Shriver Key to Arnold's Victory

Oct. 8 -- Maria Shriver may have won the California recall election for her husband.

At the very least, she was the crucial difference, time and again. In his victory speech Tuesday night, Arnold Schwarzenegger acknowledged the valuable role his wife played in his campaign.

"I want to thank her for the love and strength she has given me," he said to the crowd, then added in an aside to his wife: "And I know how many votes I got today because of you."

From the very beginning of the campaign, with serious accusations about Schwarzenegger's personal behavior bubbling, it was Shriver — a journalist who during the campaign took a leave of absence from her job with NBC — who laid out publicly the way she wanted her husband to be judged.

"I think it takes great courage to stand up and say, 'I apologize if I've offended anybody, I tried to work respectfully with women, and if I've done anything I apologize.' That's what we try to teach our children," she told reporters in the final week of the campaign.

Political and Media Savvy

Shriver had all the assets a Republican candidate could wish for in a Democratic state. Her mother was President John F. Kennedy's sister. Shriver is a very prominent member of today's Kennedy generation. She is a glamorous television personality in a political campaign that ran against the media.

"You can listen to all of the negativity and listen to people who have never met Arnold or met him five seconds 30 years ago," she told a women's group in a speech. "Or you can listen to me."

On the Schwarzenegger campaign bus last week, when her husband was being accused of serial sexual harassment, she vouched for him to crowd after crowd. Time and again, Shriver was the one who encouraged the crowd to think of something else.

And who knows a sound bite better than someone who listens for them in her profession?

"There's no doubt in my mind that Arnold is a supporter of the working people," she said. "He's worked his whole life."