Let’s talk about Gavin Newsom 2024.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I've never understood his appeal or why he is considered the "candidate in waiting" if Biden steps aside. He is a very generic white guy from California who is very easy to write off as an out of touch coastal elite (especially with the French Laundry story)

Democrats have the most diverse bench of potential candidates they've ever had. There's no need to settle for a guy who looks like a President from a bad TV show.

There's more to politics than picking someone based on race or gender. That's 5th-grade level analysis. As someone on a political forum, you should have a higher intelligence viewpoint.

He's been governor of the biggest state in America for the past 5 years and he's shown willingness to get outside of his comfort zone and on GOP media. He's intelligent and held his own (even "beat") Hannity in a few discussions. I'm tired of cowards who refuse to ever leave their bubble/basement.

Competence is severely lacking in this white house. We don't have a leader. I have a lot of issues with Gavin Newsom and especially his state, but he may be a big improvement over Biden and I may be less inclined to vote R if he was the D candidate.

Gavin Newsom has spent his life as a lackey for the ultra-rich. To the best of my knowledge, he has basically competent governing skills, but I see no reason to believe he can, or would even be interested in, addressing global warming, wealth inequality, or our weakened justice system and social safety net. And he's certainly going to do nothing about the imminent threat posed by radical Republican terrorism. (Biden isn't doing as much on that front as I'd like, but his choice to leave Garland alone to make his decisions has a lot to recommend it.)

When it comes to a national race, the fact that he is a GOP parody of a Democrat is absolutely relevant. Like Bloomberg before him, I would need to do some real soul-searching to decide if voting for a theoretical Nominee Newsom (like a theoretical Nominee Bloomberg before him) would be something I could do. And I'm uncertain that trying to regain control of an increasingly illegitimate Supreme Court is worth empowering the ultra-rich even more. 

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Making overtly hostile gestures to a crucial part of the Democratic base won't make him more appealing in a primary. This isn't 1992.

Forget the primary, he's not appealing in the general. The last thing this country needs is another billionaire apologist. I would not vote for  Newsom in the general against any concievable opponent, and would strongly considered refusing to vote for any candidate from a party that would nominate him.

All of which is likely irrelevant, as a parody like Newsom (billionaire buddy, winery owner from CA) will not be winning a national election, no matter how I vote.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Explain to me how Gavin Newsom could win in 2024. Gavin Newsom is too anti-union to have any appeal to the progressive wing of the Democratic Party, which is becoming an increasing more important faction of the party. Unless Gavin Newson dramatically shifts leftward on policy, there is no reality in which Gavin Newsom could win a Democratic primary.

I don't think he'd win a traditional primary. Based on his recent trips to Israel and China, as  well as meeting with donors, I think he's banking on Biden's health forcing him out of the race in the spring of next year and a majority of Biden delegates going his way at the convention.

He could also just be putting the pieces into place if Biden is forced to drop out. So rather than counting on Biden dropping out, he may just be positioning himself for the possibility of Biden dropping out. "Betting on it" rather than "banking on it", if I have my idioms right.

Personally, I would never vote for a party that would choose Gov. Newsom as a national candidate.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

Newsom's hair and smile make him look like a used car salesman. They need to do something about that to have him look presidential

It's a ploy to win over Republican voters.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I would not trust either of these men to hold my phone, let alone with public office. The idea that anyone with a functioning brain cell would is incomprehensible.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I would not trust either of these men to hold my phone, let alone with public office. The idea that anyone with a functioning brain cell would is incomprehensible.

You're right. We should trust the 81 year old man who can barely string a sentence together or the deranged fascist.

Give me Newsom any day. I don't even understand the argument that Biden would do better when he is transparently unpopular in the Midwest/rust belt, which he barely won back in the first place. He certainly did far worse than a black guy named Barack HUSSEIN Obama from Chicago who speaks like the elite college professor he literally was. On paper it made no sense that Obama would do that well in these places, yet he did. Likewise, on paper it makes no sense that a billionaire celebrity from NYC who literally s--ts on a golden toilet would be the first Republican in decades to win these states, yet he did. Just because "Scranton Joe" seems like a better fit on paper, and may have been in practice three decades ago, doesn't mean anything. What really sells in the swing states, ALL the swing states, is charisma. And Newsom has it in spades. Maybe the most natural politician I've seen since Slick Willie who, of course, also dominated the swing states.

Good old fashioned political skill and charisma still counts for a whole hell of a lot, people drastically underestimate it here for some reason. (To be brutally honest, I'm gonna guess because most people here are nerds who don't have that kind of charisma or fully understand it.) All I know is that if Biden looked and talked like Newsom, this election wouldn't be close. People here just can't see through an average voter's eyes or talk to them apparently, because they'll readily tell you they think Biden looks and talks like a walking corpse. It would be impossible to say the same about Newsom, and that drastically outweighs any negatives coming from California would have. Because in politics, image/optics is everything.

You're exaggerting about Biden's age. I'm concerned about his age as well, although not the way so many seem to be. Biden is not personally steering the ship of state - he's the captain (and he seems to be in better mental and physical shape than most people give him credit for). But it's a major strategic vulnerability. A health crisis at a key moment in the campaign, or in future governance could be disastrous. If the GOP takes the Senate, would they even allow  a new Vice-President, should Harris replace Biden?

But Newsom... setting aside how he'd do nationally (and I'm unconvinced that a winery-owning CA governor is going to have a lot of appeal, no matter how good he is at campaigning), I have zero interest in seeing a Newsom administration.

Christofasism is an existential threat to the United States. So is runaway finance capitalism. Biden isn't perfect, but he's done a lot to help keep the second from going even more out of control than it already is - arguably as much as anyone in his position, at this time, could possibly do.

Newsom is just a slicker, Democratic version of Donald Trump. He's inescably entwined with billionaire interests, and he clearly views the law and government as tools to abuse for his benefit. He's so lacking in wisdom he married Kimberly Guilfoyle. I could go on, but I think I've presented my point.

Newsom is a bridge too far (or a step too low). I will walk away and watch the country burn before I vote for him, against any concievable opponent. I will not vote for any candidate of a party that nominates him for national office. (And please don't say, "But the Supreme Court!" The Supreme Court is not a credible institution, and pretending it is only makes things worse. )