Schwarzenegger's appearance at the Republican convention was a real eye opener. One gets the impression that if this Austrian born immigrant had instead been a US citizen by birth, he would be a genuine contender for the Presidency himself at some point in the future.
Still, there he was, cheering on the troops, rallying the faithful behind George W. Bush. Several things stood out for attention. One was Schwarzenegger's sheer rhetorical effectiveness. The man who earned his initial reputation from pumping iron not massaging words (and even his later more sophisticated acting was marked by a clownish bluntness of speech) began the speech with well delivered quip after quip, hit all the right emotional buttons, and ended with a raucous chant of 'four more years' which was intoned loudly throughout the auditorium.
As good as acting
The Democratic convention he said, playing on one of his famous movies, should have been called 'True Lies'. Someone, he said, had told him his new political career as Governor of California was as good as his acting, to which he replied 'what a cheap shot', self depreciating rhetorical appeal at its simplest. Then he went for the gut: he was an immigrant from a communist- dominated Austria and when he first heard the Democrats they sounded like Soviets. He heard Nixon, found he was a Republican, then said, 'Then I am a Republican'. How do you know you are a Republican? If you think the government should be accountable to the people not the people to the government then you are a Republican.
