LOOKING A LOT LIKE REAGAN THESE TWO HAVE MUCH IN COMMON ON THE PATH FROM ACTING TO POLITICS.

Byline: Joseph Honig

IF our gubernatorial sweepstakes feels a little like ``Back to the Future,'' maybe it should. For decades before ``The Terminator,'' another actor of terribly humble beginnings rode discontent and frustration right into the governor's mansion.

If he is canny and calculating - and he well may be - Arnold Schwarzenegger might channel his inner Reagan all the way to Sacramento.

Almost 40 years have passed. So many memories have dimmed. But Ronald Reagan, candidate for governor, was a perfect storm of ambition and charisma. He was also a product of his times. For California in the mid-'60s was anything but peaceful. Civil and campus unrest, along with changing mores, were in our headlines - maybe more so than today's fiscal crisis. A two-term governor, Pat Brown, was trying to hold on to his job.

Enter Reagan, stage right.

Like Arnold, he wasn't obsessive about details. A full-time, big-picture guy. Let others sweat the small stuff. Candidate Reagan bet that voters wanted a chairman of the board. He was right. Ronald Reagan inspired confidence by communicating an unyielding belief in core values and his own ability. Underlings could parse the intricate stuff. The would-be governor seemed, at times, above government.

Schwarzenegger, in early campaigning, could be following the Reagan script. No policy wonk Arnold. No graphs or charts by his side. He is selling leadership. Not an accounting course. He's doing it with a little showmanship. With an attractive performer spouse as stylish as actress Nancy Reagan. With the story of success through private enterprise. With a polished appearance and that miraculous chestnut brown hair.

Is it Reagan or is it Memorex?

Is it deja vu all over again?

For Arnold, like early Reagan, has no track record as a manager of large organizations or sweeping ideas. Hollywood made his fortune. Enriched him. Introduced him to powerful friends and fueled his political connections.

One of the things we like about Schwarzenegger - that modest Austrian upbringing - is much like the Reagan boyhood. For the former president's Illinois childhood was certainly no silk stocking story. Arnold's father was a Nazi; the senior Reagan was a moody alcoholic. Performing - Reagan's early days as a sportscaster, the Schwarzenegger bodybuilding career - brought approval and suspicions of grander futures.

In most political times, there is something rather compelling about the notion of citizen politicians: Jimmy Stewart in ``Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.'' Jesse Ventura, the brash outsider, crashing Minnesota's state capitol. Both Reagan and Arnold - and their handlers - exploited this idea at full throttle. For we live in a country where multimillionaires can be promoted as idealistic populists.

Reagan the Reformer was an intimate of GOP insiders, of Fortune 500 movers and shakers. He was the face and voice of General Electric.

Arnold, too, may campaign as one of us, frustrated by the professional pols. Like Reagan, though, he is connected to establishment heavyweights of the first water. His advisers boast blue ribbons and blue blood: Warren Buffett, the billionaire investment magician; George Shultz, former secretary of state and treasury.

In one sense, Arnold may be the insider's outsider.

Still, Schwarzenegger captivates. There is the plain language. There are those zingers from old films. Remember, in the movies, he is a protagonist of few words. And what a relief to hear reassuring action-hero talk on the campaign stage.

Running for governor - and later as president - Reagan helped create the modern political one-liner. You learn this kind of timing on movie sets, not poring over bills and budgets. Candidates, just like actors, depend on writers. But somebody needs to bring life and vigor to the page.

And if you are looking for reasons Providence gave us candidates Reagan and Schwarzenegger, the answer may be in the star system itself. Past 50, Reagan's acting career was in a slump. When feature films stopped calling, he turned to television. Then there were all those years as pitchman, radio commentator and after-dinner speaker. He stayed in play until that first governor's race.

Arnold, at 56, may be at the end of his string as a gun-toting muscleman. His pictures no longer set box office records. It is questionable if he can settle into character parts. Still, he has built up enormous goodwill. He is charitable and appears genuinely moved by children in need. For years, his sideline has been politics and befriending prominent Republicans. Much like Reagan's work championing modern conservatism. Ronald Reagan was no overnight politician. Neither is Arnold.

Yes, Schwarzenegger is not baggage-free. There is the past drug use. There are critics who claim he's been a poster boy for armaments and cinema violence. But even Reagan had his share of obstacles to overcome. There was a divorce from actress Jane Wyman when the breakup of a home was considered a political non-starter. There was his support for smear campaigns against Hollywood leftists.

Still, Ronald Reagan succeeded because he knew his audience as well or better than he knew his lines. His fellow actor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, may be in the process of remaking.

CAPTION(S):

5 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Republican gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger admires a bust he commissioned of former Gov. and ex-President Ronald Reagan in this March 20, 2002, photo taken at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum in Simi Valley.

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

(2 -- 3 -- color) Smiling and waving for the crowds are Reagan and his wife Nancy in November 1991, left, and Schwarzenegger at the California State Fair on Sept. 1.

Tom Mendoza/Staff Photographer

Steve Yeater/Associated Press

(4 -- 5 -- color) Gubernatorial candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger, left, gestures to students during a rally at an elementary school in Fresno on Aug. 28. At right, former Gov. and ex-President Ronald Reagan gestures while talking to visitors at the Reagan library with his wife Nancy, left, and daughter Maureen in a 1991 file photo.

Paul Sakuma/Associated Press

Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer