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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Rollcast... who wrote (10474)	10/2/2003 10:35:23 PM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793698

CALIFORNIA INSIDER Boy on the bus I have emerged from the media bubble that is the Schwarzenegger bus tour, in part to try to get a sense of how the groping story is playing out here in the real world. The candidate did not repeat his apology at his second event of the day, in Orange County, but did mention the attacks indirectly, and his surrogates laid into the LA Times with ferocity. Their suggestion that the story was held until the last minute in order to damage Schwarzenegger still doesn’t ring true to me, because of what I know about how newspapers work and how stories like this evolve. But I do think questions about how The Times found these women, especially the anonymous ones, are a legitimate avenue for inquiry. If they were led to them by Democratic operatives or others linked to Davis, even if not linked directly to the campaign, that would be worth knowing. The Schwarzenegger caravan is, of course, an extravaganza. More than 200 members of the media on four buses are trailing two buses carrying the candidate and his staff and supporters from San Diego to Sacramento. The trip was preceded by vague promises that reporters might be rotated into the lead bus for time with Schwarzenegger, but I am not sure if that is happening. I spent the first leg from San Diego to Orange County on Predator 3, as it was named, with about 44 other media types and three Schwarzenegger staffers. Almost all of those on my bus were television and radio reporters, and the scene quickly became an orgy of reporters interviewing reporters. Entertainment Tonight interviewed several correspondents, including your blogger, for a piece that is to run tonight (though I pretty sure that my rather restrained reflections will end up on the cutting-room floor). I was also interviewed by an National Public Radio reporter while I was preparing to do a piece for MSNBC. The television hit was supposed to be live, with the picture feed sent via radio to a satellite truck driving alongside, which would then beam the images back to network headquarters in New York. Alas, the truck got separated from the bus and lost its connection, so my incredibly lucid comments were aired without benefit of live pictures of my standard journalist-issue black blazer and blue shirt. The logistics (and money) involved in this kind of stuff boggles the mind of this ink-stained wretch. The technology we were trying to use was first employed in Iraq during the war, then for Hurricane Isabel. From war to disaster to the California Recall. Schwarzenegger, except for the apology, stuck to his regular stump speech, with the only surprise being the demolition of a car at the Orange County event to protest the recent increase in the car tax. The 1980s Buick was crushed by a wrecking ball dropped from a couple hundred feet above, where it had hung throughout his speech, suspended by a crane. The crowd roared. I jumped ship in Orange County, hitched a ride to John Wayne Airport and am preparing to return to Sacramento for a day. I’ll be checking back with the Schwarzenegger gang on Saturday as they close in on the Capitol. sacbee.com