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Virginia Postrel asks: "But did [Schwarzenegger] really start a campaign without getting some policy briefings beforehand?"

The answer -- reported yesterday here on PrestoPundit -- is no. Not only is Schwarzenegger briefed, he's focus-grouped, polled, and advised by the smartest and most successful political people in California on the Republican side of the fence -- including one well-known former governor of the state. And the first rule in the book is that first impressions in politics are the most important -- and you want ALL of these to be very, very positive "on message" impressions. In other words, Schwarzenegger is getting straight A's for open-day politics. He isn't going for the wonks right now -- he's going for the general public. And it ain't rocket science here. You want to put out all the core themes that pull in the vast millions of voters -- and you want to save for another day all the stuff just doesn't matter that much at the moment and in the whole scheme of things, the stuff that first impression folks might trip up on, if that is all they know about the candidate. This is politics 101 folks.