Rush Limbaugh thinks Arnold is conservative

After initially stating Arnold Schwarzenegger is not a conservative, radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh is now professing the actor and governor-wannabe is actually conservative in his heart, with advisers trying to manage him out of his core beliefs.

"We've got a golden opportunity out here in California if Schwarzenegger would simply be who he is," Limbaugh said on his top-rated national program yesterday. "I think Schwarzenegger is a conservative."

The comments come on the heels of previous analysis once Schwarzenegger announced his candidacy. Limbaugh then stated:

"Here me now and believe me later, my friends: all these conservative orgasms over Arnold Schwarzenegger are – like the 'Gorbasms' liberals experienced over Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev – fake. I know that 'R' next to Schwarzenegger's name excites the White House, but his own words prove he's not a conservative. I call this 'The Hollywood Syndrome,' and it happens every time some actor-type says anything even remotely conservative. I'm not trying to cold shower anybody here, but don't look to anyone in Hollywood to validate your political ideas."

But during yesterday's show, Limbaugh said his new suggestion that Schwarzenegger is conservative was not based on anything the Austrian native said.

I think Schwarzenegger's natural inclinations, when he arrived in this country and who he is (I know there's the Kennedy thing there), I think that's who he is. He's afraid to be it, doesn't want to be it anymore, whatever, or has been advised he can't be it if he's going to win. If Schwarzenegger would simply run on a conservative fiscal agenda, he would win. He doesn't need to do all of this stuff to go to "the middle." Limbaugh, who himself penned a Wall Street Journal op-ed commentary on the need for conservatism in California, lamented how he hadn't heard Schwarzenegger discuss lowering taxes or providing business incentives, though later in the day the actor outlined some of his fiscal policies.

Following a meeting with billionaire investor and abortion-rights supporter Warren Buffett, as well as Ronald Reagan's Secretary of State George Shultz, Schwarzenegger said he was against high taxes in principle because state residents had been punished long enough.

"From the time they get up in the morning and flush the toilet, they're taxed. Then they go and get a coffee, they're taxed. They get into their car, they're taxed," he said. "They go to the gas station, they're taxed. They go for lunch, they're taxed. This goes on all day long. ... Even when they go to bed, they have the fear that they will be taxed while they sleep. ...

"We must have a constitutional spending cap and must immediately attack operating deficits head on. Does this mean we are going to make cuts? Yes. Does this mean education is on table? No. Does this mean I am willing to raise taxes? No. Additional taxes are the last burden we need to put on the backs of the citizens and businesses of California."

In her latest WorldNetDaily column, commentator Ann Coulter says while Schwarzenegger is certainly an improvement over current Gov. Gray Davis, the actor does not carry the torch for conservative-minded citizens.

"Conservatives were wary of Schwarzenegger even before Tax 'em and Kill 'em Buffett joined the campaign," she writes. "Schwarzenegger claims to be a fiscal conservative and a liberal on social issues. Historically, that means: 'liberal.' All politicians claim to be tax-cutting, fiscal conservatives when they are running for office.'

Still, Limbaugh says one only needs to look at the Republican actor's own lifestyle in recent years to gauge what he believes.

"I can tell you the way Arnold Schwarzenegger invests and lives his life and runs his own businesses, there's nothing liberal about it."

For Immediate Release
August 17, 2003 Contact: Karen Hanretty/310-314-2681
Darrel Ng

Schwarzenegger Makes Statement on Prop. 13

“I am extremely pleased I will be able to draw upon the wisdom of my friend Warren Buffett and other giants on the world stage such as Secretary George Shultz not only during this campaign, but also once I become governor.

"Warren and I have talked about Proposition 13, and he clearly understands my strong unequivocal support for the initiative.

“I supported Proposition 13 25 years ago, and I support it today. Two months ago I was honored to serve as the keynote speaker at the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association Proposition 13 silver anniversary gala.

“Twenty-five years ago, the people rose up and demanded relief from outrageous property taxes. The politicians of California at that time were unresponsive to the people’s needs. Elderly Californians on fixed incomes were afraid that they could lose their homes. So the people showed the politicians who was the boss

“Today, we are involved in a recall election because we again have a governor and government who have been unresponsive to the needs of the people.

“This is the principal reason I decided to run for governor. I am calling together the brightest minds in the business, financial and investment communities from throughout this state and country to help put California’s economy back on track and to help me formulate my economic agenda.

“I expect many dynamic ideas and policy recommendations from my team. But with regards to my position on Proposition 13, my position is rock solid in support of that initiative.”

I wouldn't be surprised if Ronin's guess that Rush got some phone calls from important Republicans may be a factor.

But I can also see, that Rush realizes that he jumped the gun a bit and is trying to back track.

Arnold's life, though, is the American success story.

There was a great article, I excerpted some good parts in a post some time ago, but I can't find the post -- but it's worth scanning the article. Arnold is very much the entrepreneur, who made good.

1999 article (some excerpts):

http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Profiles/People_Profile/0,2540,25,00.html

He likes to see people doing things for themselves, rather than relying on others, whether it's providing cigars or supporting a family. That, he says, is why he became a Republican when he arrived in the United States.

Having just came from "a country where the government interfered with everything and owned monopolies of industries," Schwarzenegger says he was put off by Humphrey's comments on the obligations of the federal government--and attracted by Nixon's support for free enterprise-- "free trade...deregulation...get the government off our backs."

As at the cigar dinner, he's eager to talk about his interest in politics and his commitment to America. "If you go to a country and the country adopts you," he says, "you have a responsibility to learn the language as fast as you can, make all the effort you can to become part of the country, learn what the social behavior is, what the political system is.

Exposure to the Kennedys has even led him to moderate some of his "extreme" conservative views, Schwarzenegger says. He's now willing to acknowledge that "government has a responsibility...to provide things for the underdog."

But the only "underdogs" he cites as worthy of government assistance are people in wheelchairs--no mention of the government's obligation to help those who are poor, homeless, jobless and/or the victims of discrimination--and he's quick to say that he's still "a very strong Republican."

Having settled in Los Angeles, he wasn't content to be "just" a world champion bodybuilder; he immediately set out to be a world champion capitalist as well. While Weider paid him $60 a week (in addition to providing him an apartment and car) to write articles for his bodybuilding magazine, Schwarzenegger started a bricklaying and masonry business with his weightlifting friend Columbu, who'd been his training partner in Germany and who doubled as a bricklayer. Columbu had moved to the United States nine months after Schwarzenegger, and they employed several of their fellow gym rats in the business as well. They also began to offer mail-order courses in bodybuilding, astonished by how easy it was to start a business in this country, compared with all the bureaucratic red tape and regulation they would have encountered trying to start a similar enterprise in Austria.

"I said to Franco as we walked out of City Hall [with a business license], 'Can you believe this? They didn't ask anything. We didn't put up any money. We didn't have to have any banking proofs or any [college] degrees, any of these complications.' "

Schwarzenegger was a natural businessman and promoter--he designed the brochures for the mail-order business--and with the profits from his early endeavors, he invested in a six-unit apartment house and an office building. He also went to school at night--to three different schools--studying marketing, economics, political science, history and art. Cumulatively--and quickly--these early business and academic activities marked the true beginning of Schwarzenegger's love affair with America.

"I could see firsthand," he says, "that if you were willing to work hard, you could really make it. This is the place with the greatest opportunities of anywhere in the world."

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