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Arnold Alois Schwarzenegger (born July 30, 1947 in
Thal, Austria|Thal, Styria (state)|Styria Austria)
is an Austrian-United States|American actor,
United States Republican Party|Republican
politician, bodybuilding|bodybuilder, and
businessman, currently serving as the 38th
Governor of California. He was elected on October
7, 2003 in a special 2003 California Recall|recall
election which removed sitting Governor Gray Davis
from office.  Schwarzenegger was sworn in on
November 17, 2003 to serve the remainder of Davis'
term, which lasts until January 2007. 

Nicknamed the Austrian Oak in his body-building
days, and more recently The Governator, or simply
Ahnold, Schwarzenegger as a young man gained
widespread attention as a highly successful
bodybuilder, and later gained worldwide fame as a
Hollywood action film star.  His most famous films
include The Terminator (and its sequels), Predator
(movie)|Predator, Conan the Barbarian, True Lies,
Kindergarten Cop, and Total Recall.

==Personal background==

Schwarzenegger was born in Thal, Austria|Thal,
Austria, four miles (6 km) from Graz, to a
Gendarmerie-Kommandant policeman, Gustav
Schwarzenegger (1907-1972) and his wife Aurelia
Jadrny (1922-1998). His parents were members of
the Nazi party.

After working in the United Kingdom for a short
time, and with $20 in his pocket, and not fluent
in English language|English, he moved to the
United States|U.S. in 1968. He became a U.S.
citizen in 1983, although he has also retained his
Austrian nationality.  During this time, he earned
a Bachelor of Arts|B.A. from the University of
Wisconsin-Superior where he graduated with degrees
in marketing|international marketing of fitness
and business administration in 1979.   

In 1971 Schwarzenegger's brother Meinhard was
killed in an automobile accident, and his father
died the following year. In 1977 his
autobiography, Arnold: The Education of a
Body-Builder was published.  In 1986,
Schwarzenegger married TV journalist Maria
Shriver, niece of late President of the United
States|President John F. Kennedy. The couple have
four children: daughters Katherine and Christina,
and sons Patrick and Christopher. Together, the
couple own a home in the fabled Kennedy Compound.

His distinctive and oft-imitated accent has led
many entertainers and pundits to refer to him
simply as "Ah-nuld".

==Bodybuilding career==
Schwarzenegger first gained fame as a
bodybuilding|bodybuilder. His well-developed
physique earned him the moniker "The Austrian
Oak"(or "The Styrian Oak") and won him the titles
of Junior Mr. Europe, Mr. World, IFBB Mr.
Universe, NABBA Mr. Universe (four times), and Mr.
Olympia (seven times). The seven wins at Mr.
Olympia was a record set in 1980, cementing him as
a legend of the sport.  The record would remain
until Lee Haney won his eighth straight Olympia in
1991. Schwarzenegger is considered among the most
important figures in the history of bodybuilding,
and his legacy is commemorated in the Arnold
Classic annual bodybuilding competition. 

Schwarzenegger has admitted to using
performance-enhancing anabolic steroids, writing
in 1977 that "steroids were helpful to me in
maintaining muscle size while on a strict diet in
preparation for a contest. I did not use them for
muscle growth, but rather for muscle maintenance
when cutting up." However, some bodybuilders who
used the same steroid cocktails as Schwarzenegger
in the 1970s dispute the notion that they were
used merely for "muscle maintenance." Even
Schwarzenegger has called the drugs "tissue
building."
http://hjem.get2net.dk/JamesBond/www/artikler/ster
oidemisbrug/arnoldandsteroids.htm In 1999,
Schwarzenegger sued Willi Heepe, a German doctor
who publicly predicted an early death for the
bodybuilder based on a link between steroid use
and later heart problems. Because the doctor had
never examined him personally, Schwarzenegger
collected a Deutsche Mark|DM20,000 (USUnited
States dollar|$12,000) libel judgement against him
in a German court. In 1999 Schwarzenegger also
sued and settled with Globe Magazine, a U.S.
tabloid which had made similar predictions about
the bodybuilder's future health. As late as 1996,
a year before open heart surgery to replace an
aortic valve, Schwarzenegger publicly defended his
use of anabolic steroids during his bodybuilding
career.http://espn.go.com/columns/farrey_tom/16555
97.html (Schwarzenegger was born with a bicuspid
aortic valve; a normal aortic valve is tricuspid.)
According to a spokesman, Schwarzenegger has not
used anabolic steroids since 1990 when they were
made
illegal.http://hjem.get2net.dk/JamesBond/www/artik
ler/steroidemisbrug/arnoldandsteroids.htm In
bodybuilder slang, steroids are sometimes called
"Arnolds".http://www.streetdrugs.org/dgsa.htm  

Schwarzenegger has remained a prominent face in
the bodybuilding sport long after his retirement,
in part due to his ownership of gyms and fitness
magazines.  He has presided over numerous contests
and awards shows. For many years he wrote a
monthly column for the bodybuilding magazines
Muscle & Fitness and Flex_(magazine)|Flex. Shortly
after being elected Governor, he was appointed
executive editor of both magazines in a largely
symbolic capacity. The magazines agreed to donate
$250,000 a year to the Governor's various physical
fitness initiatives. The magazine MuscleMag
International has a monthly two page article on
him and refers to him as "The King".

