Reason

There's plenty of reasons why one might favor Democratic challenger Phil Angelides over California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger this November, and in all fairness you can read about them here. His position on lowering state college tuition, rather than raising it as the Governator has, is but one.

However, if I were a betting man I'd put my money on Arnold for reelection. His superstar wattage has always made him a formidable candidate, and his physique is still good enough to make Phil look like, well, a girlyman. And Angelides did not do himself any favors in the mutually-assured-destruction campaign he and Steve Westly waged in the Democratic Primary.

Most of all, Arnold has upped his poll number from a terrible position a year ago, when he was following the GOP line and got trounced on some voter initiatives he had endorsed, by flipping around and coming up with some positively Liberal positions.

Today's big example is Arnold working with the Democratic controlled State Legislature to pass a first-in-USA greenhouse gas bill. While it doesn't boast the most ambitious reduction targets imaginable, it's quite a positive step in the right direction:

The Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 puts California at the forefront of the fight against climate change along with the
European Union, and increases pressure on Washington to impose mandatory caps rather than the voluntary measures favored by Bush.

California aims to reduce its emissions to 1990 levels by 2020, a cut of around 25 percent. The biggest sources of heat-trapping gases, such as power plants and cement makers, will be required to report their emissions.

The article notes that Arnold has been frustrated by do-nothing Bush and his anti-environmental cronies, and just took matters into his own hammy hands.

This is known as following the will of the people. Unlike the GOP leadership in D.C., it shows intelligent application of reason. After all:

Although California is a pace-setter on the environment, it is also the world's 12th-largest producer of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and faces potentially serious concerns over its drinking water, coastline, agriculture and air quality because of the rise in temperatures.

While it may be too much to dream of Gov. Schwarzenegger supporting a Presidential bid by fellow environmentalist Al Gore, clearly his action reflect some Inconvenient activism that made a big impression this year.

Now, was that so hard?