Reply #18: interview no, unstaged debate no [View All]

but Bill Forman did trick him into addressing this...AS had obviously been prepped...all subsequent press q&a's were given the Berlin Wall tactic. Read on-

-snip-
My third encounter with Arnold, I vowed, would be more fruitful. The debate organizers had decided to hold an additional press conference, this one for the overflow journalists stationed in the campus library. Positioning myself front and center, I watched the tough questions begin to fly, things like: Arnold, just why are Democrats so afraid of you?

Before long, Schwarzenegger’s spin doctor announced the last call for questions, and I weighed my options: Skulking in alleyways had not worked. The straight-arm salute felt creepy and also had proved ineffective. My only choice, I decided, was to be as submissive and pathetic as possible.

When Schwarzenegger made eye contact with me, I affected a look more desperate than a man trying to hail a cab in a hurricane, more sickeningly sincere than those Margaret Keane paintings of big-eyed kids on black velvet.

He broke eye contact, continuing to speak about the special interests to which lesser candidates are beholden. And then he looked back. I raised an index finger, silently mouthing a prayer: One question, just one.

OK, this really was the last question, the spin-guy insisted, as I offered up my most hopeful expression, the kind a dog makes after it has chewed up the rug.

It worked. Arnold pointed to me. The sea of reporters parted, and I rose to my feet and spoke the question: “Do you consider Ken Lay a special interest, and why won’t you talk about when you met with him during our California energy crisis?”

And this is how he answered: “Well, first of all, I just found out very recently --How many days ago? Two days ago? Three days ago?--I had someone look at the record who was there,” he continued, insisting he was just one of 30 people at Lay’s meeting. “And at that time, he was not a star. He was unknown, not the way he is known now. So, I did not remember ever meeting him. So, then we looked at the record, and then we found out two days ago, yes, he was in that room, but I don’t even remember meeting him.”

Another reporter followed up with a question about deregulation. As it turns out, Arnold is for it. And then it was time to go. As he left the room, reporters called out questions about Karl Rove and Cheney. Arnold ignored them, exiting to applause from the more star-struck “reporters” left behind.

This weekend--while I pondered the idea that Lay’s public disgrace was actually a rise to stardom--the Schwarzenegger campaign reportedly put journalists in isolation. The media was placed in a press-only section behind a stage from which he would no longer take questions. Now more than ever, with only days left before the vote, Arnold’s handlers need to make sure that no one screws things up. Not even Arnold.