Arnold Unplugged

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has had his fair share of political blunders in his relatively short political career. And most of the time when he interacts with the public, it's in hermetically sealed, scripted media events.

But yesterday, as part of his push for eight ballot initiatives in November's special election (which we've written about before), Schwarzenegger participated in his first non-scripted public forum. He took questions from the audience that were not pre-screened by his staff, and, reportedly, he did a fine job.

It's an interesting comment on the current state of politics and the media that it's news when a seemingly unscripted, informal public forum actually is unscripted and informal. But Schwarzenegger's willingness to participate in one--and his apparent success--is worth noting. Remember him as Mr. Olympia?