Schwarzenegger's Political Comeback

Oct. 27, 2006 — -- The bottom for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger came a year ago, when voters crushed his special-election bid to seize power from the legislature, and the teachers' union sued to restore $2 million to the education budget.

He was met by placards and protesters everywhere he went. Scharzenegger's response was politically unthinkable: an apology.

"I take full responsibility for its failure. I take full responsibility for everything," Schwarzenegger said in his state of the state address after his debacle in both the voting and popularity polls.

His approval rating slipped to 32 percent, down sharply from a high of 65 percent.

But he has rebounded. Now his approval rating is 47 percent, and the Los Angeles Times' polling numbers have him leading by 17 percentage points in the race for governor.

"Just a year ago after the special election, Schwarzenegger was less popular than George Bush in California, which is a very strong statement about how far he had fallen," said Bruce Cain, at the University of Cailifornia at Berkeley's Institute for Governmental Studies.

But the "governator," who earlier in his term had taunted opponents -- famously referring to some as "girlie-men" -- suddenly became the "reforminator." He compromised with a Democratic legislature to raise the state minimum wage and agreed to make California the first state to cap greenhouse gas emissions.

"It was skillful of him to decide that he really needed to change his advisers, change his direction. It was courageous of him to do that as well," Cain said.

But Schwarzenegger's turnaround has also been partly luck. Dramatic improvement in the state's economy poured billions of dollars of tax money into Sacramento, allowing him to restore the education budget and get the teachers off his back."

The governor's lesser-known opponent, state treasurer Phil Angelides, has been left to complain that the former movie star is too much like a Democrat.

"I think he's going to deserve very soon an Emmy nomination for the best impersonation of a Democrat by a Republican," Angelides has said.

Schwarzenegger has fought the Bush administration even on logging, coastal oil drilling and national environmental policy. He recently complained in a letter to President Bush that there is no coherent federal policy to stop global warming.

In heavily Democratic California, Angelides tried to tar Schwarzenegger as a sidekick to Bush in campaign commercials, showing the governor chanting "George W. Bush."

But Schwarzenegger's celebrity power offers him unique rebuttal opportunities -- he just went on "The Tonight Show" and joked about it with Jay Leno.

"To link me to George Bush is like linking me to an Oscar. I mean, you know -- that's ridiculous," Schwarzenegger said to Leno during a recent appearance.

One top aide said Schwarzenegger has come a long way by admitting flaws.

"It's a huge deal that he apologized, and then the public felt like he learned on the job and that he went to work with the Democratic leadership to get things done for the state of California," said Matthew Dowd, Schwarzenegger's chief strategist.

"If people ask me what advice you would give a politician these days, I say make a mistake once a week and apologize for it," Dowd said. "That actually, in voters' minds, is a sign that you're human, you're authentic, and you're strong."

And for Arnold Schwarzenegger, it just might mean re-election.