Oh, this is pathetic:

Actor and Democratic activist Rob Lowe isn't exactly moving from "The West Wing" to the right wing, but he's going to play a real-life role in Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial campaign, people close to the situation said Thursday.

The 39-year-old actor has been asked by Schwarzenegger and his wife, Democrat Maria Shriver, who are longtime social friends, to take a senior position in the campaign, the sources said. Although Lowe is expected to have a co-chair title, his exact role is still being defined....

--L.A. Times

Rob Lowe -- not someone with political knowledge, but someone who plays someone with political knowledge on TV. It's like a frigging Baudrillard essay.

*******

I was thinking it was possibly a good sign that Warren Buffett was joining Schwarzie's campaign, and then (the good) Roger Ailes pointed out a Wall Street Journal editorial that noted this:

Friends of Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman are urging him to appear in a commercial for Mr. Schwarzenegger, much as he did for Proposition 13 a quarter century ago. Mr. Schwarzenegger has been quoted as saying that for years his favorite Christmas present for friends was Mr. Friedman's book "Free to Choose." Other prominent economic figures who are talking with Mr. Schwarzenegger about a role in the campaign include Steve Forbes, Larry Kudlow, Art Laffer and Steve Moore of the Club for Growth.

Buffett's a critic of right-wing economics. Friedman, Forbes, Kudlow, Laffer, and Moore guys who, when they read Dickens, root for Scrooge and against Bob Cratchit. What sense does this make?

Oh, and now it's being announced that George Shultz will chair Schwarzie's economic team.

This is all about the cult of the macho amateur -- the guy who knows next to nothing but gets smart people to do the thinking for him. Many people like Schwarzenegger just as they liked Bush (and loathed Gore) -- because he swaggers, smirks, and has no idea what he's talking about. They think it's good that Schwarzie -- and Bush -- don't know anything. This, they believe, makes it easier for these macho swaggerers to get in touch with their exquisitely accurate moral compasses and superior ability to process what they're told by smarter (but lesser) folks who are experts.

Because that's part of what makes these guys great: they don't know Jack, but they're so personable they can attract many people who do know Jack -- so many, in fact, that their decisions will be better than decisions made by actual smart people. David Brooks actually made this argument in all seriousness in Salon in 2000 while endorsing Bush for president.

Expect Schwarzie's "all-star team" to get more and more bloated as election day approaches. Expect right-wing pundits to actually start calling it an "all-star team" (or, even worse and more likely, a "dream team").