Men who will not be president

Michelle Goldberg on Governor French Laundry’s apparent confusion about which party’s nomination he’s seeking:

I was open to the idea behind Gavin Newsom’s new podcast, in which the California governor has been breaking out of his political bubble to talk at length with right-wing media stars such as Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. Democrats need to get better at speaking to people who don’t share their assumptions and at long-form conversations requiring improvisation and spontaneity. They need to be willing to take risks and to use conflict to generate attention.

Newsom himself did just that in 2023 when he debated Ron DeSantis on Fox News, drawing almost five million live viewers, plus 700,000 more for the replay. Trying to leverage Kirk and Bannon’s notoriety to reach new audiences could have been an interesting experiment.

Instead, it’s a protracted exercise in self-harm for both Newsom and any liberal who decides to listen to him. That’s because the governor frequently seems less interested in arguing than in finding common ground, assuming the good faith of people who have next to none. He leaves wild right-wing claims unchallenged and repeatedly concedes Republican premises. When Bannon described rebuilding his movement after what he claimed was the stolen 2020 election, Newsom’s response was, “Well, I appreciate the notion of agency.”

What could have been a show of intellectual confidence on Newsom’s part has turned out to be a demeaning display of submission.

It’s one thing to say that there may be some market for a little ideological unorthodoxy in the 2028 primaries, and quite another to do round after round of ass-kissing with fascists. It’s good that Newsom is self-immolating, though, because his fundamental ex ante profile as someone whose reputation is more progressive than his substance is the worst formula for a national candidate.

Amazingly, Newsom isn’t the most delusional prospective 2028 candidate:

Just as striking is to talk to anybody in high-level Democratic politics who knows Emanuel — which is to say most everyone — and hear how matter of fact they are about the inevitability of his candidacy.

The biggest Rahm-may-run tell, though, is that he’s already road-testing the first outlines of a stump speech, or at least an issue he can make his own.

This will be the most electrifying primary campaign since Deval Patrick’s! Maybe he’ll announce Kyrsten Sinema as his running mate.