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Schwarzenegger flexes his muscles beyond CaliforniaDate: 04.03.2007
Posted by: Anabolic Info Team United States
SAN FRANCISCO – California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger says he has struggled to turn himself from a joke-cracking bodybuilder and actor into a politician able to muster support for what he calls the big issues.
Two months after being sworn in for a second time, he still can make people laugh. But he speaks very seriously about doing what's right for the most populous U.S. state – and beyond.
“I hold myself back sometimes,” Schwarzenegger, 59, told Reuters in an interview in San Francisco Thursday. “I made my name in bodybuilding, being outrageous and making outrageous statements.”
“But here, if you make a mistake, you're the representative of millions of people. ... You've got to behave like someone that is the representative of a huge mass of people – of 37 million people,” the governor said.
He was interviewed at a state office building where, still sporting a cane because of a December skiing accident, he earlier welcomed a corporation's expansion in California.
In the interview Schwarzenegger described himself as a ”big-issue guy.”
He spoke of his initiatives to fight global warming, reduce prison crowding and ensure health care for everyone – plans he took last week to Washington, where he met fellow Republican, President Bush.
The Austrian-born governor, barred by law from running for U.S. president, insisted what mattered to him was making a difference in California, where term limits prevent him from running again in the 2010 election.
But knowing California cannot solve these problems alone, he has joined forces with four nearby states to fight global warming and discussed with Bush using the state as a catalyst for resolving America's health care problems, he said.
Last year Schwarzenegger, accusing Washington of lacking leadership on the environment, paired with British Prime Minister Tony Blair to fight global warming.
BUSH AND WAR
Schwarzenegger said he believed Bush was trying to get things done in the two years left of his presidency as he coped with the war in Iraq and the drain on the country's finances.
“He is struggling because it is very complex to get some of those things done,” the governor said.
As for the war, while Schwarzenegger said the United States could not walk away from its friends in that embattled country, he said it was important to set a timeline for withdrawing. In January, he urged Iraqis be self-reliant by the end of 2007.
“We have to let the American people know that we are in this amount of time, this is not going to be another Vietnam or Korea, that we are going to get stuck forever until some major disaster happens where everything goes south,” he said.
The governor, whose state ranks among the world's top 10 economies, said he had learned doing his job that he had to represent more than just Republicans.
“I'm not saying that's the problem Bush has, and I don't want to give him – by any means – suggestions,” Schwarzenegger said. “He knows more than I do, he has gotten better briefings.”
The governor welcomed a question about how he reconciled owning Hummers, traditionally gas-guzzling sport utility vehicles, given his commitment to saving the environment.
“You've got to get rid of your idea that you've got to get rid of something. What you want is to change it. ... What is wrong with the Hummer? The engine,” he said and that is what needed to be fixed.
He said he had converted one of the vehicles so it now ran on hydrogen. The other, he said, ran now on biofuels. The only unexpected side effect? “It smells now like French fries,” he said with a chuckle.
Political pundits may wonder about his ambitions beyond California, but Schwarzenegger says he is not concerned.
“In the end I feel that if I do a great job there will be all the opportunities available anyway. I could be writing books, I could be doing something in entertainment. I could do something in the political arena. I mean there are many things available. But why worry about it now?”
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