I just watched Arianna (Huffington) on last night's Charlie Rose.

OK, I'm totally behind her. I think she would make a wonderful governor and would really shake things up. (Read her announcement speech here.)

I have these incredibly mixed feelings about celebs running for office, though. I watched the first 20-minute segment (from Charlie) of two journos discussing Ahnuld, and it made me want to retch. The celeb culture we have is bad enough, and these people already have too much political power by virtue of singing or acting well and/or looking beautiful. Beauty is fine (especially on someone like Reichen--heeheehee; I can squeeze him in anywhere), but I don't want it running the country. I hate the thought of celebrity being a stepping stone.

I did have a different view of it with Arianna, though. It's much easier for an outsider--whether they be millionaire businessman like Bloomberg in NYC, or millionaire actor or author--to clean house, without arriving with a lifetime of either favors owed or just entrenchment in the system. It's nice to have someone from a different walk of life arrive in with a different set of eyes. And celebrity or money are about the only plausible ways in for an outsider in the culture we're living in.

While Arianna's celebrity status is what's most likely to get her in there should it work, it's not really fair to judge her celebrity the same way as Ahnuld. She's not famous for building a huge body and then parlaying it into a career as a human action figure, she's famous for being smart. She married into a lot of money, but she also brought a lot of wit and brains to the table. She's been on TV so much because she's so sharp.

And hopefully that famous wit will help her stay on the TV enough to challenge Ahnuld. She was already on Charlie Rose last night and the subject of Tina Brown's column yesterday, and Warren Beaty is apparently behind her. It would be nice to see a thinking woman be able to take Ahnuld on on his own turf. Of course he's going to get the bigger, dumber shows, like Jay Leno, but a lot of people may see him as a bigger, dumber guy. Hopefully.