PRESTOPUNDIT -- "An intense brain-buzz, guaranteed" (2blowhards)

Schwarzenegger's well paid staff continues to make junior high mistakes -- didn't anybody tell Arnold to look into the camera, and not away to the moderator? Didn't anyone catch this in debate practice? And why didn't Schwarzenegger's people insist that the candidates stand? Candidates sitting are always have significantly less stature than do candidates who stand. The sitting thing was a clear disadvantage for Schwarzenegger. And in my judgment the crazy lady simply should not have been allowed on the stage. She is not running for governor, she is out promoting her phony baloney career as a "political commentator". She simply didn't belong ,and the moderator utterly failed to keep her on the topic on California, rather than Iraq or George Bush or god knows what she was racing on about -- or was that the crazy man talking about Iraq? Who knows.

McClintock proved he would make a great governor -- of Arizona. I wish he'd make a great governor of California, but I'm convinced California is too big, too left, too media driven and too far lost for that. Bustamante was impressive in a quiet but confident way -- well measured and clearly experienced in the art of communicating with all sorts of different folks. Schwarzenegger stood out as the debate amateur here -- I don't know if this is such a bad thing, but I do know that this would not have happened if Schwarzenegger had allowed himself to put a couple of these under his belt across the course of the campaign. I've suggested before that the Reagan '66 way would have been Schwarzenegger's best course -- talk everyone's head off and end the perception problem which has it that Schwarzenegger is not smart enough or well informed enough to be governor. This debate format and Schwarzenegger's performance alone was not enough to do that. A damn shame that so many expectations were forced onto this one debate.

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