Schwarzeneggers are two-party family

The lawn of their Brentwood home has dueling campaign signs. The breakfast table has become a casual debating society. Shriver is even threatening to bring a life-size cutout of her preferred candidate into the house, something the governor has seen her do in other elections. “When one of the candidates screws up,” Schwarzenegger said of the cutouts, “the kids carry them outside.”

The four Schwarzenegger children — who range in age from 10 to 18— have already taken sides, though only one of them, Katherine, is actually old enough to vote. She favors Obama.

Advantage, Shriver.

“I think there are great benefits to having kids grow up understanding that we do not live in a one-party system,” Shriver said. “That there are two ways at looking at an issue. To be patient, and to compromise, those are good lessons not just in politics but for life. I grew up believing there was only one way to think. There isn’t.”

It all began this winter when Schwarzenegger announced his allegiance to McCain, unsurprisingly, and then Shriver showed up on the stage at a rally for Obama in Los Angeles proclaiming her support along with other members of the extended Kennedy family just days later.

On Super Tuesday, the governor awoke to a lawn full of Obama signs. Seeking fair and balanced landscaping, he immediately called his aides to procure an equal number of McCain signs. (Perhaps not the easiest request on the day when the Republicans were looking to deliver the state to McCain. Also not one, under the circumstances, to be farmed out to the first lady’s office.)

While voters here are long accustomed to the Republican governor and his Kennedy-family wife, the spectacle of them avidly supporting two different presidential candidates is likely to become even more pronounced to the rest of the nation as the campaign enters the general election phase, with both playing an active role.

He and she are likely speakers at each party’s convention this summer. Shriver has been mentioned as a possible chairwoman for Obama’s California effort, and is considered to be one of its most endearing assets in the state.

“Maria Shriver is a powerful advocate for Senator Obama,” said Bill Burton, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, in an e-mail message. “We’ll be thrilled to have her campaign for us whenever she can in the coming months. And we remain hopeful that Californians will side with their first lady in November, even if the governor himself does not.” Shriver has carefully managed to maintain her professional and political identities since becoming the first lady of California,