The anti-Hummer Huffer definitely qualifies as a major candidate -- she will land in the top 5% (by number; that's the top 7 vote-getters for those of you keeping score at home. Ah, the luxuries offered to predictors by a field of 135 candidates). Now, an alternative definition of "major candidate" might be "better than a snow-ball's chance in hell of winning", in which case she's out of the majors.

Reuters this morning quotes Schwarzenegger from his 1977 memoir "Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder" where he concludes it was worthwhile to abandon his Austrian army unit -- going Absent Without Leave -- so that he could participate in his first major bodybuilding contest:

I sat in jail for seven days with only a blanket on a cold stone bench and almost no food. But I had my trophy and I didn't care if they locked me up for a whole year; it had been worth it.

Conclusion: Arnold first, civic responsibility (and complying with the law) somewhere after that. I suppose we can hope that he doesn't decide that there's something he'd rather do than govern . Of course, going AWOL as a cheif executive won't land you in the brig.