Arnold Schwarzenegger Drops a Cool USD 200 Million...

Ah, the lives of the rich and famous!

I like Arnold Schwarzenegger. He is in many ways the embodiment of success and to all intents and purposes representative of "living the American Dream". I am almost certain that there are many who disagree with me, but after all it is my blog and I can hold whatever opinion I like :)

I have always admired those who choose to go into public service. There is no higher calling than public service, and this is true irrespective of your political stripes; it simply does not matter whether you are labor or liberal, democrat or republican, green, socialist, democratic socialist or whatever. This is also irrespective of the few bad apples who see public service as a means of feathering their own nests, they are a minority in the big scheme of things.

So, it was with interest that I read about an interview that Arnold Schwarzenegger gave to an Austrian newspaper where he said that he estimated that being Governor of California cost him USD 200 million. But, what was most enlightening was that he felt it was more than worth it.

Schwarzenegger is a renowned family man, so it was not a surprise to read that the biggest challenge for him was managing his family time. A loss of family time is often an excuse that is used not to enter public service or to leave it once one has been in it for some time. In many ways that is why public service is such a high calling. It is not only the individual elected, or appointed, to office that make sacrifices in order to serve the greater public good, the family of that individual also must sacrifice.

It will be interesting to see what moves Schwarzenegger makes now. Does he go back to movies? Does he hit the lecture circuit? Does he just kick back and relax? Or does he start lobbying for a change to the Constitution in order that he, and other non-US born citizens can run for President?

Although, the "Birthers" might argue that it does not really matter anymore as that Kenyan born, Indonesian passport holding interloper from Chicago (aka Barack Hussein Obama) has already usurped the Office of the President of the United States of America. But, seriously though, non-US born citizens cannot become President of the US without there being a constitutional amendment to permit it.

Whenever, I think about Arnold Schwarzenegger becoming president of the US I have to have a little chuckle. I always remember that Sylvester Stallone movie, Demolition Man, where he has been cryogenically frozen and upon being refrozen he learns that Arnold Schwarzenegger had been president. How prophetic would that be?