Monthly Archives: May 2022

Does Newsom really have “zero interest” in running for president?

Politico reports:

https://www.politico.com/newsletters/california-playbook/2022/05/23/newsoms-presidential-window-is-narrow-he-doesnt-seem-to-mind-00034330

If Newsom truly has no presidential aspirations, his rhetoric doesn’t show it. The governor is known for bashing Republicans across the country (particularly those in Florida and Texas) and often positions California — and himself — as a national defender of liberal values. He’s not afraid to go after state and federal laws that he deems unsavory, he talks up California’s successes on national daytime television, and he posts contemplative photos of himself reading banned books to needle political opponents.

Earlier this month, following POLITICO’s report of a draft opinion overturning Roe v. Wade, the governor even expressed frustration with his own political kin, saying he has felt an “enormous sense of frustration” with national Democrats as he’s watched Republicans barrel forward with their agenda.

“Where’s the party?” he said. “Why aren’t we standing up more firmly?”

At very least, it sounds like Newsom isn’t interested in challenging Harris, both of whom came up in the San Francisco political scene. But deferring to Harris means potentially delaying a run for multiple election cycles, and the further out from office he gets, the harder it could be to mount a comeback into political life.

There are a few scenarios where Newsom’s White House window gets wider. If a Republican wins in 2024, and Harris declines to run in 2028, Newsom would only be two years out of the governor’s office and a likely candidate for the top job.

The same thing could happen if Biden wins in 2024 and Harris doesn’t run in 2028, but in that case, voters may be less inclined to put a Democrat in power for the third term in a row.

Will this woman run for president? Republicans are already gunning for her!

Is Newsom too blah blah to be president?

We all know the campaign is coming, writes Eric Ting on SFGATE.

When you were governor of California, you backed off of single-payer health care after you and the state Democratic Party received ungodly amounts of money from big insurance donors,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez might say.

“Gavin Newsom simply cannot be trusted to enact progressive policies like Medicare for All,” Rep. Ro Khanna may add.

These are the same criticisms Warren and Booker faced in the 2020 primaries: Booker was called “a neoliberal who’s cozy with the monied elites of Wall Street and Silicon Valley” by The New Republic, and the progressive souring on Warren began in earnest after she equivocated on her support for Medicare for All.

Newsom has a history of being squishy on policy when it comes to the desires of moneyed interest groups, whether it be prison guards opposing a vaccine mandate or Hollywood lobbyists seeking exemptions from stay-at-home orders. He has also drawn progressive ire over his handling of fracking permits and the currently proposed gas rebate. Other presidential candidates running as progressives will have a remarkably easy time painting Newsom as a neoliberal establishment sellout; if you thought the Elizabeth Warren snake memes were harsh, wait until you see what the Bernie Sanders wing of the party might have in store for Newsom.

Would Newsom be better off running as a more centrist candidate in the mold of Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar? The moderate wing of the Democratic Party heavily prioritizes electability, with Biden (Pennsylvania) Klobuchar (Minnesota) and Buttigieg (Indiana) all arguing to voters that their midwestern roots would help in critical swing states in the region, and that their policy moderation would not turn off independent or conservative voters. Newsom is the embodiment of a coastal elite, and is already a prominent Fox News boogeyman

In 2020, Buttigieg specifically went after Warren and Sanders for being vulnerable to Republican attacks that they are too far to the left, and similar attacks will likely be lobbed against Newsom when he runs.

Even if Newsom tries to make a heel-turn towards stylizing as a moderate, he’ll have a difficult time convincing centrist voters he’s for real after years of branding himself a trail-blazing progressive — a label that, again, progressives don’t agree with in the first place. Meanwhile, his high-profile inability to follow state and local COVID-19 rules cannot be written out of the public record, and it’s not hard to see moderate candidates such as Buttigieg, or perhaps Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, stating, “Our party is already accused of being out of touch with ordinary people, why in god’s name would we want to nominate the poster child of such criticism?”

When presidential candidates in the modern Democratic Party find themselves caught in no man’s land between the progressive lane and the establishment lane, bad things tend to happen. Booker never made it to the primaries. Warren never finished better than third place in any of the contests she ran in. Other candidates who straddled the line such as Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand also saw their campaigns quickly fizzle. Going back further in time to 2016, Hillary Clinton had a stranglehold on the establishment wing while Bernie Sanders had a stranglehold on the progressive wing, leaving no room for any other serious contenders.

Newsom, who is not progressive enough for the left wing of the party and not electable enough for the centrist wing, is likely to suffer a similar fate whenever he launches the presidential bid everyone knows is coming.

https://www.sfgate.com/politics/article/Gavin-Newsom-needs-a-reality-check-17078264.php

Right-wing unhoused-hating Michael Shellenberger to challenge Newsom

“He’s also a bona fide environmentalist. In 2004 he rose to prominence by co-authoring an essay criticizing the green movement as arrogant and politically insular. “Environmentalism is just another special interest,” he wrote. “Environmentalists ask not what we can do for non-environmental constituencies but what non-environmental constituencies can do for environmentalists.”

“He became an outspoken advocate for nuclear energy and shale gas fracking to reduce CO2 emissions. After writing a book criticizing climate alarmism, he turned his focus to the social policies that are ruining big cities on the West Coast, especially in California’s Bay Area where he has lived for three decades.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/michael-shellenberger-beat-gavin-newsom-california-governor-gubernatorial-election-housing-energy-homelessness-school-choice-11652107572?mod=hp_opin_pos_2

Message to Right Wing: Gavin Newsom has not been replaced by a clone!

“The live-stream of Donald Trump’s Arizona rally from Right Side Broadcasting, a right-wing website known for streaming Trump’s events, took a conspiratorial turn when one attendee insisted that California Gov. Gavin Newsom had been executed and replaced with a clone.”

https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2022/jan/19/blog-posting/bogus-claims-about-gavin-newsom-being-executed-clo/

Corporations gave Newsom $226 million to fight Covid-19!

“According to the FPPC, companies and foundations donated more than $226 million at Newsom’s request in 2020, the majority of which went toward the state’s COVID-19 response. The donations came in the form of behest payments, which are payments made on behalf of an elected official that are for charitable, legislative or government purposes.”

Gavin Newsom invites world's homeless to California

00:00/01:23

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/report-newsom-solicited-millions-in-donations-to-fund-californias-pandemic-response

Restauranteur who hosted Newsom faces one-month closure!

This is a very interesting story!

“While Meister said he can’t discuss the details of the case, he said ABC is stipulating that Oliver close the restaurant for at least a month, a move that Oliver said would be catastrophic for his business. He embraces the reputation he built when he poked the Newsom administration, and today sells merchandise referring to his business as a “rebel restaurant.” “This is not communist China, we are allowed to question this stuff,” Oliver said.

Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article260685737.html#storylink=cpy

Is Newsom’s high-speed rail a boondoggle?

One has always suspected that this project, if completed, would only be affordable to the wealthy.

So why are taxpayers funding it?

We need real rail service, affordable rail service. There is a lot to be said about being on a slow moving train, such as scenery.

When I was on the Shinkansen, scenery whizzed by me….

“The project is not proceeding according to a robust plan, which results in waste and other inefficiencies,” said Bent Flyvbjerg, a business expert in mega projects at the University of Oxford’s Saïd Business School and IT University of Copenhagen. “Given the political divisions, the cost growth, the schedule delays and the lack of a sound future revenue source, this project is going to the graveyard of famous boondoggles.”

Read more in the San Diego Times.


Chinese high-speed rail