Schwarzenegger says he would like to be president

With just two days to the US presidential election, the jockeying for the 2008 Republican nomination stepped up a gear yesterday with an unexpected admission by Arnold Schwarzenegger that he would be interested in running.

On previous occasions the governor of California has sidestepped the question, but asked last night on the CBS programme 60 Minutes if he would support an amendment to allow a foreign-born national to be president, Mr Schwarzenegger said: "Yes, absolutely."

"I think, you know, because why not? I mean, you know, anyone with my way of thinking, you always shoot for the top," he said. "But it's not something that I am preoccupied with. I am not thinking one single minute about that because there's so many things I have to do in California, and my promise was to straighten out the mess in California."

The Austrian-born former action hero's ambitions are not possible at present: under the constitution, a president has to have been born in the US. An amendment would allow anyone who has been a US citizen for 20 years to run. Mr Schwarzenegger became a citizen in 1983.
His words come just two days after he appeared alongside George Bush in Columbus, Ohio.
Mr Schwarzenegger's relations with the president are known to be cool, as was evident during the rally on Friday. The governor failed to attack John Kerry during his speech, and then sat with his hands folded during Mr Bush's speech, failing to applaud many of the more conservative, crowd-pleasing lines.

The differences between the two stem in part from political ambitions, but also from genuine policy differences. Mr Schwarzenegger is mindful that he owes much of popularity to his ability to talk to both Republican and Democrat voters. His aides are concerned that if he is too closely aligned with Mr Bush, much of the governor's liberal support will be scared away.

The two have very different priorities. Mr Schwarzenegger is married to Maria Shriver, a member of the Kennedy clan and active Democrat. Her influence is credited with moving Mr Schwarzenegger to more liberal positions than the president on issues such as gun control, abortion and stem cell research. That issue, brought to prominence by the recent death of Christopher Reeve, also flared up at the weekend as the actor and director Mel Gibson opposed Mr Schwarzenegger's endorsement of a Californian ballot proposition to authorise $3bn (£1.63bn) into stem cell research.

Gibson, one of the most powerful men in Hollywood after the success of his Christian traditionalist-inspired film The Passion of the Christ, said he had tried to call Mr Schwarzenegger to discuss the issue with him. "He said, 'Well, I'm very busy now. I'll call you back. I've got to make a speech, you know. I'll call you right back.' Well, Arnold, I'm still waiting for your call," Gibson told ABC news.

But Mr Schwarzenegger disputed Gibson's version of the conversation, saying that it was Gibson who had failed to return his call. "I don't know what this was all about," Mr Schwarzenegger said. "I did talk to him for several minutes and explained to him what my position was. I called back at 9 o'clock and left a message. He hasn't returned my call."

Gibson, who has also recorded a radio commercial opposing the proposition to fund stem cell research, said: "I was never in a petri dish, but at one stage I was that little cluster of cells myself, as were you, as was the doctor, as is everybody.

"Tell me anybody who was not that at some point in their development, and I'll give you a cigar," he added, in reference to Mr Schwarzenegger's custom of presenting visitors and admirers with his own brand of cigar.

[Guardian]