Governor Schwarzenegger
As tempting as it might be to lampoon Arnold's political ascendancy, I'm not going to rise to that bait today. I trust many capable, witty people are burning up their keyboards in a rush to do that already.

As I listened to "Detective Kimble" take the oath of office, it finally occurred to me that this was an "only in America" moment that can, strangely enough, be pointed to with pride. At the heart of it, the Golden State's new chief executive is a foreign-born person of relatively humble background, who followed a well-worn path to this country to broaden his opportunities. And, think what you will of him, he did well.

Is it really that strange or "wacky" that "Julius Benedict" is now one of our nation's shining examples of what hard work and perserverance can achieve (if, in fact, Hollywood fame didn't illustrate that already)? So what if that hard work started in some weight room someplace. It also led him to, among other places, an INS exam room to take a citizenship test. That's not entirely an easy test, by the way. I'd challenge any American-born person to try for a perfect score. And even if you can ace the test (and you should, easily), consider doing so without the benefit of a junior high civics class, and through a language barrier.

If you're already an American and don't have to work at becoming one, it's easy to take a lot of that for granted. Which brings me back to Arnie swearing to uphold the constitution of a state he cannot pronounce. A quintessential American moment. There aren't too many foreign-born people in other countries holding a high office, are there?

There have been in history, of course (Emperor Maximilian of Mexico is an interesting example, and an Austrian one to boot), through conquest and monarchical accession, but most of those offices weren't electoral, and didn't work out well in the end.

As for how "Captain Danko" will do as the Governator, we'll see. He was elected (and his predecessor recalled) because of voter dissatisfaction with California's debt management. The very first thing Arnold did, once his hand was off the bible, was increase the state's deficit by four billion dollars.

Great start, Gov. But thanks for the infusion of patriotic feeling, just the same. 11:30:05 AM    comment []trackback []