Schwarzenegger's first political appointment was
to the President's Council on Physical Fitness and
Sports, on which he served from 1990 to 1993.  He
was nominated by George H. W. Bush, who called him
"Conan the Republican".

==Acting career==
Growing bored with professional bodybuilding,
which he began to view as a "go nowhere" career,
Schwarzenegger began to pursue a career as an
actor. His uniquely muscular appearance earned him
several movie roles. His first film appearance was
as Hercules in Hercules in New York (1970),
credited under the name Arnold Strong, although
his accent in the film was so thick that his lines
were dubbing|dubbed. He appeared in The Long
Goodbye, and more notably Stay Hungry, for which
he was awarded a Golden Globe. Schwarzenegger came
to the attention of more people in the documentary
Pumping Iron (1977), elements of which were
dramatized. In 1991, Schwarzenegger purchased the
rights to this film, outtakes, and associated
still photography that could be embarrassing
politically. Initially he had trouble breaking
into films because agents disliked his surname,
muscles and
accent.http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/arnold
pump1.html Though Schwarzenegger refuses to
discuss his plastic surgery ("You are confusing me
with Cher (entertainer)|Cher," he told People
Magazine in 2002), citing before and after photos,
critics allege he has undergone procedures on his
eyes and chin, and has received at least one
facelift.http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/enterta
iners/actors/arnold-schwarzenegger/

Schwarzenegger's breakthrough film was Conan the
Barbarian (1982), and this was cemented by a
sequel, Conan the Destroyer (1984). As an actor,
he is most well-known as the title character of
James Cameron|James Cameron's android thriller The
Terminator (1984).  Schwarzenegger's acting
ability (described by one critic as having an
emotional range that "stretches from A almost to
B") has long been the butt of many jokes; he
retains a strong Austrian accent in his speech
even in roles which do not call for such an
accent.  However, few of the fans of his work seem
to care.  He also made a mark for injecting his
films with a droll, often self-deprecating sense
of humor, setting him apart from more serious
action heroes such as Sylvester Stallone, his most
prominent contemporary.  (As an aside, his
alternative-universe comedy/thriller Last Action
Hero featured a poster of the movie Terminator 2:
Judgment Day which, in that alternate universe had
Sylvester Stallone as its star; a similar in-joke
in Twins (movie)|Twins suggested that the two
actors might one day co-star, something which
never came to pass).

Following his arrival as a Hollywood superstar, he
made a number of  commercially successful films:
Commando (movie)|Commando (1985), Raw Deal (1986
movie)|Raw Deal (1986), The Running Man (1987),
and Red Heat (1988). In Predator (movie)|Predator
(1987), another commercially successful film,
Schwarzenegger led a cast which included future
Minnesota List of Governors of Minnesota|Governor
Jesse Ventura (Ventura also appears in Running
Man) and future Kentucky List of Governors of
Kentucky|Gubernatorial Candidate Sonny Landham.
Twins (movie)|Twins, (1988) a comedy with Danny
DeVito, was a change of pace.  Total Recall
(1990), at that time the most expensive film ever,
netted Schwarzenegger $10 million and 15% of the
gross, and was a widely praised, thought-provoking
science-fiction script behind his usual violent
action.  Kindergarten Cop (1990) was another
comedy. 

Schwarzenegger's critical and commercial
high-water mark was Terminator 2: Judgment Day
(1991). His next film project, the self-aware
action comedy Last Action Hero, (1993), had the
misfortune to be released opposite Jurassic Park,
and suffered accordingly.  Schwarzenegger's career
never again achieved quite the same prominence,
his aura of box-office invincibility suffering. 
True Lies (1994) was a popular sendup of spy
films, and saw Schwarzenegger reunited with
director James Cameron, whose own career had taken
off with The Terminator. It was followed by the
popular, albeit by-the-numbers Eraser
(movie)|Eraser (1996), and Batman and Robin (1997
movie)|Batman & Robin (1997), his final film
before taking time to recuperate from a back
injury.  Although Batman and Robin (1997
movie)|Batman & Robin was a famous disaster,
Schwarzenegger emerged largely unscathed.  Several
film projects were announced with Schwarzenegger
attached to star including the remake of The
Planet of the Apes, a new film of I am Legend and
a World War II film scripted by Quentin Tarantino
that would have seen Schwarzenegger finally play
an Austrian. Instead he returned with End of Days
(1999) - an unsuccessful and atypically dark
attempt to broaden his acting range - The 6th Day
(2000) and Collateral Damage (2002), none of which
came close to recapturing his former prominence.
He starred in the popularly received Terminator 3:
Rise of the Machines (2003) and was slated to star
in a possible True Lies 2 and Conan the King, but
his duties as California governor have likely put
his movie career on hold until at least 2007,
though producers repeatedly claim he will make a
small appearance in a fourth Terminator film. His
last film appearance to date was a Cameo
appearance|cameo in the 2004 remake of Around the
World in 80 Days (2004 movie)|Around the World in
80 Days, notable for featuring him onscreen with
action star Jackie Chan for the first time. 

