SACRAMENTO – Actor Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday night showed he could more than hold his own with the two other leading candidates for governor as he appeared for the first and probably only time with his rivals in a closely watched statewide TV showdown.

“In California we have a `three strikes’ system,” Schwarzenegger, a Republican, declared as he went on the attack against the Democratic front-runner, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante. “You guys pulled the wool over people’s eyes twice. The third time now, you are out.”

With sharp jabs at Bustamante, the actor demonstrated he could go after veteran politicians and engage them on the issues. He passed a threshold test for becoming the state’s leader, even if he didn’t deliver a knockout blow.

“I thought he was quite effective,” said Alan Schroeder, associate professor of journalism at Northeastern University and author of a book about presidential debates. “I think the question for anyone in California watching this debate is whether he’s plausible as governor, and based on this little performance here, he seemed quite plausible.”

While Schwarzenegger had his prepared zingers, Schroeder said his overall delivery didn’t come off as scripted: “Debates are job interviews . . . and you could see him in this job based on the performance he gave.”

The 90-minute debate sponsored by the California Broadcasters Association came less than two weeks before the Oct. 7 election, as voters are still making up their minds about whether to support the recall of Democratic Gov. Gray Davis as well as whom to back as his replacement if it succeeds.

Heading into the debate, Schwarzenegger was thought to be the main target of the other candidates, who had criticized him repeatedly for not participating in previous forums. But his main GOP rival, conservative state Sen. Tom McClintock, R-Thousand Oaks, focused on his own conservative tax-cutting agenda and barely acknowledged the other Republican on the stage. McClintock solidified his credentials with the right wing of his party, but he didn’t reach out to moderates and independents whom Schwarzenegger is courting.

By not going after Schwarzenegger, McClintock, who is under growing pressure from his own party to drop out, left himself the option of a gracious exit from the contest. But McClintock told reporters after the debate that he is not dropping out.

Jaime Regalado, executive director of the Pat Brown Institute at California State University-Los Angeles, said it appeared that Schwarzenegger and McClintock “took pains not to antagonize one another . . . so apparently they had similar strategies with each other not to further disgruntle Republican voters by attacking one another.”

Instead, Schwarzenegger focused on Bustamante and independent Arianna Huffington, who taunted the actor throughout the evening.

“I thought it was curious and probably good politics to go on the attack, to look like the Terminator and sometimes get a little nasty,” Regalado said.

By the same token, Schroeder contended that Bustamante “was a little too agreeable for a debate in which he needed to present himself as an alternative, and a little whiny.”

“Clearly we spent too much,” Bustamante acknowledged at one point during a discussion of the state’s budget problems. “We spent more than we had.”

“What I have decided to do is to face this realistically, to deal with it practically, to understand it and not to have half-truths about what we’re likely to be able to do,” Bustamante said, as he stressed his “tough love” approach to raising taxes.

Schwarzenegger, however, aggressively went after Bustamante, saying: “What you’re saying is the politicians make a mistake. They keep spending and spending and spending. Then when they realize they made a mistake, they’ve spent money they don’t even have, then they go out; they go tax, tax, tax. . . . You guys have an addiction problem. You should go to an addiction place, because you cannot stop spending.”

This was the only debate that Schwarzenegger had agreed to join. The format has drawn criticism because the candidates were given 12 questions in advance.

For Bustamante, the debate was a chance to solidify his position among Democratic voters by stressing his dedication to working families, immigrants and greater access to health care. He also sought to appeal to non-aligned voters, by repeatedly emphasizing expanded opportunities in higher education.

There was scant attention paid to the need for the recall, and scant mention of Davis. The governor did not ask to participate.