LOS ANGELES (BNO NEWS) -- California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, also known as the state's 'Governator', will leave the political scene on Monday when California Attorney General Jerry Brown takes over.Schwarzenegger, 63, will be leaving office on Monday as term limits prevented him from running for a governor for a third time in November. But re-election, even if he had been allowed to, would have been uncertain due to his falling popularity.
It will be an end of an era when the Austria-born movie star leaves office as Governor next week. But, as he as always said, he'll be back. How exactly is not yet clear, although an immediate return to movies appears unlikely.
In October, Schwarzenegger was asked if he would return to the big screen after leaving office. "It depends," he said. "If someone comes with a great script, with a great idea. Will I still have the patience to sit on the set and do a movie for three months? I don't know," he said, while also expressing interest in writing a book.
However, Schwarzenegger is said to be going through scores of offers from businesses, Hollywood, and other sectors, making certain that he will remain in the public spotlight. This might give his popularity rating a boost, which fell to 22 percent most recently.
"He wanted to have it all - infrastructure, education, prisons and environmental protection - but he was reluctant to pay for it, wrote The Sacramento Bee newspaper in an editorial on Sunday, adding that Schwarzenegger 'dreamed big, but dug a deep hole.'
In a New Year's Day interview with the Los Angeles Times, Schwarzenegger defended his record but admitted to errors which prevented him from fulfilling his promise to end California's 'crazy deficit spending.'
The Governor said it was a mistake to back a ballot initiative to borrow $15 billion to paper over the accumulated budget problem. "I should've gone the other direction to early on solve the budget problem and use the political muscle I had in that first year in office," he told the newspaper.
But he insisted that the plan could have worked and that the state's finances would have looked 'far better' today if the U.S. economy had not slipped into a recession in 2008.
"If I had known then what I know now, that we would have another recession, I would not have signed the budget that year," Schwarzenegger said, admitting that the initial error had far-reaching consequences throughout his seven years in office.
Schwarzenegger began weight training when he was just 15 years old and was awarded the title of Mr. Universe at age 20, in 1969. But he remains best known for his roles in movies such as 'Conan the Barbarian', 'The Terminator', and 'Commando.'
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