===Filmography===
*Hercules in New York (1970)
*The Long Goodbye (1973)
*Stay Hungry (1976)
*Pumping Iron (1977) (documentary)
*The Villain (1979)
*Scavenger Hunt (1979)
*The Comeback (1980) (documentary)
*Body by Garret (1982) (short subject)
*Conan the Barbarian (1982)
*Conan the Destroyer (1984)
*The Terminator (1984)
*Red Sonja (1985)
*Commando (movie)|Commando (1985)
*Raw Deal (1986)
*Predator (movie)|Predator (1987)
*The Running Man (1987)
*Red Heat (1988)
*Twins (movie)|Twins (1988)
*Total Recall (1990)
*Kindergarten Cop (1990)
*Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
*Freed (1992) (documentary)
*Dave (movie)|Dave (1993) (cameo)
*Last Action Hero (1993)
*The Last Party (1993) (documentary)
*A Century of Cinema (1994) (documentary)
*Beretta's Island (1994)
*True Lies (1994)
*Junior (movie)|Junior (1994)
*T2 3-D: Battle Across Time (1996) (short subject)
*Eraser (movie)|Eraser (1996)
*Jingle All the Way (1996)
*Stand Tall (1997) (documentary)
*Batman & Robin (1997)
*Junket Whore (1998) (documentary)
*End of Days (1999)
*The 6th Day (2000)
*Dr. Dolittle 2 (2001) (voice)
*Last Party 2000 (2001) (documentary)
*Collateral Damage (2002)
*Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)
*The Rundown (2003) (cameo)
*Around the World in 80 Days (2004 movie)|Around
the World in 80 Days (2004) (cameo)
*How Arnold Won the West (2004) (documentary)
*WMD: Weapon of Mass Destruction (2004)
(documentary)
*The Kid & I (2005) (currently in post-production)

==Political career==


===Political affiliation===
Schwarzenegger is a Republican Party (United
States)|Republican, unusual among the often
heavily Democratic Party (United
States)|Democratic Hollywood community. He
describes himself as fiscally conservative and
socially moderate. Schwarzenegger backed
Republican President Ronald Reagan, whose
footsteps he's following—movie star turned
politician—while Reagan was in office, and
campaigned for George H.W. Bush in 1988. However,
he chastised fellow Republicans during the
impeachment of Bill Clinton in 1998.  Sensing an
opportunity to affect the outcome of the U.S.
presidential election, 2004|2004 Presidential
race, Schwarzenegger campaigned in Ohio for
Republican George W. Bush in the closing days of
the campaign.

In an interview on October 29, 2002, with MSNBC's
Chris Matthews at Chapman University,
Schwarzenegger explained why he is a Republican:

:"Well, I think because a lot of people don't know
why I'm a Republican, I came first of all from a
socialistic country which is Austria and when I
came over here in 1968 with the U.S. presidential
election, 1968|presidential elections coming up in
November, I came over in October, I heard a lot of
the press conferences from both of the candidates
Hubert Humphrey|Humphrey and Richard Nixon|Nixon,
and Humphrey was talking about more government is
the solution, protectionism, and everything he
said about government involvement sounded to me
more like Social Democratic Party of
Austria|Austrian socialism.

:Then when I heard Nixon talk about it, he said
open up the borders, the consumers should be
represented there ultimately and strengthen the
military and get the government off our backs. I
said to myself, what is this guy's party
affiliation? I didn't know anything at that point.
So I asked my friend, what is Nixon? He's a
Republican. And I said, I am a Republican. That's
how I became a Republican."

It had been known since the 1990s that
Schwarzenegger was interested in public office;
this was jokingly referenced in the 1993 Sylvester
Stallone film, Demolition Man, where a future
America passed a constitutional amendment to allow
foreign-born Americans like Schwarzenegger to
become President of the United States|President,
and that film has reference to a "Schwarzenegger
Presidential Library"."

Regarding a run for public office, in 1999, he
told Talk magazine that "I think about it many
times."  He said, "The possibility is there
because I feel it inside. I feel there are a lot
of people standing still and not doing enough. And
there's a vacuum."

===Venturing into politics===
Schwarzenegger was appointed Chairman of the
President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports
in the administration of George H. W. Bush from
1990 to 1993.  During that time, Schwarzenegger
traveled across the U.S. promoting physical
fitness to kids and lobbying all 50 governors in
support of school fitness programs.  "He would hit
sometimes two or three governors in a day in his
own airplane, at his own expense, somewhere around
$4,000 an hour," said George Otott, his chief of
staff at the time.  "When he walked in, it wasn't
about the governor, it was about Arnold," said
Otott, a retired Marine. "He has what we in the
military call a command presence. He becomes the
number one attention-getter."

