Greetings loyal minions. Your Maximum Leader is enjoying his day with the Villainettes, even if they are sick. And he is, as is always does, enjoying his friendly banter with the Minister of Agriculture. Your Maximum Leader will admit that he was not particularly adept at woo pitching during the time reminisced upon in the last two posts. But that may be another tale for another day.

Your Maximum Leader was just catching Fox News for a moment. It seems that Davis Recall financier and Congressman Darryl Issa has endorsed Arh-nold for governor. Perhaps Arh-nold is gaining momentum…

If in fact Arh-nold is gaining momentum, your Maximum Leader believes that it is another sign that Arh-nold is more crafty than many give him credit for. Think on this for a moment. 1) Arh-nold enters the race, immediately a front-runner. 2) Arh-nold’s campaign has a few early missteps - he looks like a novice. 3) Other major candidates want Arh-nold to debate so that they can tear into him. They can’t wait to debate Arh-nold because he seems to be a political novice and perhaps a stupid bodybuilder/action-movie-hero. 4) Arh-nold refuses to join early debates. He is branded a fraidy cat for not doing the early debates. There is an undercurrent building that he doesn’t have what it takes. 5) Arh-nold agrees to join late debate. Arianna Huffington spends whole week boning up on her snide comments and sharpens her fake nails. 6) No one has high expectations of Arh-nold going into the debate. 7) Arh-nold shows up in debate and does pretty well. Everyone is surprised at how well Arh-nold did. Endorsements begin. And momentum builds with only 11 days left until the recall vote.

Perhaps your Maximum Leader is growing too conspiratorial in his old age. But what if this was the plan all along? Arh-nold’s campaign people are crafty. They all worked for Pete Wilson from what I can gather. (And frankly, your Maximum Leader thought that Pete Wilson would have been good presidential material at one time. He was a Nixon neophyte from what I read.) And Wilson’s people could win elections. Suppose they realized that the key to winning was laying low, reducing expectations, staying away from the circus atmosphere… And then making a late push and run for daylight. Perhaps they were afraid of peaking too early (like Bush the Elder in the 1992 presidential contest). Then they would only have to worry about peaking too late (like Ford in the 1976 presidential contest).

Crafty. I’ll have to keep my villainous eye on this.

Carry on.