Arnold's Trips Abroad Spark Presidential Rumors

By Peter Nicholas, Times Staff Writer

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — More and more, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is acting as if he wants to be president.

Although he insists he is not aiming for the Oval Office, Schwarzenegger is keeping a public schedule that repeatedly puts him in forums that cast him as a political figure of global stature.

He is using his office in ways that analysts and public officials say could strengthen a presidential bid if the Constitution is ever amended to allow foreign-born citizens to run. And all of this is helping to fuel a fledgling movement striving to pass such an amendment.

Schwarzenegger recently said on national television that new cable TV commercials urging a constitutional change are, if anything, a distraction. He said he should be left out of the debate. But organizers of "Amend for Arnold" say he has privately given them encouragement and even a photo they can use for a campaign that would be a necessary prelude to any Schwarzenegger presidential bid.

One year into his term, Schwarzenegger has visited the king of Jordan and the prime minister of Israel. At President Bush's behest, he represented the United States at a state funeral for the Austrian president in July. He is planning visits next year to China and Europe, where he can expect to meet still more foreign leaders, garner more international media attention and speed his evolution in the public consciousness from entertainer to serious political figure.

In a bit of cross-marketing, Schwarzenegger is also finding myriad ways to reach a national audience. Billboards featuring the governor have been posted in a dozen cities, from Orlando, Fla., to Seattle, as part of Schwarzenegger's promotion of California as an attractive place to do business.

The Silicon Valley group that maintains http://www.amendforarnold.org began showing TV commercials this week urging Californians to change the Constitution so that foreign-born citizens can run.

It's no easy feat. Article 2 of the U.S. Constitution holds that presidents must be "natural born" citizens. Schwarzenegger was born in Austria and maintains dual citizenship. Amending the Constitution so he could run for president would require a two-thirds vote of both houses of Congress and ratification by 38 states. Although Schwarzenegger's popularity in California hovers at 65 percent, polls show that voters oppose changing the Constitution by a two-to-one margin.

In an interview Schwarzenegger gave with the Tokyo Broadcast System, he was asked about his presidential aspirations.

"I'm not really thinking about that," he told the interviewer. "Because if you take your eye off the ball, that's when you lose."
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