From today’s Wall Street Journal Political Diary E-mail:
Much of Barack Obama’s sales pitch to voters is that he will "be a uniter, not a divider," a subtle slab at the polarizing figure many believe Hillary Clinton to be. As evidence for his claim, Mr. Obama touts his commitment to include Republicans in his cabinet. He often throws out names like Indiana Senator Dick Lugar and Nebraska Senator Chuck Hagel, both moderate Republicans.
But now Mr. Obama has added a new name to the mix: none other than California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who will be forced to leave office due to term limits in 2010, midway through the next presidential term.
At a town hall meeting in Manchester, N.H. this week, Mr. Obama lavished praise on the California governor: "What [he’s] doing on climate change in California is very important and significant. There are things I don’t agree with him on, but he’s taken leadership on a very difficult issue and we haven’t seen that kind of leadership in Washington."
It also doesn’t hurt that Mr. Schwarzenegger has embraced a universal health care plan that is much more weighted towards government intervention than that of any other major Republican.
But Mr. Obama draws the line at one Republican he thinks wouldn’t fit in his cabinet. ABC News reports that in answering a question on immigration policy, Mr. Obama took time to poke fun at Mitt Romney, the current GOP frontrunner in New Hampshire polls. Mr. Obama began by claiming it would be physically impossible to round up all of the country’s illegal aliens, even if the country wanted to. He then made a reference to Mr. Romney’s hiring of a lawn-care company that was found to have employed undocumented workers.
"We’d clear out some of the prisons to make room for somebody who’s a housekeeper at Mitt Romney’s house," he jabbed. "[Mr. Romney is] an example of somebody who, ‘Oh, we gotta be real tough. But my lawn, you know, is important.’"