Arnold Schwarzenegger and George Bush were both out campaigning again today, Bush after a month-long vacation, addressed a crowd in an appropriate setting of rain, the people looking for hope to get out of the economic bad weather as much as they would the dark, wet weather they stood in. In Ohio, where so many people have lost manufacturing jobs during this administration, On a sourly ironic Labor Day, Bush promised that his massive tax cuts for wealthy people would, in some nebulous fashion, somehow translate into jobs for them.

Pointing to the quivering needles on the country’s economic gas tank that signal something may be happening, Bush claimed that it was the tax cuts starting to change things. One might expect the administration’s new motto to be “post hoc, ergo proctor hoc.” Do something useless, then wait for something to change, then claim a connection. Of course, the problem is, the tentative signs of an economic comeback do not seem to be affecting the job market at all, and in fact, wages continue to fall–Bush remains the president with the worst record on unemployment, and a better economy will mean very little to millions of Americans if they have no jobs. The question is, will the economy make a real comeback, will it be in time for Bush, and, if he gets the credit for it, will it be enough to compensate for all the damage he has done in the eyes of the voters?

Schwarzenegger, meanwhile, has been busy morphing, like the special effects Terminator he fought in “T2,” from the “people’s candidate” he claimed to be when he entered the race, into a politician’s politician. Taking cues for George W., he has initiated a campaign of rigorous fundraising from special interests ($4 million to date), has been avoiding the press while making easy, camera-intensive PR photo-op stops. He avoids talking to the press like the plague, and has ducked out of any early debates, promising to attend only one debate, just before the election (“it will be great for the California broadcasters”–that, after all, is the point of the election, right?). This, presumably, is in line with his policy of being totally unclear on what he would do as governor, giving as little information as late as possible and hoping there will not be enough time to check him out before voters go to the polling booths.

What a coward.