Opinion: Arnold’s Marathon

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Only watching Arnold Schwarzenegger over the last week or so can one truly appreciate the lousy timing of his Dec. 23 ski accident. He had surgery the day after Christmas and was laid up in the hospital at exactly the time he had to put the finishing touches on four crucial appearances beginning his second term, all of which came in rapid-fire order: his swearing-in and inauguration address last Friday, his healthcare presentation Monday, the State of the State speech on Tuesday, and the budget presentation Wednesday. That’s a lot of time in Sacramento for a governor who is known to prefer working from his home in Brentwood.

He prefers Brentwood so much, apparently, that spending the weekend in California’s capital city was out of the question. He flew to Sacramento Friday for the inaugural and various parties, then home the next day. On Monday, he appeared at his healthcare forum by video, explaining that he was back home and that his doctor had forbidden him to fly more than once a week. But that’s already two plane flights. Then he flew back to Sacramento on Tuesday, and back to L.A. on Wednesday.

He must have a fairly easygoing doctor.

Schwarzenegger took some well-deserved flak for not revealing exactly what happened to him on that Idaho ski slope late last month. He came clean--or, at least, cleaner--yesterday at his budget news conference after the Times’ Peter Nicholas asked him to explain. The governor elicited laughter when he said the accident was especially unfortunate because it occurred at slow speed; many in the audience took the statement as a joke that a broken leg would have been more glorious had it happened during a feat of athletic derring-do.

But as Schwarzenegger went on to explain, the slow speed meant the ski did not pop off and instead torqued the leg and broke it.