Just over seven years ago, as Arnold Schwarzenegger ran for governor in the 2003 recall election, he constantly visited small business after small business over a period of weeks in September and October.

In many of her ubiquitous television spots and in almost every campaign appearance, Republican Meg Whitman hammers at the theme that Democratic challenger Jerry Brown is a fox who shouldn’t be let loose in the state government henhouse.

Every national poll shows the Republican Party is poised to make big gains this fall, perhaps even taking back control of both the House and Senate. Even here in California, where the movie muscleman Arnold Schwarzenegger is the only GOP candidate of the last 18 years to win a top-of-ticket race, Republican nominees for governor and the U.S. Senate are giving their Democratic opponents a tussle.

Some call them nuances. To others, they’re “weasel words.” But there’s no doubt this fall’s California political campaigns have more of them than usual. Which may be one reason both major races in this state are close, with unusually large numbers of undecided voters for this time of the political season.

It’s high season for political polls, and if you listen to the people who run the surveys, television’s Dr. House is wrong when he says everyone lies at least some of the time. The pollsters contend few voters ever lie to any of them.

On the surface, this fall’s campaign for governor seemed to begin in earnest almost one year ago when Republican Meg Whitman opened the radio ad campaign that turned into a key part of her successful drive for the Republican nomination.

The Texas oil companies behind Prop. 23 don’t call it an attempt to deny the existence of worldwide climate change. They just call the landmark 2006 California law they’re essentially trying to repeal a “job killer.”

The sad reality about the political commercials now crowding California’s airwaves is that they are, de facto, not subject to the same truth-in-advertising rules that govern ads for, say, cars or computers, laser eye treatments, weight loss programs or plastic surgery.

[Editor’s Note: Our intrepid political essayist journeyed abroad recently, and here is the first of two reports.]

When the Prop. 19 marijuana legalization initiative qualified for the ballot with a yes-or-no due vote in the November election, its passage seemed almost a foregone conclusion.