I can't tell what Rush or Arnold is from this, since Rush seems to have changed his mind about Schwarzenegger for no apparent reason.
Before: "but his own words prove he's not a conservative"
After: 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."
Please help me out, FairOpinion, if you think I've missed something here.
I think Arnold should follow his instincts and run hard from the right. Draw a contrast between himself and Large Breasts on taxes and spending. And the people of California will follow. He can listen to the conservative in him or the liberal manufactured by his wife and advisers like Buffett that's been presented to the media. Its all up to Arnold now.
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."
Rush never said (R)nold is "now a conservative".
Here are his comments from his website and what he said on the radio today:
How Arnold Got His (Conservative) Groove Back
If you saw Arnold's press conference, you know how he rose to my challenge - and you can relive those moments through the magic of the RushLimbaugh.com audio links below. I was struck in particular by Secretary Schultz. He apparently saw a need to validate Schwarzenegger's maturity, competence and all that. It reminded me of his statement after Reagan walked out on Gorbachev at Reykjavik: "I never felt prouder of my president than I was today." Schultz knows they're trying to do the old tar-the-(R)-as-an-idiot trick on (R)nold.
As for Buffett, Arnold told him he'd have to do 500 sit-ups if he ever mentioned Prop. 13 and suggested hiking property taxes again. Arnold's impassioned offensive against punishing the people of California with high taxes represented a 180 towards that famous '64 Reagan stump speech for Goldwater. Schwarzenegger hammered away at the need for fiscal discipline. It's another conservative principle: You can't spend more than you take in. He said, "[O]f course I want to give away anything and everything. But can we afford it?" Great question! Besides, you ruin people's incentive to support themselves and they don't appreciate it if you give them everything.
Arnold told of a woman in tears when Prop. 13 passed because it meant she didn't have to sell her house to pay taxes, and told Buffett his taxes were lower than others because he hadn't sold his house and had it reassessed. A reporter pressed Arnold to name a program he'd cut, and his response brought to mind Reagan's overall philosophy on not spending more than you earn. Arnold nuked the reporter's premise that the very people who've overspent the people's money are the only ones who can reverse the trend. He's auditing the books, and he says he's going to find places to cut. This, and his rejection of tax hikes as an option, contrast starkly to the $8 billion tax gouge of Davis and the $7.9 billion proposed gouge of Cruz Bustamante.