Germans react to California recall

Jeff Jarvis at BuzzMachine notes that the German magazine Bild points to Schwarzenegger’s success (and his “iron will”) in a way that gives him the heeby-jeebies.
Jeff’s reaction triggered these thoughts, which I first posted in his comment:

It could be seen as a sign of healed national relations that we could elect a German-accented Austrian to the prefecture of our largest province, but – speaking from California – it does give my gut the willies.

Easy populism and charisma, plus a fiery will to “sweep things clean” and shake things up. Sounds great, right?

With Orrin Hatch working on the presidency thing it gets a little creepier, but it may yet be the price of seeing a moderate Republican leader in my lifetime.

Liberal Californians (myself included) will probably hate him like we hated Reagan, and fail to realize that he is the most liberal Republican governor the state has had since the 1950s, just as cross-eyed conservatives in the ’90s failed to realize that they were enjoying the most conservative Democratic presidency since John F. Kennedy or perhaps Wilson.

I’ve often thought that Bill Clinton would be a good candidate to run the EU or even come in as secretary general at the UN to put in place that new world order with blue helmets and black helicopters so eagerly feared by our militia brethren, but imagine a worldwide election for President of Earth between Slick Willie and der Gröpenführer!