More Arnold: One point you bring up, Razor: ". . . you have to imagine he'll have all kinds of help from strategy to fund-raising (assuming he won't completely fund this himself)." I've been looking for a better transcript of his remarks this morning, but what I heard on the radio this morning sounded like a promise of self-financing. Here's what USA Today quotes:

"I do not have to bow to any special interests," he said. "I have plenty of money. No one can pay me off. Trust me: No one."

There's a lot of wiggle room in there. He could be saying that, because of his money, he can comfortably walk away from a donation that has strings attached. He could also be saying that he'll just plain ol' pony up himself. Who knows? I'm split on this myself. I suppose I would come down on the side of self-funding. You risk the taint of elitism, sure; but you also get to tell the voters that you won't take donations because you think they've "already paid enough under Davis" or some line like that. Besides, Arnold can afford it, and he's going to get more free media on this than he could conceivably buy, generally from the soft-soap entertainment mags. He'll take a small hit, I predict, from the tabloids. But what the hell? The only thing worse than bad publicity is no publicity.

Update: The Washington Post says:

Later, he told reporters that he intends to restore California's "disastrous" finances and challenge the influence that he said special interests have on the state's government. He also said he will fund his campaign only with his own money. "I will go to Sacramento, and I will clean house," he said.

(My emphasis.) There you have it.