The big story over the last few days has been the "surprise" candidacy of movie superstar Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor of California. The action hero announced his intentions on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on Wednesday, stunning even his campaign manager, who, it is reported, clutched a press release stating the exact opposite. His dramatic announcement, eschewing the normal press conference compressed into a sound-bite on the evening news, served to broadcast the event to millions of viewers nationwide.

The media loves it, as it ratchets up the circus atmosphere of an already overblown and wacky state election. Arnold joins a growing list if candidates, both Republican and Democrat, including the likes of child actor Gary Coleman, comedian Leo Gallagher, smut peddler Larry Flynt, porn star Mary Carey, billboard model Angelyne, and columnist Arianna Huffington. Several more-legitimate candidates have also thrown their hats into the ring, including current Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, Insurance Commissioner John Garamendi, and the last election's Republican nominee, Bill Simon.

The buzz surrounding Schwarzenegger's candidacy arises, not just from his Hollywood celebrity, but that he is a Republican. His name-recognition ranks highest among the candidates, and his popularity outstrips everyone else's. Who does not identify him as the Terminator, the Eraser, or the Last Action Hero? Who has not heard or used the lines, "I'll be back!" or "Big mistake!" or "Hasta la vista, baby!" He is instantly familiar to millions, and this fact alone makes him electable in a state in which the Republican Party is in shambles.

Even President Bush is excited over Arnold's candidacy because it gives him hope that he can collect California's many electoral votes for himself in 2004. He hopes to campaign with Schwarzenegger a time or two in the short time before the election to take advantage of the movie star's popularity.

But is Arnold Schwarzenegger what California needs? He may be a Republican, but he is in no way conservative, particularly socially. He is pro-choice and pro-big-government. He said just this morning on "The Today Show" that he believes "children have the first call" on the state treasury. He advocates bringing big business back to California so that it can fund all the programs that are being short-changed in the current budget crisis. He has also put off making any statements on other issues, such as homosexual unions and homosexual adoption and paid family leave, until he has a chance to study them, making many think that he has no real convictions on them. A Governor Schwarzenegger may be no better than Governor Davis.

He has tremendous baggage too. He has admitted to marijuana and steroid use. There have been accusations of sexual abuse, and he has confessed to infidelity in his marriage. His father was a member of the Nazi Party in Austria, and he has said publicly that he was an anti-Semite until he took counseling at the Simon Wiesenthal Center. He has never held public office, having only worked as a front man for a few causes, such as California's Proposition 49.

Nevertheless, Arnold has brought out in many people—especially California Republicans—a yearning for a savior, a messiah, who will solve all their problems just by stepping forward. By virtue of his stellar personality and his no-nonsense, action-hero persona, he will "clean house" in Sacramento. He will right all the wrongs in state government, balance the budget, pay off the deficit, bring back cheap and reliable energy, salve all wounds, and restore prosperity to all. He will do all this because—he is Arnold Schwarzenegger!

This is just another instance of what a local radio talk-show host calls "reality narcolepsy"—falling asleep to reality. The reality of California's situation is that no one with Arnold's lack of credentials and his socialist ideology will be able to pull the state back from disaster. He would administer a "cure" that would surely kill the patient.

What the state needs is a candidate who will rein in spending, lower the tax rate, work with business, cut the environmental red tape, purge illegal aliens, return education to the parents, and enact a host of other measures to return to the values that made her great and prosperous. But no such candidate exists, and if he does, he has no chance of being elected.

God asks through Jeremiah, "Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem; see now and know; and seek in her open places if you can find a man, if there is anyone who executes judgment, who seeks the truth, and I will pardon her" (Jeremiah 5:1). Have we in America reached this point? It is hard to say, but the search is becoming more difficult every day.