New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger photographed together for Time.
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It's not exactly the Sierra Club message, but he's a powerful messenger. He was in Vancouver to sign another climate deal when news broke that Bush would reject Europe's push for climate caps at the G-8 summit and would propose a meeting instead. "We don't need another meeting on global warming," Schwarzenegger told a crowd of reporters. "We need action." Action, of course, is Schwarzenegger's thing. He was never much for dialogue. In an interview, he marveled at Bush's notion that America shouldn't cap its own emissions until China and India agree to do so. "That's not what leadership is about," he said. "We don't care if Arizona is going to do the right thing; we take action ourselves."
That love of action is the real link between Schwarzenegger and Bloomberg, and the real source of the recent Bloomberg-for-President buzz. There's no obvious niche for a candidate who supports gay marriage and gun control while opposing the death penalty and deadlines for withdrawing troops from Iraq. But there is an obvious appeal to a businessman who can work across party lines to get things done--and could drop $500 million on a campaign without even noticing it was gone. Buffett thinks it's a great idea, and when he first heard it, he turned to the Constitution. "I wanted to see if Schwarzenegger could be his Vice President," Buffett said. "I think he could." It states that the President must be native born, but it's silent on the Vice President. "That would be one hell of a team, wouldn't it?"