He later served as Chairman for the California
Governor's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports
under Governor Pete Wilson. 

Schwarzenegger scored his first real political
success on November 5, 2002 when Californians
approved his personally crafted and sponsored
California Proposition 49 (2002)|Proposition 49,
the "After School Education and Safety Program Act
of 2002", an initiative to make state grants
available for after-school programs.

===2003 California recall===
For years, Schwarzenegger had discussed with
friends, potential donors, advisors and political
allies a possible run for high political office;
on April 10, 2003, for example, he met with
Republican political operative Karl Rove to
discuss a future campaign.  In the months leading
to the 2003 California recall, Schwarzenegger was
widely rumored to be considering a run at becoming
Governor of California.  In the July 2003 issue of
Esquire Magazine|Esquire magazine, he said, "Yes,
I would love to be governor of California ... If
the state needs me, and if there's no one I think
is better, then I will run."  When a petition to
recall United States Democratic Party|Democratic
governor Gray Davis qualified for the ballot on
July 24, Schwarzenegger left many wondering
whether he would jump into the contest. 
Schwarzenegger was just wrapping up a promotional
tour for Terminator 3 and said he would announce
his decision on whether to run on August 6 on The
Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

In the days and even hours leading up to the
show's taping, political experts and insiders
concluded that Schwarzenegger was leaning against
running in California's October 7 recall election.
 Even his closest advisors said he was probably
not going to run.  Rumors leading up to the
announcement said that his wife, Maria Shriver, a
Kennedy family Democrat, was against his running,
and he wanted her approval in order to run.  When
announcing his candidacy on The Tonight Show with
Jay Leno|the Tonight Show, he joked,  "It's the
most difficult decision I've made in my entire
life, except the one I made in 1978 when I decided
to get a bikini wax."  Ultimately, Shriver said
she would support Schwarzenegger no matter what he
chose, so he decided to run.  Schwarzenegger told
Leno, "The politicians are fiddling, fumbling and
failing.  The man that is failing the people more
than anyone is Gray Davis. He is failing them
terribly, and this is why he needs to be recalled
and this is why I am going to run for governor."  

As a candidate in the recall election,
Schwarzenegger had the most name recognition in a
crowded field of candidates, but he had never held
public office and his political views were unknown
to most Californians. His candidacy was immediate
national and international news, with media
outlets dubbing him the "Governator" (referring to
The Terminator movies, see above) and "The Running
Man" (the name of another of his movies), and
calling the recall election "Total Recall" (ditto)
and "Terminator 4: Rise of the Candidate"
(referring to his movie Terminator 3: Rise of the
Machines). Schwarzenegger was quick to make use of
his well-known one-liners, promising to "pump up
Sacramento, California|Sacramento" (the state
capital) and tell Gray Davis "hasta la vista."  At
the end of his first press conference, he told the
audience "I'll be back."  Schwarzenegger looked to
follow in the footsteps of former California
governor and one-time movie star Ronald Reagan. 
However, due to his status as a naturalized
citizen, he would not be eligible to seek the
President of the United States|Presidency unless
the Constitution were to be amended (as proposed
in 2000 by United States House of
Representatives|Congressman Barney Frank
(Democratic Party (United
States)|D-Massachusetts|MA), and in July 2003 (the
Equal Opportunity to Govern Amendment) by United
States Senate|Senator Orrin Hatch (Republican
Party (United States)|R-Utah|UT)). Among his
campaign team were Rob Lowe, Warren Buffett, and
George Shultz.

During the campaign, allegations of sexual and
personal misconduct were raised against
Schwarzenegger. Within the last five days before
the election, news reports appeared in the Los
Angeles Times recounting allegations of sexual
misconduct from several individual women, sixteen
of whom eventually came forward with their
personal stories. Chronologically, they ranged
from Elaine Stockton, who claimed that
Schwarzenegger groped her breast at a Gold's Gym
in 1975 (she was 19 at the time), to a 51-year-old
woman who said that he pinned her to his chest and
spanked her shortly after she met him in
connection with production of his film, "The Sixth
Day," in 2000. Schwarzenegger admitted that he has
"behaved badly sometimes" and apologized, but also
stated that "a lot of (what) you see in the
stories is not true". This came after a magazine
interview from the same era (1975) surfaced in
which Schwarzenegger discussed attending sexual
orgies and indulging in drugs like marijuana and
cocaine.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/
archive/2003/10/03/state1434EDT0082.DTL
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/arnoldinter1.
html
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/front/la-
me-women2oct02,1,4493659,print.story 

Allegations printed on the front page of The Los
Angeles Times, based on selective quotation, were
also made that he at one time admired Adolf Hitler
and had praised him as a great propagandist. 
However the full text of the statement from which
the quotation was taken significantly reduces the
credibility of the allegations.  Although
Schwarzenegger's father was in fact a member of
the Nazi party, Schwarzenegger has been a strong
supporter of various Jewish groups, and has
denounced the principles of the fascist German
regime, saying "I have always despised everything
that Hitler stands for."

