Governor’s fall appears to lift his oratory skills

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger hasn’t lost a step with his broken leg. In fact, he probably has gained ground on crutches.

That isn’t a measurement based on polls or any progress toward achieving his new No. 1 priority: healthcare for all Californians.

It is based on his improved verbal communication -- not so much in content, although that’s fine, but in upgraded delivery.

Upgraded as in some signs of humility and less hubris. More charm without being cocky. Inflection in his voice, not bombast. Subdued rather than strident. More thoughtful, less theatrical.

He’s now fully the governor. No longer the Terminator.

In truth, of course, Schwarzenegger calmed down over a year ago, dropping the bully act after getting

thrashed by voters in a special election on his “reforms.” He had been “too pushy,” the governor conceded Sunday on ABC-TV’s “This Week With George Stephanopoulos.”

“Attacking people and saying ‘girlie men’ and all those things.... I didn’t know any better.... I’ve learned that there’s a better way, and that is to bring people together, not to insult them.”

But Schwarzenegger now has elevated his communicating to an even higher level -- a necessity if he’s going to sell the public on sweeping healthcare and costly public works programs.

I credit the fractured femur.

Any link between the busted thigh and better oratory is purely speculative. But I’m not alone in noticing marked improvement over previous efforts in his recent inaugural and State of the State addresses.

“It was toned down by 10 on a scale of 50,” says Barbara O’Connor, a political communications professor at Cal State Sacramento and a longtime Democratic activist. “The pain pills will do that for you.”

O’Connor knows. She has had both hips replaced. “I think he clearly was in a lot of pain,” she says. “I tried to envision myself with a pin in my femur. For me, it was just a fight to get to the bathroom. He was trying to hold himself up and stand on one foot. I give him lots of credit.”

Schwarzenegger also had a hip replacement that he says contributed to his freak skiing accident “at a very slow speed.” When Stephanopoulos asked him how he withstood the pain while keeping a smile, the governor replied: “Fake.”

“It’s 24 hours a day throbbing.... You only want to take a little bit of medication because otherwise, you know, you maybe forget what you want to say and you start slurring.”

O’Connor believes that Schwarzenegger now “realizes his mortality” after badly breaking the leg, following a previous heart valve replacement, torn rotator cuff, broken ribs and the hip replacement.

That may seem like pop psychology, but it makes some sense.

In his speeches, O’Connor says, Schwarzenegger has been coming across “more humble and earnest. Less bravado and more human. And I think that enhances the content.”

Schwarzenegger’s speech content has been heavy on “post-partisanship.” He’s trying to promote it into a national crusade. I’m not sure what post-partisanship means, other than nonpartisanship, and that would seem to have a limited future in a two-party political system. Bipartisanship is another matter. It led to huge successes last year in Sacramento.

Anyway, as O’Connor says: “If you’re requesting something that significant, you’d jolly well better seem human. People are persuaded by those they are like, or would like to be like -- somebody not too highfalutin, who has the same frailties each of us has and is coping with them.

“It’s hard to relate to an action hero, because we’re not one.”

Republican consultant Dan Schnur, who was Gov. Pete Wilson’s communications director, puts it this way: “Action heroes don’t need to be post-partisan. They can do whatever they want.

“The Terminator couldn’t have pulled off” a speech urging post-partisanship, he continues, because the role wouldn’t have fit him. “But it was just right for Gov. Schwarzenegger.”

Schnur says “the broken leg may have dialed him down a couple of notches. One of the reasons he was so effective is that he was more subdued.”

Leaning on those crutches, says Steve Merksamer, a lawyer-lobbyist who was Gov. George Deukmejian’s chief of staff, Schwarzenegger showed everyone that “he’s not the indestructible man. He’s human. Like the rest of us.”

And that’s in line with his “transformation from being a movie star to being a political leader,” Merksamer adds. Governing is “not all action, action. It requires patience, patience. He has learned that.”

But one Republican pro cautions not to go overboard with all this cause-and-effect analysis.

“Look, he’s a performance artist,” says the strategist, who doesn’t want to be named because some might consider him disloyal. “We all know that he rehearses those things repeatedly.”

Yet, he emphasizes: “Given the pain he was in, he sucked it up and did great.”

Whatever, the inaugural address was the best oratory I’ve heard from Schwarzenegger in terms of projecting sincerity and not seeming scripted. The State of the State was just as amazing, given these speeches’ traditional lengths and the fact that they too often resemble a recitation of every Cabinet member’s wish list. This one seemed heartfelt.

The same applies to Schwarzenegger’s high-profile unveilings of his healthcare plan and proposed new budget -- and a luncheon speech at the Sacramento Press Club on Wednesday. During a Q & A, the Republican governor seemed to hint at the possibility of endorsing a Democrat for president, but later backed off. Must have been the pain pills talking.

Otherwise, Schwarzenegger has been on a roll, even on crutches -- actually, because of them.

George Skelton writes Monday and Thursday. Reach him at george.skelton

@latimes.com.