Gavin Newsom: Presidential Plug-and-Play

What happens if Joe Biden cannot make it all the way to the 2024 presidential election? At first glance, that may seem implausible considering he has already begun his re-election campaign and shown no signs of pulling out. But in this case, such a proposition bears reasonably serious examination, especially as we hear that Vice President Kamala Harris is getting a ten-million-dollar makeover, and California Governor and golden boy Gavin Newsom behaves as if he is actively seeking the presidency.

Is the idea of Biden withdrawing from the race actually preposterous? He is the oldest president ever to land in the White House and increasingly presents as disturbingly enfeebled - if not addled - with a condition that everyone knows will only further deteriorate. The economy sits on a knife’s edge. The southern border has all but dissolved. Some 75% of citizens believe the country is on the wrong track. A majority of Democratic voters - a higher percentage than Trump faces among Republicans - don’t even want him to run again. And the GOP-controlled House is doing a full-court press on burgeoning scandals centered on documented allegations of bribery and influence-peddling that even Biden’s praetorian guard in the sycophantic media will find hard to ignore while they savage Trump on a daily basis. And this time around, Biden cannot be hidden from view as he was in 2020 when the pandemic provided a tailor-made excuse for both his basement strategy and unconstitutional changes to voting laws across the land that enabled him to seize the White House.

Gavin Newsom, Everything Kamala Is Not?

The question is, who would Democrats turn to in the unlikely, but decidedly possible, event that the geriatric Biden decides - or is persuaded - that he just can’t make it through the certain turmoil and exhaustion of another bitterly divisive presidential campaign? Of course, the answer that comes immediately to mind is the vice president who, after all, is supposed to be chosen primarily for the ability to perform the job of president. But given that Kamala Harris polls even more unfavorably than the increasingly unpopular president, it is hard to envision the Democratic Party turning to her in a pitched battle against Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis - or any Republican nominee, for that matter. As it is said, putting lipstick on a pig does not change the reality that lies beneath.

This is where Gavin Newsom enters stage left. Sure, the Golden State governor offers fawning praise of the incumbent president and protests loudly that Biden is not on the edge of non-compos mentis as many on the right claim. This is little more than a non-negotiable obligation for all Democrats as they cling to the presidency, but Newsom’s refusal to categorically rule out a run at the White House serves only as what Washington calls a non-denial denial. However, it begs an obvious question: If he is not looking for an opening to either challenge Biden or convince party leaders that the old man should be sent out to pasture, why is he doing all the things only a presidential candidate would do?

Newsom has traveled the country extensively in recent weeks. He has made speeches and run high-profile ads attacking a governor from a distant state, DeSantis, who just happens to be a prominent GOP candidate he could ultimately face in a presidential election - in 2024 or beyond (interestingly, DeSantis on June 15 challenged Newsom to enter the race, urging him to "stop pussyfooting around”). Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Newsom proposes a gun-related 28th constitutional amendment designed to inflame the gun-rights crowd and energize the gun-grabbers to create not just news, but headlines. He agrees to an interview on Fox News, of all places, with Sean Hannity, of all people, so he can appear reasonable to a broader swath of the electorate. A person who does these things is sending a message, albeit subliminally, that he is ready to step into the presidential race at a moment’s notice.

And of course, his high-profile presence recently is transparently designed to drive home the striking contrast between him and a president who appears to be on his last legs. He is 25 years younger than Biden, JFK-level handsome, articulate, dynamic, and even tries to appear self-effacing and magnanimous, as he did in his interview with Hannity in crediting Donald Trump for his dealings with California during the pandemic. He famously offered the media a photo-op of himself – in rolled-up shirt sleeves, of course - milling around the White House in the summer of 2022. The contrast he is so actively providing to Joe Biden is nothing less than stark, leading observers to conclude his constant, self-propelled presence all over the media is designed to generate a movement to have him replace Biden as the party’s standard-bearer - or at the very least, set him up as the default choice for 2028.

Is it conceivable that Chuck Schumer, as the Democrats’ leader in Congress, might follow the lead of Republican Barry Goldwater, who went to the White House as the Watergate scandal was metastasizing in 1974 to tell Richard Nixon that it was time for him to go? Again, that appears highly unlikely at this time, but what if Biden becomes more embroiled in scandals and continues to lose ground to Trump in the polls? Would Biden give up his re-election bid - or tell Schumer to get off his lawn?

Come what may, Gavin Newsom, twice elected governor of the nation’s largest state, has established himself as the plug-and-play candidate for president - like an accessory that requires merely a simple, one-step connection to a convenient port to start working. Yes, he is ready to go, and hot on the trail of the White House, with most observers assuming his time would come in 2028. But judging by the way he is carrying on these days, that object closing in the rearview mirror may, as the saying goes, be closer than it appears.