Politico leads this morning with a piece about Gavin Newsom telling Democratic President Joe Biden, Jill Biden and just about everyone else around Biden that he won’t run for President in 2024….
It wouldn’t appropriate to politically back stab his parties leader….
It would also not be good to try to lead frog over the Democratic Vice President he knows that was the Attorney General and Senator from HIS state….
Good and smart move for now….
But?
Two years is a long time in politics….
Biden says he will run again…
But?
He’ll actually ‘make up his mind’ during the Spring…..
Kamala Harris is attached to Biden at the hip…..
Some things we should NOT for get…..
Joe Biden IS 80 years old….
Joe Biden HAS DISapproval numbers ABOVE 50%…
He IS polling generally ahead of Trump and DeSantis….
But?
Not by much….
While Democrats beat the polling odds by a TON…..
The economy IS still an issue….
And this dog feels that Donalds Trump is gonna be so beat up that Republicans will put him in a political row boat and cast him out on his own…
He’s NOT gonna be President again…
Sooooo?
Should things go sideways for Biden?
One Gavin Newsom just COULD do what others have done in the past NUMEROUS times…
And….
Change his mind and decide to run come the middle of next year….
Just putting some thoughts on this…..
“I’ve told everyone in the White House, from the chief of staff to the first lady,” he recounted to me as we sat on the top floor of California’s now-ceremonial governor’s mansion on election night.
His message to Ron Klain and Jill Biden over the summer — when he visited Washington amid growing speculation, and considerable West Wing irritation, that he was plotting a primary challenge — was to count him as a firm supporter of Biden’s reelection: “I’m all in, count me in,” he said he told them.
Newsom relayed the same to Biden himself on election night.
After spending much of the evening with family, aides and supporters at the governor’s mansion watching the surprisingly strong returns for Democrats, the governor dashed over to a Sacramento hotel to briefly celebrate his own landslide reelection and trumpet the approval of a ballot measure enshrining abortion rights in California’s constitution.
“We affirmed clearly with conviction that we are a true freedom state,” Newsom told reporters. He contrasted California, and himself, with book and abortion banning governors in other states who also won reelection but remained nameless. Or at least they did explicitly so, until Newsom alluded to the one “flying migrants to an island.”
It would seem to have all the makings of classic political preview, a coming attraction as they would say 400 miles down the 5. Here was the freshly-reelected, next-generation Democrat of one mega-state standing with his young family and calling out the freshly-reelected, next-generation Republican of another mega-state a few hours after DeSantis claimed victory on stage with his young family….
…
Yet even as he eloquently explains why Trump and DeSantis alike pose stark risks for American democracy, Newsom also seems to recognize that as long as Trump looms as the potential GOP nominee in 2024, Democrats will offer Biden a wide berth. And this was before the full scope of the party’s surprising success came into focus in the days following the election, which has had the opposite impact on the president’s future as the Republican midterm failures have had on Trump’s perceived viability.
“He not only beat Trump once, I think he can beat him again,” said the governor, articulating Biden’s message with perfection. “I hope he runs, I’ll enthusiastically support him.”
So why, then, do so many Biden loyalists suspect his plotting?
“It’s frustrating because I have so much reverence and respect for not only the president but the vice president is an old friend, for all of those interesting things you guys all love to write about, we’ve known each other for 25 years,” Newsom goes on, bringing up Vice President Kamala Harris without prompting….
…
For the moment, he’s eager to enlist as something of a super surrogate for Biden and is looking for opportunities where he can get them. He’s targeting Elon Musk, whose purchase of San Francisco-based Twitter has alarmed liberals, suggesting the world’s richest man is using the social media platform to help his other businesses….
image…Evan Vucci/AP Photo