Analysis: Schwarzenegger's new role

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- Action star Arnold Schwarzenegger's decision to run for governor in California's recall election, and the forum he chose for announcing his intentions, carry the growing symbiotic relationship of politics, show business and commercialism to a new level.

Schwarzenegger didn't really break any new ground per se by announcing his candidacy on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno," but there is no precedent in U.S. politics for launching a campaign by sharing the stage with a TV host whose next high-profile gig will find him getting a makeover from the "Queer Eye for a Straight Guy" crew.

Then again, this is not your father's "Tonight" show -- any more than it is your father's electoral system.

Since TV became the dominant medium in U.S. culture -- and therefore in U.S. politics -- the electoral system has come to bear an increasingly uncanny resemblance to the cola wars. Ideas are useful only to the extent that they promote increased market share.

Among the qualifications of a candidate for office, a primary consideration is name recognition. Advertisers call it brand awarness. Either way, Schwarzenegger has it in abundance.

NBC reported Thursday morning that the big guy's appearance with Leno Wednesday night gave "Tonight" its highest metered-market ratings for a Wednesday night in more than four years, with an audience double the size of those for "Late Show with David Letterman" and "Nightline."

The ratings bonanza spilled over onto "Late Night With Conan O'Brien," which also drew roughly double the audience of "Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn." If this is all very pleasing to the folks at NBC and its parent company General Electric, Arnold's marketing team must have sore palms Thursday from all the high-fiving.

Martin Kaplan, associate dean of the USC Annenberg School for Communication in Los Angeles, sees a political-cultural landscape in which politics has been transformed into entertainment and celebrity has been converted into power.

"We have figured out how to turn real grassroots activism into commercialized illusion," said Kaplan.

Kaplan said the California recall election is the latest example of what political analysts call "astroturfing" -- the technique of generating large numbers of e-mails, letters and phone calls to make a special interest lobbying effort look like a spontaneous grassroots campiang. He said Schwarzenegger is well positioned to capitalize on the opportunity.

"We have a 'blue smoke and mirrors' groundswell which then generates a candidate confected entirley of our own intoxication wth celebrity," said Kaplan. "People can't resist voting for Arnold, because he's famous."

Then again, so is Angelyne, if only in Hollywood.

Angelyne is the prototypical "famous for being famous" figure. She is known in Los Angeles for plastering her blonde bombshell image on billboards, advertising her availability for -- well, one imagines, for pretty much anything she might be available for. These days, she is making herself available to replace Gov. Gray Davis.

And they say California is wacky.

Angelyne, of course, is not a serious candidate -- like, say, smut-peddler Larry Flynt or writer-talk show guest Arianna Huffington. She's just out there doing what everybody in Hollywood does, trying to make the most of what she has to work with.

Schwarzenegger, on the other hand, offers a credible choice to voters who may want to get into issues -- if not too deeply -- and want to have elected leaders they can more or less look up to. With a filmography that amounts to perhaps the longest infomercial ever, Schwarzenegger casts an image of a strong and viruous man who -- although he wins a few and loses a few -- always manages to win the big one.

"We want the governor to be like the image that Arnold projects," said Kaplan. "The reality is an open question, and I suspect that's what the campaign is going to be all about."

Do you think?

It's ironic that Schwarzenegger's breakthrough role, the one that made him a bankable international star, was "Terminator" -- in which he played a bad guy. He did it so well that he ended up on the American Film Institute's recent ranking of all-time great movie villains. Then again, he came back in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" as a really swell killer robot -- and managed a place on the AFI's list of the best 50 good guys.

Hollywood figured out a way to turn the character around, not only in the interest of good storytelling but also -- and perhaps more vitally -- in the interest of making a boatload of money with a sequel to a box-office hit. Surely, Davis is wishing he could figure out a way to turn his image around.

"He's wishing a lot of things," said Kaplan.

As Schwarzenegger travels along the campaign trail, he is sure to exploit the killer lines that made "Terminator" so popular -- "I'll be back," and "Hasta la vista, baby" and "You've been terminated."

Lines like that are largely responsible for the big guy's initial rise as a box-office star. According to press accounts at the time, Schwarzenegger insisted -- during filming on his early action features such as "Commando" and "Raw Deal" -- on bringing in writers to punch up the dialogue and give his characters crowd-pleasing, funny lines.

It would be nothing new in American politics, of course, if Schwarzenegger employed a staff of writers to help him prepare his ad libs. Whether he can actually do to the California budget deficit what the Terminator did to the villanous cyborgs is a serious question, and one that might actually be examined during the campaign.

"The question is whether we demand a minimal level of competence or experience or even a plan from our leaders," said Kaplan, "or whether going on 'American Idol' is sufficient."

You mean Kelly Clarkson might run?

"Shouldn't she consider it?"