Do not make the mistake of thinking that because my conclusion is the same as another person's that my reasoning is the same
Only in America could a guy who struts in an action-hero's Hollywood costume and barks macho lines from a script pass for a plausible political leader. But if George W. Bush can get away with it, why should Arnold Schwarzenegger be pilloried for the same antics?
At least Mr. Schwarzenegger is a show-biz pro. He never would have signed on for a remake of "Top Gun" without first ensuring that it would have the same happy ending as the original. He never would have allowed himself to look as scared as the abandoned kid in "Home Alone" while begging the nation for cash and patience last Sunday night. He would have dismissed B-movie dialogue like "dead or alive" and "bring 'em on" with a curt "hasta la vista, baby!"
And while both men have signed on to the same Hollywood fantasy for fixing an economy spiraling into billions of dollars of debt — cut taxes, spend more — the foreign-born Mr. Schwarzenegger comes by his fiscal pipe dreams the old-fashioned American way. He earned his multi-millions himself rather than through sweetheart deals available exclusively to the well-pedigreed.
This is why the hypocrisy attending the Arnold phenomenon from all sides — Republicans, Democrats, the media — is an entertainment in itself. Decades after John Kennedy embraced the Rat Pack and Ronald Reagan conflated the heroism of World War II movies with his actual (noncombat, stateside) war experience, voters are inured to the reality that show-business tricks are in the arsenal of every would-be national politician. Only Washington remains shocked, shocked that there could be a "circus" in which our political culture becomes indistinguishable from "Extra" (on which Rob Lowe came out for Arnold).