Maybe Arnold Schwarzenegger really IS a machine. The day he skipped the first scheduled debate (an interesting and somewhat ballsy move itself), Arnold got hit with an egg while he was out pressing the flesh. Watching the video, he just walked right through it. He barely made any facial reaction at all, and didn't really even slow down. He stripped off his jacket, which caught the main hit, and kept walking.

It reminded me of some of his Terminator scenes where he gets shot, and keeps walking right through it with no emotional reaction whatsoever. I assume that if he were actually shot, it would slow him down. Nonetheless, the total control of his own reaction fascinated me. The presence of mind and quick, understated response were just dead ON it.

Who knows how it will all play out on election day, but his whole campaign so far strikes me as surprisingly skillful and professional, in the best sense of the word. I'm quite impressed with how he's staging his entire campaign. At this point, I'm starting to think that even the Warren Buffett bit on Prop 13 was stage managed. Did he have the 500 sit-ups quip for the press in hand before Buffett even made the comment?

A few minutes after the egging, Arnold said "This guy owes me bacon now." That's a decently clever line. Even more clever, I'm wondering if he didn't anticipate specifically getting egged, and therefore already had a clever response line in the can. I'm guessing now that he's got a prepared line or two to use if he gets hit with a tomato.

Other than the classic T2, I've never been particularly a big fan of his movies. I also have serious reservations about a lot of his political statements.

However, Arnold continues to impress me with his campaign performance. Again, note that I'm talking about the presentation of his campaign, rather than the specific substance.

He's had another little move in the last couple of days that impresses me in its precision, reacting to the old interviews being dug up with talk about drugs and wild sexual exploits. He has suggested, quite plausibly, that not every single such thing that he said was actually true. The now famous Oui magazine interview among others was done when he was promoting a movie, and some of those crazy personal stories were really just PR hype. Then he uses THAT to brag on his success in promoting the sport of body building. Seems reasonable.

That's just PERFECT politics for this situation. Without denying or lying, he's giving more conservative voters a feasible reason not to believe some of the wildest stuff. Particularly in the context of California politics, his liberal opponents both on the ballot and in the press are going to look pretty dumb if they now start trying to nail him down about specific stories. This election is about the future of California, not stories about the sex lives of body builders from a quarter century ago, etc.

Beyond any questions about policy issues, stuff like this makes me think the guy actually is smart and subtle enough to really do the job.