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Interview With Terry McCarthy

Aired August 11, 2003 - 15:11   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: With fewer than 60 days to the recall vote, name recognition will play a big role in the battle for California. No name is bigger, of course, than Arnold Schwarzenegger. His candidacy has landed him on the covers of "Newsweek" and "TIME". "TIME" magazine's Terry McCarthy is in Los Angeles watching this recall spectacle play out.
I'm sure, Terry, you can clear all this up for us in just a second and straighten everything out. One question from your article, then I want to look ahead a little bit. In your article, you have this fascinating nugget where, even as Arnold is about to walk on to the Jay Leno show, "The Tonight Show," he tells his advisor, George Gordon, on the scene that he's bowing out.

TERRY MCCARTHY, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Yes, this is quite funny. And actually it is quite of instructive for the way this campaign might play out. You know, everyone was expecting Arnold to bow out. He turns up at "The Tonight Show," he goes through the segment before they go on stage with Leno and tells Leno that he's bowing out.

His campaign adviser, George Gordon, is standing beside him. He says, what a shame, I'm losing this good candidate for governor. In his hand he's carrying the speech for Arnold, which says "I am bowing out of the race for governor."

Then Arnold goes on to "The Tonight Show." As we all know, he announces he is going for governor. The campaign adviser, Gordon, nearly swallows his microphone. He's standing on the side of the stage.

He then gets on his cell phone and starts calling people, press agents and so on to tell them that they've got to revise their strategy. He gets kicked off because he's making too much noise and Arnold gets this big publicity boom. But what's interesting about it is that, if Arnold is able to keep that kind of momentous announcement to himself without even telling his closest advisers, you know, what is he going to do when he's out on the campaign trail and making speeches with his advisers, telling them what they want him to say?

Is he going to stick to that? That will be interesting to follow.

KING : You also note in the article a conversation Governor Davis had with the ultimate survivor, Democratic anyway, former President Bill Clinton. I spoke to someone today who said that Governor Davis has spoken both to former Vice President Gore and to the former president, Bill Clinton. From your sense being on the ground out there, can they come and help him? Is there some role they could play, national, prominent Democrats, to help the governor, or is he on his own here?

MCCARTHY: Well, it looks like the Clintons are going to try and help him. Both the former president and his wife, Hillary, have said they're going to come out here. And that could help to rally the Democratic base.

Now, there's an interesting sort of disjoint here. The vast majority of Californians disapprove of the job that Governor Davis is doing. He's not a very popular man personally. However, more Californians are skeptical, somewhat unsure about the process of this recall. And if Clinton can come out and help Davis to focus on the modality of this election rather than Davis' own personal popularity, that could help him in a big way.

KING: Many conservatives were not happy when President Bush said late last week that he thought Schwarzenegger would make a "good governor". They see a candidate in Schwarzenegger who supports gay rights, supports abortion rights, supports some gun control. Any early evidence of fallout for the president out there because of that remark?

MCCARTHY: Well, not yet. But we do know that the president is coming here this week. He's making some campaign stops. And it will be interesting to see whether he says anything more about this gubernatorial race. I suspect he'll try and stay out of it.

You know once Rush Limbaugh has said that Arnold is not the true- blue conservative that he would like, that's saying something for the conservative base. And, of course, you know the Republicans in California tend to be very conservative.

KING: You mention in the article, of course, many of these candidates, Schwarzenegger, Arianna Huffington, neither have run for office before. But both have teams of consultants who might come into play here. The Schwarzenegger team, Don Sipple (ph), George Gordon, both veterans of Pete Wilson's campaign.

You mentioned that Arianna Huffington has reached out to some of those who helped wrestler-turned-governor Jesse Ventura. Anything you've learned in the last week or so as you find out who the players are behind the scenes that might help us understand what this campaign might look like?

MCCARTHY: Well, clearly, the motivation behind Schwarzenegger's choosing his team is he's got the Pete Wilson team. They know the inside ropes in Sacramento. They bring a lot of experience to this game. Schwarzenegger clearly doesn't have much political experience himself.

What is interesting, though, is whether that is actually going to rebound against him. Because Schwarzenegger has been saying he's running as the people's candidate, the guy who's going to get Sacramento and clean house. But here he is hiring people who, you know, for years were working those halls in Sacramento, or in some ways the arch political insiders. So it I will be interesting to see how he triangulates that.

KING: "TIME" magazine's Terry McCarthy, thank you for your thoughts today.

MCCARTHY: Nice talking to you, John.

