Schwarzenegger's rising credibility

Amid the throngs that have come to listen to him speak, Arnold Schwarzenegger has just made a connection. Here, on the plaza of a southern California mall, Governor Schwarzenegger is talking about a $15 billion bond to help bail California out of its budget mess.

But that's not what Kiefer Freeman hears. He hears a vision for California's future. When the Republican governor speaks of Californians as "us" - not Republicans or Democrats - Mr. Freeman, a cook who normally votes Democratic, feels that things are finally moving in the right direction. "See, that's what I like," says Freeman. "He is a positive, charming, and funny guy that people like, and so he gets things done."

They are traits that have helped Schwarzenegger rally his bond proposal from scant public support weeks ago to probable passage in elections Tuesday - a turnaround that one expert calls "historic." And they have made Schwarzenegger a political force unlike any California has seen since the days of Ronald Reagan.

The comparisons to the former president and California governor are now no longer the stuff of actor-turned-politician trivia. They are a statement of the new governor's considerable clout. If Reagan was the "Great Communicator," Schwarzenegger could be the "Great Motivator," using equal parts charm and savvy, optimism and pragmatism to persuade a stubborn Legislature and a fickle electorate.

Even if he succeeds Tuesday, the depth of the budget crisis might eventually overwhelm these bright beginnings in renewed partisan bickering. But for now, his ability to connect with cooks and lawmakers alike is offering California - and the country - hints as to how to negotiate a political environment increasingly flavored by populism.

"He is the most effective salesperson for ideas since Ronald Reagan," says Bruce Cain, a political scientist at the University of California at Berkeley. Those who have worked with both, "say he's even better."

In many ways, Schwarzenegger is the perfect political animal for California at the beginning of the 21st century. His moderate social policies and conservative fiscal ones are a mirror for most of the state, and his movie-star fame gives him a public profile no other state lawmaker can match.

But interviews on "Access Hollywood" tend to carry little weight with Sacramento's political class. Rather, it is Schwarzenegger's character that has given him gravitas in the Capitol.

Part of it is his ease around other people. After three successive governors who did everything short of build a bunker around themselves, Schwarzenegger is ever the socialite, chatting up lawmakers and handing out his trademark cigars.

"Why this governor has gotten off to a good start is because he is comfortable with people and he likes a dialogue," says state Rep. Darrell Steinberg, the Democratic chair of the Budget Committee. "He's comfortable with himself and you can tell he likes what he is doing."

It is a can-do mentality that pervades all Schwarzenegger does, driven by will and the sheer force of his personality. Just last month, a survey by the Field Poll found Schwarzenegger's bond measure losing with only 33 percent of the vote. Last week, following a TV ad campaign, support had risen to 50 percent.

"It's a historic change," says Mark DiCamillo of the Field Poll in San Francisco. "Obviously, it's a major transformation, and there had to be something there to spur it. What it is is the TV ads: It's Governor Schwarzenegger - his image speaking directly to the cameras. It's a simplistic read, but that's what happened."

Amid rampant skepticism in modern government, the turnaround suggests Schwarzenegger has managed to gain the rarest political commodity: voter trust. "Arnold is honest," says Mazuki Crosby, a computer specialist at the rally. "You don't have to wonder where he is coming from. He tells you what he feels."

That honesty has not always played out as a strict adherence to the facts. Like Reagan, "he is loose with the facts when he needs to be," says Professor Cain. But it has surfaced as a directness almost entirely absent during the past political generation, both voters and legislators say.

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