. Ronald

A few years ago I wrote an article (I think it was for the Ashbrook Center) hoping that Warren Beatty would indeedd run for president, for the simple reason that he would surely flop on the real campaign trail, and thereby make people reflect again on how great Reagan really was at politics.

We may be about to get another lesson in this. Naturally there have been lots of comparisons between Reagan the actor running for governor in 1966, and Arnold today. One of the interesting things Reagan did, though, was to realize that people would think he was just an actor repeating memorized lines. So in his campaign travels around the state he gave short speeches, and then took questions from the audience for as long as an hour. He demonstrated a real ability to think and talk on his feet, as well as a decent familiarity with state issues. It was this that impressed reporters, and made the media take him seriously.

Arnold needs to do something like this to prove he is for real. So far he has been vague and platitudinous, which is a disappointment.

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