Arnold Does Manhattan

Los Angeles

HIS WIFE IS A KENNEDY. His best friends are Democrats. He supports abortion and is ambivalent about gay marriage. Yet this Tuesday night, California's Arnold Schwarzenegger, governor of a state President Bush has no hope of winning, is delivering a primetime speech to the Republican National Convention in New York.

Arguably the Republican party's most charismatic leader, Schwarzenegger will be all over New York at the start of the convention. After Tuesday's speech, he'll head to the Boat House in Central Park where he's the guest of honor at a lavish gala hosted by the film and recording industries. The following day, it's off to a school in Harlem for an afternoon photo op. On Thursday, he'll attend a red carpet luncheon for the California delegation at Planet Hollywood. But you won't see Arnold standing beside the California standard during the roll call of the states. Although corporate contributors are underwriting the cost of his visit to the tune of $350,000, he's not even a delegate to the convention. Neither will he appear in the company of George Bush, Dick Cheney, or any other senior administration official. And by the time the president accepts the nomination Thursday night, Schwarzenegger should be back in California watching the balloon drop on TV.

The governor's office in Sacramento initially said Schwarzenegger is departing early because he has to decide the fate of more than 1,000 bills passed in the final hours of the legislative session. But journalists pointed out that the governor has 30 days to process pending legislation. His aides then said the reason he's not staying longer is that a bipartisan governor like Arnold doesn't need to concern himself with frivolous political pomp. A simpler explanation may be that Schwarzenegger knows the final day of the convention belongs to George Bush and sees no reason to linger once the spotlight shifts.