Breslau: Your victory over Governor Davis was a result in part of the tremendous anger California voters have about the bad state of their economy. Could this same discontent hurt President Bush in his re-election bid?

Schwarzenegger: That’s not what I heard on the campaign trail. What I heard on the campaign trail was Sacramento and the Davis administration has caused this. What faces us here is self-inflicted wounds, not wounds from Washington. Bush has nothing to do at all with our high workers-comp costs, the fact that we have the highest energy costs, the incredible amount of businesses leaving California. It’s not America that has the problem, it’s California that has the problem. People don’t want to take it any longer. Bush has nothing do with that; I have never heard anyone say that he did.

There’s already speculation that as a Republican governor in a heavily Democratic state you will be able to help President Bush in California, where his popularity is relatively low.

What’s on my mind is to help California. I think that President Bush and the federal government will be extremely instrumental to help California. The key thing is to get help from the federal government. For every dollar we are paying in federal taxes, we are getting back 77 cents in services. I would like to get more of the benefits. I will solve some of the self-inflicted wounds. I’m a Republican, they are a Republican administration. We can work together on many of these problems.

You had a rough stretch during the final days of your campaign. What was it like for you as a husband to watch Maria dealing with allegations about your past behavior?

I made it very clear in the beginning of the campaign it would be tough on my wife and the children. My wife said, “I’m 100 percent behind you, no matter what.” She was unbelievably strong and very positive, very supportive. She is a very selfless person who will fight for me until the end and believes in the kinds of work I do. She admires that I came over here with nothing and she knows my will and dedication. She knows me better than anyone. She knows how I’ve changed. She wants people to know me as I am today. As I said during my acceptance speech, I know how much she did for me.

Was it tougher or more painful than either of you had imagined?

Anyone can get pity. But jealousy you have to earn. Only when you are on top do people get jealous. When you are in the back, no one cares about you. You become the front runner, which is what happened to me after the debate, and the next day, the beating started.

You talked during the campaign about becoming “a different Arnold.” How are you different now than you were just a few weeks ago when you were sitting in Jay Leno’s chair announcing your candidacy?

When I talk about being different now, I meant from my body-building days. We all go through stages. You change a lot more, you become more mature. You grow out of this stage. When you are 4, you play with trucks [mimics the sound of an engine roaring and brakes squealing]. When you are 14, you don’t want the little truck, you want to go out and play soccer; you don’t think about building businesses. But when you are 24, you do think about building a business. So we all go through stages, and that’s what I meant.