These allegations were brought up mainly in the
context of his campaign, but they continue to be
occasionally used by some critics. Garry Trudeau,
the cartoonist behind the comic strip Doonesbury,
combined the allegations by nicknaming
Schwarzenegger "Herr Gröpenführer" and depicting
Schwarzenegger as a huge, groping hand in his
artwork. 

On October 7, 2003, the 2003 California recall
resulted in Governor Gray Davis being recalled
with 55.4% of the Yes vote. Schwarzenegger was
elected Governor of California under the second
question on the ballot with 48.6% of the vote,
defeating Democrat Cruz Bustamante, fellow
Republican Tom McClintock and others. In total,
Arnold won the election by about 1.3 million
votes.

He was sworn into office on November 17, 2003. 
Schwarzenegger's inauguration was opened by
Vanessa Williams, his co-star from Eraser
(movie)|Eraser singing the The Star-Spangled
Banner|National Anthem.  His children joined
others in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, then
Maria Shriver spoke and held the Bible while
Schwarzenegger was sworn into the office of
Governor.  He spoke briefly: "Today is a new day
in California. I did not seek this office to do
things the way they've always been done. What I
care about is restoring your confidence in your
government... This election was not about
replacing one man. It was not replacing one party.
It was about changing the entire political climate
of our state."

===Governorship===


In his first few hours in office Schwarzenegger
fulfilled his campaign promise to repeal an
unpopular 200% increase in vehicle license fees
undertaken to fund the state's budget. The
increase was a restoration to 1998 levels.  On his
first full day in office, Schwarzenegger proposed
a three-point plan to address the budget woes. 
First, Schwarzenegger proposed floating $15
billion in bonds. Second, he urged voters to pass
a constitutional amendment to limit state
spending. Third, he sought an overhaul of workers'
compensation.  Schwarzenegger also called the
state legislature into a special session and said
that spending cuts would also be necessary.  He
initiated the cuts by agreeing to serve as
governor with no salary, a savings of $175,000 per
year.  

To fulfill the first two points, he urged
California voters to pass California Proposition
57 (2004)|Proposition 57 and California
Proposition 58 (2004)|Proposition 58 in the March
2, 2004 election, which authorized the sale of $15
billion in bonds and mandated balanced budgets,
respectively.  Despite initially tepid support
from the public, the combination of heavy
campaigning by Schwarzenegger, endorsements from a
number of leading Democrats, and warnings about
the dire consequences should the propositions fail
to pass, led to overwhelming votes in favor of the
two propositions.  Prop. 57 passed with 63.3% of
the votes in favor and Prop. 58 passed with 71.0%
in favor.  He accomplished the third point when he
signed a workers' compensation reform bill on
April 19, 2004.  Schwarzenegger convinced the
Democratic-controlled state legislature to approve
the package by threatening to take the issue
directly to state voters in a November ballot
initiative if the legislature did not act.

Schwarzenegger was later criticized for reneging
on his campaign pledges not to take money from
special interests and for failing to answer
directly the sexual harassment allegations raised
by the Los Angeles Times immediately preceding the
recall election. However, Schwarzenegger made a
point shortly after becoming governor of
voluntarily attending a training course conducted
by the state Attorney General's office on
preventing sexual harassment (along with several
members of his senior staff). Schwarzenegger
continues to collect campaign contributions from
private
interestshttp://arnoldwatch.org/special_interests/
index.html at a greater rate than any politician
in California history, including Gray Davis, whom
he criticized on that very issue
http://www.nbc4.tv/politics/2385057/detail.html.

In Feburary 2004 when San Francisco city mayor
Gavin Newsom ordered a change in the certificate
application documents to allow for same-sex
marriages, Governor Schwarzeggger opposed the move
as being beyond the powers of the mayor, but also
said that he supports gay rights and has expressed
support for a law to grant civil unions to gay
couples.

Also in February 2004, he declined amnesty to
convicted murderer Kevin Cooper who had asked him
for clemency in his death penalty sentence. 
Nevertheless, Cooper's planned execution was
stayed by the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
pending a revisiting of evidence. Austrian Green
Party spokesman Peter Pilz later called for
Schwarzenegger to be stripped of his Austrian
citizenship.  Pilz claimed that Austrian law
forbids any Austrian citizen from taking part in
or ordering Execution (legal)|executions.

The Governor has granted clemency or early release
to quite a surprising number of convicted felons
serving time in state prisons, leading some to
believe that he is less "tough on crime" than his
Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic
predecessor, who presided over numerous
executions.

Despite expectations that Schwarzenegger would be
vulnerable to opposition critics once taking
office, his early governorship showed some
successes. He has dealt successfully with
California politicians as diverse as John Burton
on the left to Tom McClintock on the right. At the
end of May, 2004 the Field poll put his popularity
at 65%, the highest for a California governor in
45 years, including 41% of Democrats, party
adherents of his opposition. By comparison, former
United States President Ronald Reagan, known as
"the Great Communicator," never hit 60% approval
while serving as California
governor.http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politic
s/cal/la-me-lopez28may28,1,2650515.column?coll=la-
news-politics-california In March, 2004
libertarian policy research foundation Cato
Institute|The Cato Institute rated him 1st in
their fiscal policy report card of the nation's
governors.

In July 2004, however, Schwarzenegger and the
state legislature deadlocked, failing to approve
the state budget on time.  Trying to rouse public
support for his position, he compared lawmakers to
kindergartners who need a "timeout," and in a
rally of supporters called his budget opponents
"girlie men" (a reference to a long-running
Saturday Night Live skit parodying
Schwarzenegger). He said about the legislators:
"They are part of a bureaucracy that is out of
shape, that is out of date, that is out of touch
and that is definitely out of control in
Sacramento. They cannot have the guts to come out
there in front of you and say, 'I don't want to
represent you. I want to represent those special
interests: the unions, the trial lawyers.' ... if
they don’t have the guts, I call them
girlie-men. They should get back to the table and
they should finish the budget." The remark became
national news and was not received well by his
opponents, including gay advocacy and feminist
groups who labeled it homophobic and sexist, in
spite of his earlier support for gay rights (see
the Gavin Newsom incident above), not to mention
the legislators themselves.  His supporters made
"girly men" T-shirts and the Governor continued to
use the term, including when he addressed the
Republican National Convention, calling critics of
the current U.S. economic situation "economic
girlie men".

Despite what some viewed as political snags during
the summer, the Field polls released in August and
October 2004 showed that Schwarzenegger's approval
rating remained at 65%. Additionally, in October,
for the first time in four years a plurality of
Californians felt the state was "on the right
track".  When asked if they would support
Schwarzenegger if he could run for president, 50%
said they would oppose while only 26% said they
would support the governor in a presidential bid.
http://field.com/fieldpollonline/subscribers/RLS21
37.pdf (Field poll (PDF))
====Spring 2005====

In the spring of 2005, polls began showing
Schwarzenegger's approval ratings had dropped to
inbetween
40-49%.http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-cap
7apr07,1,63188.column?coll=la-headlines-california
&ctrack=3&cset=true
http://www.woai.com/news/local/story.aspx?content_
id=A367E183-FC31-4616-8669-4FD5D36181D4
http://www.surveyusa.com/50governorsrated051005.ht
m 
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&si
d=ac98Wx3eNeSw&refer=us  
On June 13, 2005, Schwarzenegger called a
California special election, 2005|statewide
special election for November 8, 2005, to vote on
a series of reform measures he initially proposed
in his 2005 State of the State address. A
non-partisan Field poll released a week later
showed his support had dropped to 37%, one of the
lowest approval ratings for any California
governor and barely above the support of recalled
Gray
Davis.http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=
/n/a/2005/06/21/state/n060039D76.DTL  

Schwarzenegger's spokesman responded that
Schwarzenegger had not yet had enough time to
explain his proposals to voters.  The Legislature
also shared low approval ratings, with just 24% of
voters saying they approve of the job lawmakers
have been doing. That represents a drop of 10%
since February.  The governor has responded that
the poll sends a "very clear message to us. They
are saying they want us to work together." He has
also responded "I know popularity goes up and
down... as soon as you start making decisions and
strong decisions, sometimes they're not popular
decisions."http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,159
854,00.html(video, right side) Republicans have
claimed that the drop in popularity was due to a
multi-million dollar ad campaign by various groups
such as unions for nurses, police and
firefighters, who opposed his plans for the state
pension and his administration's lawsuit to delay
implementation of a nurse-to-patient staffing
ratio plan. 

In late June 2005, another non-partisan Field Poll
had similar numbers as the earlier one, finding
that 57% of California voters are not inclined to
elect Schwarzenegger to a second term as Governor
in 2006.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/200506
29/pl_nm/politics_fieldpoll_dc_3
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/afp/20050
621/ts_alt_afp/uspolitics_050621195840  
When asked about the lessons of the poll,
Schwarzenegger has responded "People make mistakes
sometimes, and I think that we learn. ... These
are very clear messages that we must work
together, and so I am looking forward to that."

