Opinion: Arnold as Veep

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That’s the scenario envisioned for California’s governor by none other than billionaire Warren Buffett in the kicker to a new, and long, Time magazine article on the political world’s latest fun couple --- Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. (The story’s headline: ‘The New Action Heroes.’)

Referring to the won’t-die chatter about Bloomberg running for president as an independent, Buffett says that as he mused about that scenario, he consulted the Constitution. ‘I wanted to see if Schwarzenegger could be his Vice President,’ the businessman tells Time. ‘I think he could,’ given that the born-an-American-citizen requirement for the top of the ticket is not mentioned for the occupant of the No. 2 slot.

Says Buffett: ‘That would be one hell of a team, wouldn’t it?’

The Time piece refers to the pair as ‘the Hollywood brute and the Wall Street mogul.’ And, in light of Bloomberg’s diminutive stature, it makes the obvious reference to the film ‘Twins’ (the mayor in the Danny DeVito role and Arnold in, well, the Arnold role).

The piece provides mini-bios of the two men. And it will be music to the ears of their PR staffs. ‘They’re ... doing big things,’ it asserts. ‘Specifically, they’re doing big things that Washington has failed to do.’

-- Don Frederick