Warren Beatty has been a movie star most of his life. And he's dabbled (he'll hate that word) in liberal politics for four decades. He even managed to merge his two personas in "Bulworth," the darkly comic movie tale of a senator gone wildly unpolitic.
Now, at 68, Beatty has bulldozed from stage left into Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's political traveling show, literally and figuratively. With his movie-star wife, Annette Bening, at his side, he was turned away from a Schwarzenegger rally in San Diego on Saturday, and landed on the front page he has openly coveted.
As Beatty trampled the governor's special-election campaign trail, talk has turned to whether he's paving his own path to next year's gubernatorial race.
"I have to give you a stock answer," Beatty said Wednesday. "I don't want to run for governor, but I would have no inhibition at all.
"Let me put it another way: I feel I would have a perfect right to change my mind. Everyone does have that right."
Beatty has never run for anything, but he's basked in the spotlight of speculation before. Every few election cycles, he falls into his "I'm not saying I'm running, but I'm not saying I'm not running" persona.
In 2000, he stirred up a brief flurry of publicity that he might be interested in running for president.
But people familiar with Beatty or with the rough world of politics, or both, say there's no reason to believe this time will be any different.
Frank Mankiewicz, veteran advisor to numerous Democratic candidates, who has known Beatty for 30 years, put it another way: "No. I can't believe he would run. But he does want to figure. He thinks he can be valuable."
GOOD LORD! The last thing we need is another actor to run for governor in 2006. I can see the headlines now--TERMINATOR VS. BULLWORTH! Sounds like a Las Vegas Pay-Per-View fight.
I'm not saying Beatty's not useful for the Democrats--he's a movie star celebrity with money, talent, and a gorgeous wife Annette Bening. In symbiotic terms, Warren Beatty and Arnold Schwarzenegger represent similar Hollywood personas for two opposing political parties. And yet, it was the Schwarzenegger who decided to quickly jump into the dirty game of politics by getting elected as governor of California, a position he was probably not qualified for. The Governator's legislative agenda was completely shot down in the special election two days ago, his poll numbers have dropped, and he now faces an angry Democratic legislature with a re-election bid next year. Warren Beatty is smart. Consider this Times quote:
"I don't think he has the stomach for it," said Michael Levine, an L.A.-based public relations veteran. "I think he likes the pedestal of Beverly Hills, where he can mouth off and not get his fingernails dirty."
Being governor of California is a 24/7 job, which requires incredible political and analytical skills at determining policies which balance a wide range of competing political and special interest groups. It requires a lot of compromise, and a need to govern from the center. Schwarzenegger either doesn't have the skill of compromise and governing from the center, or he was getting bad advice from his Hollywood staff. Warren Beatty's great asset will be to stand up and mouth off at fundraising dinners and political events for the Democratic Party. He's a PR persona to the Democrats--just as Schwarzenegger was for the Republicans. But I don't think Beatty is qualified to understand the multitude of competing interests in California politics, nor how to weave his way through them as governor of California. I would not want Warren Beatty to run for the Democrats.
I've had enough of Hollywood actors trying to play governor.
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