To some degree, Governor Schwarzenegger's
unpopularity has to do with his confrontation of
three popular labor groups: the nurses, the
teachers, and the firefighters.  Some unions and
activists reacted with anger
http://www.sfist.com/archives/2005/04/05/fk_arnold
_nurses_firefighters_and_teachers_protest_the_gove
rnator.phphttp://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercuryne
ws/news/politics/12112103.htmhttp://cbs5.com/topst
ories/local_story_192212252.htmlhttp://www.mercury
news.com/mld/mercurynews/news/local/states/califor
nia/northern_california/11964407.htm, and others
with
humorhttp://msnbc.msn.com/id/7445648/site/newsweek
/http://arnoldwatch.org/assets/governator_rap.mp3h
ttp://talent.pratt.edu/user/114/114_-711700702-mai
n.jpg.

As of early August 2005, Governor Schwarzenegger
had yet to announce whether he would be running
for re-election in Novemeber 2006. The governor's
consistently dropping popularity leads some
political analysts to believe he will not be
seeking re-election.

====Summer 2005====
=====Accusation of conflict of interest=====

While governor, Schwarzenegger continued to hold a
position of executive editor of two American Media
magazines.  He announced in March 2004 that his
$250,000 a year salary would be donated to
charity.  Schwarzenegger has an extensive history
with the magazines and was frequently their star
in his body-building days.  As executive editor,
he produces monthly columns based on his
body-building history.

Schwarzenegger drew fire when a second contract, a
consulting position, was subsequently discovered
in SEC filings, by the L.A. Times that his
contract would net him an estimated $8 million
over the next five
years.http://www.latimes.com/features/health/nutri
tion/la-me-bill15jul15,1,6217015.story?coll=la-hea
lth-nutrition-news  His consulting duties are not
clear, except that the job "takes up little time."
 

The New York Times further reported (on July 15)
that under the five-year November 2003 contract,
signed two days before his inauguration as
Governor, "Oak Productions, Mr. Schwarzenegger's
company, is to receive 1 percent of the net print
advertising revenues of Weider Publications. But
the payment must be at least $1 million a year. 
Mr. Schwarzenegger has also been granted 'phantom
equity,' a way of sharing in the growth of the
value of the company. The equity could become
worth 1 percent of the company's value, which was
stated at the time of the contract as $520
million."http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/15/nationa
l/15calif.html?ex=1279080000&en=d59de5489ea19d3b&e
i=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

This contract was seen as a conflict of interest
by critics, who note that the magazines receive
much of their revenue from advertisements for
dietary supplements, a government-regulated
industry affected by Schwarzenegger's veto
(September 2004) of a bill that would ban schools
from accepting sponsorships from firms that make
performance-enhancing dietary supplements.  In
Schwarzenegger's reason for his veto, he drew a
distinction between performance-enhancing dietary
supplements and steroid usage, which he says is
what needs to be prevented in high school
students.http://www.townhall.com/news/politics/200
507/POL20050718a.shtml Supporters point out that
he did sign into law a bill that prohibited
companies from selling the supplements to minors.
Following the accusation, Schwarzenegger responded
he would end the contracts with the magazines.

==Miscellaneous==
* While Arnold Schwarzenegger's height was always
believed to be 6 feet, 2 inches (1.88 m), a July
2002 article in US Weekly magazine speculated that
Schwarzenegger was actually closer to 5 ft 10 in
(1.78 m). During his campaign for governorship it
was noted that Schwarzenegger was considerably
shorter than many expected, with others putting
his height at around 5 ft 10 in (1.78 m), exactly
as reported in US Weekly. His spokespeople now
give his height as 6 ft even (1.83 m). In
photographs of Schwarzenegger standing next to
George W. Bush in Ohio in October 2004, the
Governor is one inch shorter than the 5 ft 11 in
President.

* In honor of its most famous son,
Schwarzenegger's home town of Graz named its new
football (soccer)|football (soccer) stadium after
him. The Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadion, which is
the home of both Grazer AK and Sturm Graz and has
a capacity of 15,400, cost €20.5 million, and
opened on July 9, 1997. 

* In 2005 Peter Pilz from the Austrian Green Party
in parliament demanded to revoke Schwarzenegger's
Austrian citizenship because of his involvement in
the exercise of the death penalty in California.
This demand was based on article 33 of the
Austrian citizenship act that states: "A citizen,
who is in the public service of a foreign country,
shall be deprived of his citizenship, if he
heavily damages the reputation or the interests of
the {Austrian} Republic". The European Convention
on Human Rights, which bans the death penalty, is
part of the Austrian constitution. Schwarzenegger
justified his actions by referring to the fact
that his only duty as Governor of California was
to prevent an error in the judicial system.

* Because Schwarzenegger opted in 1997 for a
replacement heart valve made of his own
transplanted tissue, medical experts predict he
will require repeated heart valve replacement
surgery in the next two to eight years (as his
current valve degrades).  Schwarzenegger
apparently opted against a mechanical valve, the
only permanent solution available at the time of
his surgery, because it would have sharply limited
his physical activity and capacity to exercise.

