Does Arnold Have More Than Persona To Run On?
HEIDI COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR: We turn our attention now to the California recall election, one of the most surreal political spectacles in recent memory. Dozens of people are vying for the state's top job now, including everyone from the mainstream to the extreme. But actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, as you know, is stealing the spotlight at this time, and there are a lot of questions surrounding his strategy. GOP strategist Ed Rollins joining us now to talk about the advice that he would give to Arnold. Good morning to you, Mr. Rollins.</s>ED ROLLINS, GOP STRATEGIST: Good morning, Heidi. How are you?</s>COLLINS: I'm good, but, you know, I think it's important to point out,this recall has not yet happened. And I think people are getting very excited about all of these different names, particular Arnold Schwarzenegger. His polls are rating pretty high right now as far as popularity goes. Could he screw it up?</s>ROLLINS: You know until an election takes place nobody gets to be the winner on the opening weekend. The reality is, sure, he could lose some momentum. I think at this point in time though, he's an acceptable alternative to Gray Davis. This really is about Gray Davis and I think the voters of California have indicated that they're tired of him, they're tired -- you know, he spent $70 million on his campaign last year destroying Bill Simon and never talking about himself. Also basically put out a lot of misinformation about the budget when Simon said the budget was going to be a $38 billion deficit. He said he's crazy, knows nothing about it, it's going to eight, six. Turned out to be $38 billion. I think at this point in time, the first question is the important question, are the voters going to recall Gray Davis? And then they're going to have lots of alternatives to pick. And right now, certainly, Arnold is in a very good position to be an alternative.</s>COLLINS: Well let's talk about his position, if we could. There is another poll that's out today talking about how Arnold Schwarzenegger will position himself, if you will. Whether it be a conservative, a moderate or a liberal. These are how people see him anyway. California voters are seeing Schwarzenegger as a conservative, 23 percent of them anyway. Forty percent of them are seeing him as a moderate. And 19 percent as a liberal. What do you think of those numbers?</s>ROLLINS: Well, I think what it proves is that he sort of becomes whatever anybody wants him to become. The most important thing is not whether he's a conservative or liberal, but whether he's a leader. And I think Californians are looking for a leader. I think at this point in time, he fills that void. Why Davis has dropped so dramatically in the last two weeks, I think, is because Arnold now is viewed as the alternative where some of the other candidates haven't been able to reach that threshold. And you've seen the numbers drop dramatically on Davis's recall in the last week. I mean he's gone from 51, 52 percent wanted to recall him two weeks ago to 65, 69 percent want to him recalled today. And I think that really comes about voters of all stripes see Arnold as a significant alternative.</s>COLLINS: Well as far as that alternative goes, the way that people are seeing him. There has certainly been some criticism of him not talking about the issues. In fact, we have a sound bite from one of our reporters, Bob Franken, on that very issue. Let's go ahead and listen to that and then I'd like your comment, if we could.</s>ROLLINS: Sure.</s>BOB FRANKEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: When are you going to answer our questions, sir? When are you going to talk to us about substance?</s>ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER (R), CALIFORNIA GOV. CANDIDATE: We will be rolling it out. Remember, we just started the campaign.</s>FRANKEN: Do you think it's appropriate not to be prepared when you run for governor, to have the substantive answers to questions that might be asked?</s>SCHWARZENEGGER: Let me make the decisions how we roll out the campaign.</s>COLLINS: So, Mr. Rollins, you say that he's running on personality, but this should really be about running on leadership. What do you make of this?</s>ROLLINS: Well, first of all, Davis did exactly the same thing. Davis was missing in action in the last campaign and the media all basically -- he wouldn't do press conferences, he had one singular debate in the middle of the day. The reality is, you do what you can do to get your campaign moving forward. Arnold knows a lot about a lot of substance. He certainly knows what the problems of California are and it is a lack of leadership. And I think that's what people are going to vote for ultimately. At the end of the day, I think the reality is that people want someone other than the professional politicians who are in there today, and he certainly is an acceptable alternative at this point in time.</s>COLLINS: But there are many alternatives out there, aren't there? I mean we've talked about Bill Simon. How does another Republican get into this at this point?</s>ROLLINS: Well obviously, the campaign has not begun. What we have seen is the announcement and the media campaign and no one's had a launch like -- I've been in six presidential campaigns. No one has ever had a launch like Arnold has. Cover of "TIME" and "Newsweek." Obviously, everybody's been talking about it for four or five days. Front pages of papers all over the country. We now go into an eight, nine-week campaign in which television will play an important part. Each candidate will have the resources -- or some of the major candidates will have resources to tell their message on television. Certainly there'll will be lots of press coverage. The end of the day, people are paying attention, and so I think they'll get a feel of what Arnold's about. And I think at the end of the day, it's not going to be about being a financial analyst, it's going to be about who is his team, what's his ideas about leading the state forward? But most of all, is he a leader that can make people respondent?</s>COLLINS: And will he need any support, national support, that is, from the GOP?</s>ROLLINS: He has his own money, as obviously his tax return showed the other day. He's a very well-to-do man, been very successful as a businessman. He's a great success story. And I think he's going to basically fund his own campaign. It doesn't matter whether the president comes in or anybody else comes in. He's the guy that's there. National Democrats are going to come in but they're not going to save Gray Davis.</s>COLLINS: All right. Ed Rollins, we certainly do appreciate your take on all of this. I am sure that we will be talking to you many times as the days go on.</s>ROLLINS: Thank you very much.</s>COLLINS: Thanks so much.</s>ROLLINS: Take care, Heidi. Bye-bye. TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com