I’ve about had it up to here with the California recall, but one more note before the day draws to a close: I think I’ve figured out why I was wrong about the debate.

I figured McClintock had won–and that any sane person would have to agree. But I see now that I suffered from what the French call a deformation professionelle. It all comes of having spent so many years as a speechwriter. I fastened on each candidate’s message, tending to overlook his appearance and personality–the more so because, stuck in my car, I listened to the first third or so of the debate on the radio before I finally got home and was able to switch on the television.

Readers of The Corner have been setting me straight ever since. McClintock, I’ve been told, looked stiff and aloof. Der Arnold? Relaxed. In command. McClintock proved humorless. Der Arnold? His jokes may have been scripted, but they were still funny. One reader summed it up neatly. McClintock, he said, demonstrated that he has the resume, intelligence, and personality to become…a budget director.

Now, I still think very highly of McClintock. And every scrap of news I can glean from the Schwarzenegger camp confirms my suspicion that Arnold has exactly zero idea what he’ll do when he becomes governor of this great state next week. I remain convinced, in other words, that a candidate’s message counts. But a candidate’s temperament and personality count, too. As they watched the debate, voters seem to have been looking for someone with whom they’d feel comfortable, sensing, correctly, as far as I can tell, that the next governor will need both presence and good humor to deal with the mess he’ll find in Sacramento. By the time the debate ended, Californians had decided they like Arnold.

Despite my misgivings about the man’s program, I can’t say I blame them.