KING: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com







Aired August 11, 2003 - 15:11   ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: With fewer than 60 days to the recall vote, name recognition will play a big role in the battle for California. No name is bigger, of course, than Arnold Schwarzenegger. His candidacy has landed him on the covers of "Newsweek" and "TIME". "TIME" magazine's Terry McCarthy is in Los Angeles watching this recall spectacle play out.
I'm sure, Terry, you can clear all this up for us in just a second and straighten everything out. One question from your article, then I want to look ahead a little bit. In your article, you have this fascinating nugget where, even as Arnold is about to walk on to the Jay Leno show, "The Tonight Show," he tells his advisor, George Gordon, on the scene that he's bowing out.

TERRY MCCARTHY, "TIME" MAGAZINE: Yes, this is quite funny. And actually it is quite of instructive for the way this campaign might play out. You know, everyone was expecting Arnold to bow out. He turns up at "The Tonight Show," he goes through the segment before they go on stage with Leno and tells Leno that he's bowing out.

His campaign adviser, George Gordon, is standing beside him. He says, what a shame, I'm losing this good candidate for governor. In his hand he's carrying the speech for Arnold, which says "I am bowing out of the race for governor."

Then Arnold goes on to "The Tonight Show." As we all know, he announces he is going for governor. The campaign adviser, Gordon, nearly swallows his microphone. He's standing on the side of the stage.

He then gets on his cell phone and starts calling people, press agents and so on to tell them that they've got to revise their strategy. He gets kicked off because he's making too much noise and Arnold gets this big publicity boom. But what's interesting about it is that, if Arnold is able to keep that kind of momentous announcement to himself without even telling his closest advisers, you know, what is he going to do when he's out on the campaign trail and making speeches with his advisers, telling them what they want him to say?

Is he going to stick to that? That will be interesting to follow.

KING : You also note in the article a conversation Governor Davis had with the ultimate survivor, Democratic anyway, former President Bill Clinton. I spoke to someone today who said that Governor Davis has spoken both to former Vice President Gore and to the former president, Bill Clinton. From your sense being on the ground out there, can they come and help him? Is there some role they could play, national, prominent Democrats, to help the governor, or is he on his own here?

MCCARTHY: Well, it looks like the Clintons are going to try and help him. Both the former president and his wife, Hillary, have said they're going to come out here. And that could help to rally the Democratic base.

Now, there's an interesting sort of disjoint here. The vast majority of Californians disapprove of the job that Governor Davis is doing. He's not a very popular man personally. However, more Californians are skeptical, somewhat unsure about the process of this recall. And if Clinton can come out and help Davis to focus on the modality of this election rather than Davis' own personal popularity, that could help him in a big way.

KING: Many conservatives were not happy when President Bush said late last week that he thought Schwarzenegger would make a "good governor". They see a candidate in Schwarzenegger who supports gay rights, supports abortion rights, supports some gun control. Any early evidence of fallout for the president out there because of that remark?

MCCARTHY: Well, not yet. But we do know that the president is coming here this week. He's making some campaign stops. And it will be interesting to see whether he says anything more about this gubernatorial race. I suspect he'll try and stay out of it.

You know once Rush Limbaugh has said that Arnold is not the true- blue conservative that he would like, that's saying something for the conservative base. And, of course, you know the Republicans in California tend to be very conservative.

KING: You mention in the article, of course, many of these candidates, Schwarzenegger, Arianna Huffington, neither have run for office before. But both have teams of consultants who might come into play here. The Schwarzenegger team, Don Sipple (ph), George Gordon, both veterans of Pete Wilson's campaign.

You mentioned that Arianna Huffington has reached out to some of those who helped wrestler-turned-governor Jesse Ventura. Anything you've learned in the last week or so as you find out who the players are behind the scenes that might help us understand what this campaign might look like?

MCCARTHY: Well, clearly, the motivation behind Schwarzenegger's choosing his team is he's got the Pete Wilson team. They know the inside ropes in Sacramento. They bring a lot of experience to this game. Schwarzenegger clearly doesn't have much political experience himself.

What is interesting, though, is whether that is actually going to rebound against him. Because Schwarzenegger has been saying he's running as the people's candidate, the guy who's going to get Sacramento and clean house. But here he is hiring people who, you know, for years were working those halls in Sacramento, or in some ways the arch political insiders. So it I will be interesting to see how he triangulates that.

KING: "TIME" magazine's Terry McCarthy, thank you for your thoughts today.

MCCARTHY: Nice talking to you, John.

KING: Thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com