I wonder which Pete Wilson aide had the brilliant idea to have Ahnolt use the "Terminator 4" line on Arianna Huffington tonight. Their candidate has a serious gender gap problem. He has chosen to participate in only one debate. Yet he allows himself to get baited by an also-ran into making a reference to a movie where he recently admitted he wanted to shove the face of a villainess into a toilet that had something "floating" in it. That should rally the soccer moms around their candidate !! I mean, it's not as if the misogynist voting bloc is up for grabs in this election.

In what was an entertaining evening, the clear winners of the debate on both substance and style points were Bustamante and McClintock. Cruz has been the target of a rather unsubtle attack concerning his intelligence, and just by acting mature and adult, he seemed to counter that. Other than a few throwaway lines by Arianna, the "Indian gaming" issue never came up.

And McClintock, as Aaron Brown noted on CNN, was quite impressive. Had he been the G.O.P. nominee in 2002, he might have beaten Gray Davis. He has an earnestness about him that is quite appealing; whereas A.S. can pretty much take any position on issues ranging from Prop. 13 reform to gun control to stem cell research, and not have that hurt him in any way with the Republican establishment, McClintock actually has principles. If he were to come out in favor of the Brady Bill, or in opposition to the ban on late-term abortions, it would seriously impact his public image. It's no wonder he was the only G.O.P. nominee to come close to winning last November; after all, for many liberals, Barry Goldwater has been their favorite conservative, and he didn't equivocate either.

UPDATE: If anyone has a different take on what Ahnolt meant by his Terminator reference, please feel free to respond. Is there another reference that I'm missing that would also be humorous?