Gov. Schwarzenegger has been pretty quiet since he left the Horseshoe.  However, that doesn’t mean the muscle builder doesn’t have some pretty interesting thoughts running around that very interesting brain.  Fortunately, after his first interview went to Entertainment Weekly about his Governator cartoon/comic book project.  He sat down for another interview in London recently, and Newsweek got some interesting dish out of the the “Governator” on a few more items of interest to us here.  

While this is basically rehashing what we already know, that this is coming from Arnold makes it interesting, I suppose:

“She kind of took herself out of the game,” Schwarzenegger said. “What she did was play to the right, and she couldn’t come back for the general election to grab the center …. Brown was very smart to do exactly the opposite of what she did – which was to say, ‘I’m not a rich guy, all I have is my knowledge and experience, and I don’t need to cater to anyone, I will do what is right for California.’ She was not as effective as a communicator, and her ideas were too extreme.” (Newsweek, via LAT)

What he is basically saying is that Whitman just didn’t manage expectations as well as he did.  Now, by the end of his time in the Horseshoe, the people of California were pretty much done with him.  Perhaps it would have been interesting to see a showdown between Brown and Schwarzenegger, but the odds would surely be as least as stacked against the incumbent as they were against his perceived logical ideological heir, Whitman.  While we all now understand that Arnold was kind of hissing at her behind her back, the Brown campaign did an extraordinary job at tying her to the incumbent.

Elsewhere in the interview, beyond the effusive praise from former Secretary of State and longtime Arnold confidante George Schultz and the suggestion that he become the next President of the European Union, he tried to explain the situation with former Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez’s son and the fact that Arnold commuted his sentence down to seven years.

“I understand people’s disappointments. I understand the parents’ anger. I would probably feel the same way,” Schwarzenegger tells me in his first public comment on the commutation, which he granted hours before leaving office, arguing that his friend’s son didn’t inflict the fatal wound. “My office definitely made a mistake in not notifying the parents beforehand … and I’m ultimately responsible.” But, Schwarzenegger adds, “I feel good about the decision … I happen to know the kid really well. I don’t apologize about it … There’s criticism out there. I think it’s just because of our working relationship and all that. It maybe was kind of saying, ‘That’s why he did it.’ Well, hello! I mean, of course you help a friend.”

In the end, Arnold was close to Fabian, so it’s no real surprise.  He did it on the last day, well, because that’s when that sort of stuff happens.  But at this point, unless something extraordinary comes along, I just can’t see Arnold getting back into politics.  He’d have to be some sort of superstar executive. Perhaps the only place left for him is the EU presidency, because he’s sure not going to win any elections around here anytime soon.