Arnold Schwarzenegger’s playboy image is approaching Clinton levels (Bill, not George). The former Terminator pushed aside claims that he had taken drugs in the 1977 movie Pumping Iron, which clearly showed him smoking a joint. An inconvenient truth? Not for the governator. You see, for cannabis isn’t a drug at all, it’s a leaf. That’s right – rather like guns are just metal, and murder is just the incidental ending of life. Either that, or his drug use behind the scenes was so monumental that one drag on a spliff was a drop in the ocean.
One suspects not. It’s hard to imagine Arnie being unfocused for extended periods of time: a man of his drive could simply not allow it. The statement is most likely a product of the galvanised Republican’s talent for sticking to what he believes is the truth; an admirable brand of chutzpah that allowed him to buck the White House tendency to leave the Kyoto Protocol unsigned. Still, here’s how he decided to become governor. While relaxing in his Jacuzzi, presumably sans leaf, the man mountain was struck by a brainwave. How about running for office? His origins barred him from the Presidency (although possibly possibly not for ever), but governor was perfectly possible. Why not California? After all, Ronald Reagan did it. His wife, Maria Shriver was unimpressed, having been drenched in politics from an early age as part of the Kennedy clan, she had no inclination to be any more involved in it that she already was.
“In all seriousness, she had tears in her eyes. I had to work on her for 14 days.”
Quite an image. So it was that Arnold learned the powers of negotiation, from the comforts of his Jacuzzi. News Hour can only imagine the wrinkles on the former bodybuilder’s body after this marathon session. Any one got the pictures? We’ll be waiting on the usual number.
News hour, with Jerry Caesar 