* He bought the first Hummer manufactured for
civilian use in 1992. The vehicle weighed in at
6,300 lbs and was seven feet wide. (Source: The
Book of Useless Information, page 14, published
2002)  The latest in his fleet of is an
experimental model that uses, instead of fossil
fuel, clean-burning
hydrogenhttp://trucks.about.com/od/hybridcar/a/hum
mer_h2h.htmhttp://msnbc.msn.com/id/3180817/.

==Quotes==


===As an actor===
*"I'll be back." — his catch phrase as an
actor (The Terminator and others)
*"Get down" — Terminator 2: Judgment Day and
others
*"Hasta la vista, Baby" — Terminator 2:
Judgment Day
*"Talk to the hand" — Terminator 3: Rise of
the Machines

===Governorship===
*"This guy owes me bacon now." Upon being egged.
*"When I was on my way to the podium a gentleman
stopped me and said I was as good a politician as
I was an actor. What a cheap shot!" — At the
2004 Republican National Convention, August 31,
2004
*"Everything I have — my career, my success,
my family — I owe to America."   — At
the 2004 Republican National Convention, August
31, 2004
*"To those critics who are so pessimistic about
our country, I say: Don't be economic girly men." 
— At the 2004 Republican National
Convention, August 31, 2004
*"I propose that a teacher's pay be tied to merit,
not tenure. And I propose that a teacher's
employment be tied to performance, not just
showing up." January 5, 2005
*"If I can sell tickets to my movies like Red
Sonja or Last Action Hero you know I can sell just
about anything." January 6, 2004


==External links==
===Official websites===
* http://www.governor.ca.gov/ State of California
- Office of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger
* http://www.schwarzenegger.com/en/index.asp
Arnold Schwarzenegger's Official Website
(Non-Political)
* http://www.joinarnold.com/ Arnold
Schwarzenegger's Official Political Website
* http://www.citizenstosaveca.org/ Citizens to
Save California, a broad-based committee
supporting the reform agendas of Governor
Schwarzenegger and others 

===Unofficial links===
*http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/313
1155.stm Arnold and the American dream (BBC News)
* Greg Palast
http://www.gregpalast.com/detail.cfm?artid=283&row
=1 Arnold Unplugged (exposé on the
Schwarzenegger-Enron connection)
*http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/video/39425000/rm/_39
425228_arnie_speech_vi.ram Video: Arnold's victory
speech (BBC News)
*http://100towatch.com/2008/arnold-schwarzenegger.
html Arnold Schwarzenegger news and related links
*http://www.mediaman.com.au/profiles/schwarzenegge
r.html Arnold Schwarzenegger: King of
bodybuilding, movies, politics and media
*http://www.globalarnold.com/ globalarnold.com
(Global Arnold Schwarzenegger fan community)
*http://www.schwarzeneggergovernor.com/ Arnold
Schwarzenegger Governor
*http://www.arnoldexposed.com/ Anti-Schwarzenegger
web site.
*http://www.mashhur.com/item/commando
Schwarzenegger's popularity in Pakistan

==References==
* Arnold Schwarzenegger,  Arnold: Developing a Mr
Universe Physique, 1977
* ----
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/arnoldinter1.
html Interview in Oui magazine, August 1977 
* ----
http://www.time.com/time/nation/printout/0,8816,48
3264,00.html Excerpts from Time Out (London)
interview, 1977 
* ---- Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder, 
1983,  Simon & Schuster, Reprint edition, 1993,
ISBN  06717974841983. autobiography 
* ---- Arnold's Body Building for Men,  Simon &
Schuster, Reprint edition, 1984, ISBN  0671531638
* ---- The New Encyclopedia of Modern Bodybuilding
: The Bible of Bodybuilding, 1985, Fully Updated
and Revised, Simon & Schuster, 1999, ISBN 
0684857219
* Nigel Andrews, True Myths of Arnold
Schwarzenegger : The Life and Times of Arnold
Schwarzenegger, from Pumping Iron to Governor of
California, Bloomsbury USA, Revised edition, 2004,
ISBN  1582344655
* Michael Blitz, Why Arnold Matters: The Rise of a
Cultural Icon
*Karen Brandon, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
*Colleen A. Sexton, Arnold Schwarzenegger (A&E
Biography),  Lerner Publications, 2004, ISBN 
0822522233
* Susan Zannos, Arnold Schwarzenegger (Real-Life
Reader Biography)
* Andy Borowitz, Governor Arnold : A Photodiary of
His First 100 Days in Office, Simon & Schuster,
2004, ISBN  0743262662
* "Arnold Schwarzenegger - Hollywood Hero" DVD ~
Todd Baker
* "Pumping Iron" (25th Anniversary Special
Edition) DVD ~ George Butler  
* imdb name|id=0000216|name=Arnold Schwarzenegger
*http://www.cinemovie.info/ArnoldSchwarzenegger_sc
heda.html Cinemovie.Info: Arnold Schwarzenegger

start box
incumbent succession box|
  title=List of Governors of California|Governor
of California|
  before=Gray Davis|
  start=2003|

end box

CAGovernors

Template:Current U.S. governors