Arnold Schwarzenegger nixes GOP convention visit, due to pressing business
Campaigning -- as all-consuming as it can be -- is easy. Governing is hard.
Just ask Arnold Schwarzenegger.
The California governor -- unlike many fellow Republicans of a moderate ilk -- not only planned to attend the GOP national convention in Minneapolis/St. Paul, he was slated for a high-profile speaking spot Monday night.
Not now.
As he had said he would do, if necessary, Schwarzenegger has canceled his trip because of the continuing stalemate over passing a state budget on Sacramento (the spending plan is two months overdue).
Appropriately, given the acting background they share, Fred Thompson will take Schwarzenegger's role. Indeed, a Schwarzenegger aide told The Times' Michael Rothfeld that Thompson will give the same speech (but with a markedly different accent) that the governor was going to give. It traces John McCain's life story, including his time as a prisoner of war.
Given their contrasting styles, we suspect Thompson will go ahead and make some alterations. [UPDATE: The Schwarzenegger people now tell Rothfield that the speech will have the same "storyline," but will be reworked with Thompson's cadence in mind.]
Meanwhile, McCain and his staff can only hope that for former Tennessee senator can muster a bit more zest for this assignment than he often displayed in his failed bid for his party's presidential nomination.
-- Don Frederick
Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images
Andrew Malcolm's immigrant parents repeatedly stressed the importance of active participation in a democracy. Early lessons included learning the alphabetical list of states by watching televised roll calls of national political conventions. That childhood exposure led to a lifelong fascination with politics, including 40-plus years of covering them and a brief stint practicing them as press secretary to Laura Bush in 1999-2000. A veteran foreign and national correspondent, Malcolm served on the Times Editorial Board and was a Pulitzer finalist in 2004. He is the author of 10 nonfiction books and father of four.
Johanna Neuman is a veteran Washington correspondent for both The Los Angeles Times and USA Today, having covered presidents and politics as far back as Ronald Reagan. A former president of the White House Correspondents Assn., she authored a book on media and foreign policy, “Lights, Camera, Wars.” Most recently she was co-author of the 
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the neocon faction of the gop that hijacked the party, hijacked the convention and ousted the legitimate republican candidate that represents the core majority, constitutional republican RON PAUL, for him to hold his alternative republican convention at the target center, minneapolis. it is interesting that they now would insist on drawing attention to mccain's shady past in his vietnam detention time (files still not disclosed, allegations of extensive collaboration and collusion with the vietnamese, ptsd etc). it is likely that schwarzenegger was strongly dissuaded from his spot because his appearance would have drawn additional attention to mccain's own failure to qualify as a native born american citizen, which constitutionally excludes him from the presidency.
thompson was chosen instead because he is 'trusted' to put people to sleep, for them to ignore the exciting and rEVOLutionary developments of these two parallel conventions in minneapolis/st. paul. but the delegates will be informed of the facts, and in their majority can be expected to put the country over their wallet, and this time around will very likely not be bribed to fall in line with the neocon hijackers - so in view of the concerted media propaganda that managed to widely suppress RON PAUL's campaign, but never to quash his extensive and still growing support with the constitutional republican base and independents, this (unequal) twin convention might yet yield a great surprise.
Posted by: dave | August 30, 2008 at 11:13 PM