Good for you, Arnold

Things just keep breaking on the marijuana front. Tuesday at a speech in Davis Calif. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, responding to a question about a recent Field Poll showing 56% of Californians favor legalizing and taxing marijuana, opened the door just a bit further. (For non-Californians, the Field Poll is one of the oldest and probably the most respected mainstream polling outfit in California.) He said it wasn't time to do it yet, but it is time to debate it. Yes, yes, I know. He hasn't been much of a success as governor and he can't run again, so what does he have to lose? But he just might want to run for senator one day. And we had Richard Nixon's grandson (Trish's son) in the office today, visiting from New York, and he says Arnold is still a big draw for Republicans in other states, that he's doing a fundraiser in Brooklyn in a week or so.

Whether this is a case of a certain amount of courage or another instance of a politician seeing which way public opinion is going and running to get in front and declare himself the leader I don't know for sure. It would be interesting to have him become the public face of a legalization movement. He's never tried to deny he smoked it when he was younger and I wouldn't be amazed if he still does.