Arnold Schwarzenegger has been rewriting the standard political scripts ever since he assumed the starring role in California's recall campaign by announcing his candidacy on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno."
This week was no exception, as the Republican front-runner to replace Democratic Gov. Gray Davis racked up what amounted to a media grand slam -- sequential appearances on Oprah Winfrey's syndicated daytime television show, Larry King's prime-time cable program and Howard Stern's morning rush-hour radio broadcast.
Schwarzenegger's gubernatorial campaign is dealing with the media in an entirely novel and unforeseen way, almost completely shutting out experienced political journalists, while making their man available only in friendly forums -- right-wing talk radio and the congenial celebrity chat shows. Two questions arise: Will it work? And, if it does, can Arnold's happy ending become a school for other candidates?
In conventional campaign terms, what occurred this week was a jaw-dropping achievement, the sort of unprecedented publicity triumph that leaves political rivals with nothing to do but stand and weep, and before which their preternaturally opinionated professional handlers can only sit and be silent.
"It's quite extraordinary," said veteran Democratic political strategist Bill Carrick. "You can sort of imagine something kind of like it, if he were a suddenly controversial nominee in a presidential campaign -- a la Bill and Hillary Clinton and their famous '60 Minutes' appearance. But I can't think of another candidate for governor who would even get the time of day on these programs."
Republican strategist and pollster Arnold Steinberg, who worked with Carrick on Richard Riordan's second campaign for Los Angeles' nonpartisan mayor's office, agreed that "we've never seen anything like this and we won't see it again." To Steinberg, Schwarzenegger's ability virtually to write his own ticket with the electronic media's ratings elite derives from a unique confluence of circumstances: the candidate's film star credentials, the novelty of the recall itself and the dramatic focus imposed by a compressed campaign.
"It's a unique set of circumstances," Steinberg said, "and I don't think there are any transferable political lessons to be taken from it."
