Practicalmadness

Modern politics is less about visionary leadership than about team-building. Just look at the Bush cartel: does anyone really believe that this wannabe Texas cowboy who can barely string a sentence together if more than two people are watching him is the all-encompassing mastermind of his administration's various programs? Of course not, but it's equally wrong to dismiss him just because we think good old Dick Cheney has his fingers directly in more of the pies.

This is corporate-style leadership: while there is a figurehead and that individual is not without power, their administration lives or dies based on the people to whom they choose to delegate the important work.

It's all about team-building, which is why today's announcement that Arnold Schwarzenegger has recruited Warren Buffett as his key economic advisor demonstrates why the Terminator may have what it takes not only to win this seriously fucked-up election, but to actually do right by the populace.

All you need at the top, you see, is someone with a vision, willing to do whatever it takes to make it reality. Whatever Arnold's reasons for seeking office -- and they're almost certainly less selfish than most of the idiots running in the recall -- his history suggests that he knows a few things about achieving his goals, and that the world's savviest investor is willing to join his campaign indicates that they're the right goals.

I am fully aware that to be impressed by Schwarzenegger's choice of advisors (and even moreso by Buffett's choice of candidates) doesn't make the man any less a Republican, or this recall any less silly. But let's take a closer look at this situation. What kind of Republican is Schwarzenegger, really? Is he the authoritarian, ultra-conservative type who goes to war over phantom Iraqi WMDs?

He has been an exemplary manager of his own life: driven, realistic and clearly, quietly effective. If even a subset of that informs Arnold's approach to government (even hypothetically, as a candidate) it makes him, frankly, a compelling possibility. What most separated Gore from Bush three years ago (at least in my opinion) was that Gore had the makings of an effective president, with solid (if unsexy) programs and a commitment to maintaining and even improving on the success of the Clinton years.

What Bush had on Gore (and now has on every other prospective Presidential candidate) is flash. I think our President is a weaselly little rodent-monkey, and yet I will acknowledge that when he's fired up, and speaking coherently, and managing not to offend my semi-leftist sensibilities, that there is a spark in his eyes that just screams warrior spirit. He may not be a President, but he can play one on TV better than anyone else out there right now. He inspires far more confidence than he should.

Demolition Man notwithstanding, Arnold will never be a President, but he has the potential to inspire, and perhaps even the potential to govern.

That doesn't necessarily make him a good governor, but it certainly makes him feel more like a governor than your average Austrian action hero.