Opinion: Such is the power of Arnold

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Much as we enjoy the occasional joke about Chuck Norris’ toughness (i.e., ‘Some people wear Superman pajamas. Superman wears Chuck Norris pajamas’), he’s got nothing on Arnold Schwarzenegger, who apparently is tough enough to move thousands of Ohio Democrats from Columbus to Cleveland.

It seems Columbus was in the running for next week’s Ohio debate (where the unsecured Lake Erie border with Canada is not expected to be a dominant item, much to Lou Dobbs’ regret; how do you fence that?). But ‘The Arnold’ already had dibs on most of the hotel space. ‘The Arnold’ in this case is the annual Arnold Sports Festival scheduled for later next week, and apparently there wasn’t enough room in Columbus for Arnold and the Democrats. Our colleague Joe Mathews tells us that Arnold will be there in the flesh.

So the Feb. 26 debate is being held at Cleveland State University. And you have to pity poor Dennis Kucinich, who has represented the Cleveland area in the House of Representatives since 1997 and served as mayor of Cleveland in the 1970s. A presidential debate finally comes to him -- and he’s out of the race and back running for reelection to his congressional seat.

-- Scott Martelle