Syndicated columnist Jill Stewart (Daily News, Register, Pasadena Weekly) has the cover story in the September issue of Wired on her favorite Koll-i-fornia governor. Headline: The New American Idol. Her lede:

It's easy to dismiss Arnold Schwarzenegger's election as a fluke, an "only in California" political anomaly fully explained by the words movie star and recall. After all, he wouldn't be governor if he weren't famous, rich, and married into political nobility. And even all that might not have been enough in a regular election; he benefited mightily from California's constitution encouraging voter temper tantrums, which in this case led to a lightning-fast campaign too short to dole out the usual damage. All in all, a rare combination of qualities and circumstances - and hardly the stuff of a national trend.

But a funny thing happened on the way to California once again being the butt of late-night TV jokes: Schwarzenegger has turned out to be a surprisingly effective governor.

It's the politics issue. Bay Area journalist Chris Nolan blogs here on the magazine's sudden discovery of politics. Stewart also had an op-ed piece on Schwarzenegger in the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, and spoke about him with Larry Mantle (audio) on Wednesday.