CRITICS OF Arnold Schwarzenegger’s gubernatorial campaign argue he doesn’t have the experience necessary to govern. California Democratic spokesman Bob Mulholland says his party has “real bullets” that a political neophyte like Schwarzenegger will have trouble dodging. However, what these Democratic strategists fail to realize is that the actor’s political tutelage was on display more than 15 years ago while working on the set of the 1987 film “Predator.” Schwarzenegger is actually the third gubernatorial candidate to emerge from a group of six elite cinematic mercenaries, unleashing the Predator Effect upon the electorate. The film’s plot unfolds under the auspices of a search and rescue mission in the jungles of Central America. A cabinet minister and his aides have fallen into the hands of brutal Communist guerillas. Schwarzenegger and his team make short work of the enemy camp but the cabinet minister is nowhere to be found. Things go from bad to worse as the commandos realize they are being pursued by a mysterious presence that is systematically hunting and murdering them one at a time.

Before the carnage ensues, we meet Schwarzenegger’s team. Standing out from the group is Blain, a fiercely independent Vietnam veteran who carries his own M134/5.56mm minigun. Blain is played by Jesse “ain’t got time to bleed” Ventura. While he’s one of the earliest victims of the Predator, he was also the first castmember to take a gubernatorial opponent to the mat in real life.