Immoral Bingeing

America, October, 2004 by Terry Golway

WHAT DO YOU CALL a politician who supports incentives to buy and drive fuel-efficient vehicles, even if they happen to be made in Japan?

One can easily imagine Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger of California curling his lips and referring to such a goody-goody colleague as, well, a "girlie man." Schwarzenegger, it will come as no surprise, prefers the gas-guzzling behemoths known as Hummers, which are based on an armor-clad vehicle designed to carry soldiers into battle.

But as it happens, the politician who is trying to encourage fuel efficiency is, in fact, manly man Arnold Schwarzenegger. Can it be? Is it possible that with the good governor's blessing, automobile buyers may now consider little things like fuel efficiency and not be dismissed as politically...