Did Arnold Schwarzenegger's governorship depend on keeping love child secret?

California's former governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, admitted Tuesday that he fathered a child over a decade ago with a woman who worked on his household staff. Would his political career never have gotten off the ground if this secret had come out prior to his initial run at public office?

It’s possible the man the Golden State came to call “The Governator” would have won that 2003 election anyway. As a movie star/weightlifting champion he played the part of a macho rogue, and an out-of-wedlock child might have fit right into that image. Generally politicians get in trouble when their peccadilloes make them look like hypocrites or otherwise play against type. Exhibit A here is former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer, who seemed an avenging goodie-two-shoes until he was caught with a high-priced prostitute. His political career ended within days.

Plus, that 2003 race was mostly not about Ahhnold, anyway. It was about Gray Davis, the increasingly unpopular Democratic incumbent at the time. The vote was a recall election, in which 55 percent of voters cast their ballots to dump Davis. Election of a replacement governor was a separate question. Schwarzenegger won over several other candidates with a plurality of 48 percent, despite charges that he had groped and otherwise harassed women.

And it’s California. Who knows what Californians would have done, or will do next, for that matter? For all we know, Christina Aguilera is in the mix for state treasurer.

OK, enough balance. The real answer here is that political professionals are aghast at what they see as Schwarzenegger’s reckless behavior. His political career could have imploded as fast as Governor Spitzer’s at any point during his two terms in Sacramento. After all, this was a secret so explosive he kept it from his own wife until he left office.

“That was a really risky thing he did even getting into politics.... It is a pretty amazing story,” said political consultant James Carville Tuesday in an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America."

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