US: Arnie is just so cool, said the young supporters of a softball team when Conor O'Clery met the candidate in Santa Fe Springs
The teenagers of the Pico Rivera All Stars team were screaming for Arnie long before the candidate for the governorship of California appeared in their midst. They wore slogans saying "Join Arnold, Let's Bring California Back" on their sports costumes, some even on the rear of their shorts.
These had been handed out by aides to Arnold Schwarzenegger in advance of his visit on Sunday afternoon to the Little League softball games at Santa Fe Springs.
"Why do you support him for governor?" I asked a group of the girls as they jumped up and down in excitement.
"He's so cool!" they cried.
"He helps kids."
"He helps the homeless."
"He helps everyone."
They shrieked as the Hollywood actor appeared and passed by in a dazzling blur of white - perfect white teeth, white shirt, white trousers. Schwarzenegger does help kids. He has promoted inner-city games for years.
He looked so happy as he handed out tournament medals under the scorching sun that it was hard to believe he really badly wanted to be somewhere else.
Schwarzenegger had planned to lead the Mexican Independence Day Parade in east Los Angeles that afternoon as the climax of his campaign for the Latino vote.
But his invitation as Grand Marshal had been abruptly withdrawn, partly because the movie actor opposed a measure allowing illegal immigrants to apply for driving licences.
Governor Gray Davis went instead - he signed the bill on Saturday - and was cheered along the route. Davis reportedly had a dig at the heavily-accented Schwarzenegger, saying that anyone who couldn't pronounce "California" should not be governor.
This gave the Terminator a chance to hit back. The once tight-lipped candidate went out of his way to shake hands with reporters and declare Davis's remark to be an insult to all immigrants. Hands on hips he asserted that he was not anti-immigrant. He remembered his own hardships.
"I love Mexico," he added. "I've done four movies down there." He was running for governor, he declared, because he wanted to use his "intelligence and stardom" to make a difference, and "I feel in my gut that I want to make a difference."
However, Schwarzenegger's campaign as a fiscal conservative who can fix California's economic woes has been thrown on to the defensive by the immigration issue, by his failure to take part in an election debate and by hostages to fortune from his past. These include an interview in Oui magazine in 1977 where he spoke of sexual escapades and casual use of drugs.
Possibly more damaging, two bodybuilders have come forward to accuse the former Mr Universe of racial comments during his early days in America.
Rick Wayne said he recalled Schwarzenegger saying blacks were not capable of ruling South Africa, and another former Mr Universe, Robby Robinson, accused Schwarzenegger of repeatedly calling him a "nigger" in a public outburst at an International Federation of Bodybuilders banquet.
Schwarzenegger's aides claim he is still the frontrunner, and they see his main rival not as leading Democrat opponent Cruz Bustamante but Republican State Senator Tom McClintock, who has strong conservative support.
They trust McClintock will "do the decent thing" and drop out before the October 7th ballot to avoid splitting the Republican vote.
Once seen as a brake on his political ambitions, the candidate's wife, Maria Shriver, has now assumed a more public role as his main defender. Shriver, a niece of President John F. Kennedy and a star of NBC News, told supporters on Saturday at the opening of a Santa Monica campaign office: "I know that I would not be where I am today in my career, as a woman, without his support."
With four weeks to election day, the fight is expected to get much dirtier, and the Austrian-born film star is more vulnerable than the other leading candidates to exposés and slip-ups.
But for the kids at the softball tournament he could do no wrong. "It doesn't matter where you come from, It matters where you are going," he told them as he tossed softballs into the crowd, wrapped in T-shirts with the message, "Join Arnold".
"Any dream can come true," he said.
