Can Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson win the California governorship?

[Interlocutor is just not there yet]

For those saying he can win because Arnold Schwarzenegger won in 2003 and was elected easily in 2006. This was the gubernatorial map in Wyoming that year. States and the political environment change.

(not even I'm hackish enough to think this is plausible, why is the reverse considered serious ?)

All you had to do was post the 2006 CA Gubernatorial map.



Arnold did better margin-wise just 15 years ago than Reagan ever did in California.

[Interlocutor is just not there yet]

He has a decent chance however that depends how far left he plans to go, the further the left the more Californians would drool over him.
However, at the same time I don't think the Rock has enough political experience to run for office.

Because Arnold did?

I honestly get the sense that Arnold is far more intellectual than The Rock. Plus, just from watching Pumping Iron, you can tell the guy has a borderline supernatural sense of determination and competitiveness. To say nothing of his very shrewd business sense, or the fact that he quickly rose from unknown, broke immigrant to the top of the world. (He was a multimillionaire BEFORE he even starred in his first movie, he was that skilled with business investments.) He ACTUALLY represented the best of the American dream in a way Trump just pretended to.

But The Rock is just a wrestler who has appeared in mostly bad B-movies (even Arnold appeared in more truly good movies). I actually in some respects see The Rock as more similar to Reagan than Arnold, in that they are both guys with flashy smiles who play nice and were lousy actors in bad movies, but ultimately don't seem to have a whole lot going on upstairs. Whereas I think Arnold truly is a very intelligent man. There is a non-zero chance I would have voted for Arnold over a mediocre Democratic nominee in an alternate timeline when the GOP was less crazy and the "natural-born citizen" clause didn't exist. I doubt I would ever vote for The Rock unless the alternative was truly terrible.

Man, sounds like you absolutely hate The Rock. That makes me a little sad.

[brucejoel99]

He has a decent chance however that depends how far left he plans to go, the further the left the more Californians would drool over him.
However, at the same time I don't think the Rock has enough political experience to run for office.

Because Arnold did?

I honestly get the sense that Arnold is far more intellectual than The Rock. Plus, just from watching Pumping Iron, you can tell the guy has a borderline supernatural sense of determination and competitiveness. To say nothing of his very shrewd business sense, or the fact that he quickly rose from unknown, broke immigrant to the top of the world. (He was a multimillionaire BEFORE he even starred in his first movie, he was that skilled with business investments.) He ACTUALLY represented the best of the American dream in a way Trump just pretended to.

But The Rock is just a wrestler who has appeared in mostly bad B-movies (even Arnold appeared in more truly good movies). I actually in some respects see The Rock as more similar to Reagan than Arnold, in that they are both guys with flashy smiles who play nice and were lousy actors in bad movies, but ultimately don't seem to have a whole lot going on upstairs. Whereas I think Arnold truly is a very intelligent man. There is a non-zero chance I would have voted for Arnold over a mediocre Democratic nominee in an alternate timeline when the GOP was less crazy and the "natural-born citizen" clause didn't exist. I doubt I would ever vote for The Rock unless the alternative was truly terrible.

Man, sounds like you absolutely hate The Rock. That makes me a little sad.

Yeah, did the Rock run over Alben's puppy or something?

[AltWorlder]

https://twitter.com/TeamsterDoug/status/1407383545245360128
https://twitter.com/Teamsters/status/1407697538908631052

I honestly get the sense that Arnold is far more intellectual than The Rock. Plus, just from watching Pumping Iron, you can tell the guy has a borderline supernatural sense of determination and competitiveness. To say nothing of his very shrewd business sense, or the fact that he quickly rose from unknown, broke immigrant to the top of the world. (He was a multimillionaire BEFORE he even starred in his first movie, he was that skilled with business investments.) He ACTUALLY represented the best of the American dream in a way Trump just pretended to.

Oh yeah because the highest paid actor in Hollywood has no business acumen. And regardless of their true intellectual prowess, Dwayne Johnson has the native English speaker lack of accent and more charisma than Arnold, which does make him come off as more polished imo. Not that Arnold isn't extremely likable, it's just he's always come off as more of a solid meathead than the Rock. Even when the Rock was a wrestler, there was a slight eloquence to his persona, the whole people's eyebrow/elbow thing gave him a populist touch.

But The Rock is just a wrestler who has appeared in mostly bad B-movies (even Arnold appeared in more truly good movies).

The movies The Rock stars might be B-movie quality, but many of them are blockbuster hits. B-movie suggests not viewed, while The Rock's actual oeuvre is directly opposite. He's a very visible and known public figure.

I actually in some respects see The Rock as more similar to Reagan than Arnold, in that they are both guys with flashy smiles who play nice and were lousy actors in bad movies, but ultimately don't seem to have a whole lot going on upstairs.

Reagan was like a million years old and both he and the Rock aren't just flashy smiles, they're also polished speakers, which Schwarzenegger with his language barrier was always at a disadvantage with, even if it added to his charm.