All right, I admit it: Arnold’s performance yesterday was just right.

McClintock diehard that I was, I was half expecting Arnold to stage a day of self-indulgence, flying planeloads of Hollywood buddies up to Sacramento, throwing a gigantic party that we’d all see next week on the cover of People, and giving a speech that strained for rhetorical effect, saying, “Look at me! I’m governor!”

Instead Arnold produced a day that was dignified and businesslike. A few of his Hollywood pals were indeed in attendance, including Rob Reiner, who may be, after Barbra Streisand, the most visible liberal in California. But there were no extravagant parties. And Arnold’s speech was brief, straightforward, and moving, with graceful references to his wife’s uncle, John Kennedy, and his own hero, Ronald Reagan, and a powerful passage explaining how much living in freedom means to a man who once watched Soviet tanks roll through the streets of his native Austria.

Perhaps most important, Arnold’s speech contained action. The new governor announced that immediately after his swearing-in he would sign an executive order rescinding the tripling of the car tax, then issue a proclamation calling the legislature into special session to address the budget deficit, revamp workers’ compensation, and repeal SB60, the legislation that offered driver’s licences to illegal immigrants. Couple those actions with the effort Arnold’s people have made during the past six weeks to unscramble the state’s books-the true deficit, it appears now that the transition team has spent hundreds of hours working with officials in the Department of Finance, is not $8 billion, as Gray Davis claimed, but $24 billion-and what you have is a picture of a governor who intends to behave like an adult.