Is Arnold losing it? Gov. Schwarzenegger is looking less like Reagan and more like Ventura.

• Author: Barabak, Mark Z.
• Position: Arnold Schwarzenegger - Cover Story

The governor of California is seated in his office at Oak Productions, smoking a cigar and sipping espresso, his black cowboy boots propped on the distressed wood table before him. A plate of apple strudel sits untouched. The Santa Monica outpost, which houses the governor's film company; doubles as his state office whenever Arnold Schwarzenegger is in the neighborhood. It is quite unlike any governor's office anywhere in the country, that much is certain. The walls are lined with movie posters and photographs of Schwarzenegger in all manner of political and commercial poses. Outside the door to his inner office stands a life-size mock up of Schwarzenegger as the Terminator, his face half gone and a red laser eye gleaming. Inside the office, amid a jumble of movie memorabilia, rests a stuffed crocodile. Overall, the effect is interior design by a very rich, very extravagant 16 year-old.

The governor is speaking of his role on a larger stage as smooth jazz wafts in the background. Far be it for him to offer prescriptions for the GOP. "I'm not elected to represent the Republicans," Schwarzenegger said over the course of a 55-minute interview with The Washington Monthly. "When I look at my pad of things that I want to accomplish every day, or every week, or every month ... it does not have on there anywhere to get more Republicans registered.... It's not something that I ever get up in the morning and say, 'This is my mission.'"

That may be just as well. His support for gay rights, stem-call research, legal abortion, gun control, vigorous environmental protection, and prisons that focus less on punishment and more on rehabilitation are hardly in the mainstream of GOP thinking. He suggests that religion "should have no effect on politics," giving a back-of-the-hand to the Christian conservatives who have become a pillar of the national part. In many ways, Schwarzenegger's style and philosophy recall those of California's last celebrity governor, Jerry Brown, who famously practiced what he called "canoe politics: Paddle a little on the left, paddle a little on the right, and keep on going right down the middle." Or, as Schwarzenegger himself put it: "One has to find some kind of happy medium in this whole thing. So that's the way I do my governing."

It may not win hearts and minds in the ruddiest red-state precincts. But it may be the only way for Schwarzenegger to succeed in California, where the GOP remains a distinct minority in both the statehouse and among registered voters. Schwarzenegger is something of an anomaly in Sacramento, not quite an accidental governor, but one elected under extraordinary circumstances: a recall election that short-circuited the usual political process and played like campaign burlesque. It may have been the only way Schwarzenegger could have been elected governor, even in California.

The glamour and novelty he brought to the drowsy state capital served him well throughout his first year in office. But in the second reel, much of the glitter has started flaking from California's movie-star governor, making him appear a good deal more like one of the standard-issue politicians he regularly vilifies.

When he was first elected, some Republican strategists--as well as fretful Democrats--thought Schwarzenegger's centrist approach, enticing to voters of both parties, might represent the future of an even more dominant national GOP. There was discussion of amending the Constitution to let an immigrant like the Austrian-born Schwarzenegger become president and speculation that he, like a certain other actor-turned-California-governor, would become a transformative national figure.

But in recent months, such talk has diminished considerably. Schwarzenegger showed during the recall that conventional politicians in a hurry-up campaign are no match for someone of his outsized personality. But governing has proven far different. He has been forced to pare back much of his second-year reform agenda. His poll numbers are sagging, and newly emboldened Democrats are challenging the governor at every turn. Now, the question is whether Schwarzenegger can make the transition from a cartoon-like character, all swagger and bluster, into a political leader capable of using his fame and considerable charm to achieve something lasting and meaningful.

Can he repeat the success of Ronald Reagan, who picked up Barry Goldwater's fallen standard and made Western conservatism the governing philosophy of the Republican Party? Or is Schwarzenegger destined to relive the implosion of Jesse Ventura, another muscle-bound insurgent who won early acclaim as Minnesota governor, stumbled badly, then disappeared--from politics...