It doesn’t work with GOPer’s….
But it IS working for two Democrats, Newsom and Kelly, looking for media and party support…
But the linked piece below also asks the question….
What can be done AFTER the attention and gains Democrat’s or even Republicans can make after Trump is gone?
Trump HAS tapped into discontent in America…
He just is unable to address it…
In fact?
He’s made things worse….
There’s a new and unmistakable pattern emerging in Democratic politics: if you want to raise your national profile, if you want to become interesting overnight, if you want to be taken seriously in a party that isn’t sure who its next generation of leaders are, then the fastest route is surprisingly simple:
Pick a fight with Donald Trump — or any MAGA-adjacent figure who can deliver you into the bloodstream of the moment.
Or hope Trump or his orbit targets you first.
We’ve now seen it work enough times for it to feel less like a coincidence and more like a strategy.
Gavin Newsom didn’t become an early 2028 frontrunner because of California policy achievements, though he has them. He became a national figure the moment he turned his fire outward — sparring with conservative media personalities, jousting with DeSantis in an actual debate, then taking up the cause of fighting Texas’s redistricting strategy with a successful counter-effort in California.
Those confrontations, not his governance, made him look like a 2028 contender. After all, California voters have given him middling job ratings at best these last few years. It’s clear it wasn’t governance that catapulted him — it was the fight.
Mark Kelly discovered the same thing almost instantly. For years, he was respected but not especially visible — a serious, understated senator whose national identity never quite extended beyond “former astronaut.” But one televised confrontation — Pete Hegseth taking a swing at him, Trump amplifying it — and suddenly Kelly mattered in a new way. He became interview-worthy, clip-worthy, contender-adjacent. The nature of the exchange mattered less than the fact of the fight. He looked like a Democrat who wouldn’t be rolled….
…
Of course, there’s another layer to all this — especially when you look at Newsom and Kelly.
Both men are, by nature and policy instinct, business-friendly center-left Democrats. Neither would be the progressive base’s dream candidate on ideology alone, and both know it. They also know that a direct ideological appeal to the left could backfire or look inauthentic.
But a fight with Trump?
That’s a universal solvent…..
…
The Cost of the Sugar High
This is the long-term cost of the Trump-era attention economy that Democrats — intentionally or not — are now participating in. The Trump confrontation is great at generating energy and terrible at generating substance. It elevates candidates but doesn’t elevate ideas.
And because it works — because Newsom, Kelly, Crockett, and others have gained real traction this way — it becomes harder and harder for anyone to justify doing politics the slower, harder, more deliberative way.
Voters end up with fighters, not problem-solvers.
Campaigns end up with moments, not agendas.
And the country ends up with the wrong debates.
None of this is to say the fights don’t matter. They do. Trump remains the dominant figure in our politics, shaping everything in his shadow. Candidates who challenge him signal something important about themselves.
But governing is not shadowboxing.
Governing is choosing.
And the country has a lot of choices it’s simply not making…..
image…Threads
That campaign poster looks like something out of the 1950s.
Those of you who are Democrats should easily be able to recognize the reality that your next ticket is simply not going to be composed of two white males.
It is extremely unlikely it will have two males on it at all.
If I squint enough though, I can sort of pretend the poster is Mitt Romney and Mitch Daniels…
Or Ike & Dick.
Some one did a quick cut and paste
BUT
Symbolicly?
Going with the Two reps a MORE Tradtional America?
For better or worse that view of “traditional America” is seen very unfavorably by many on the left.
Jasmine Crockett just jumped in to the Texas Senate race and James Talarico, the white male who has already been running, and who has been touted as one of the future stars of the party, is receiving tremendous pressure to immediately exit the race and cede the nomination to her.
It seems like many on the left are more excited about the prospect of a fiery Jasmine Crockett concession speech in November of 2026, where she will savagely call out Donald Trump and go viral online, then any chance of actually winning that election.
Although I never thought a Democratic candidate had much of a chance in the Texas Senate race ,Crockett has absolutely no chance.
Not necessarily my guy 100% ideologically or programmatically, but what about Beto O’Rourke?
There are plenty of successful politicians whose first try or couple of tries had failed. Also known as Come Back Kids.
Beto has tried and failed three times now and looked ridiculous each time.
I actually thought Colin Allred, the African-American former Congressman, who lost a Senate race there last year, might have the best chance in a 2026 general election, but with Crockett getting in, he just got out, and is now going to primary a House Dem incumbent.
Crockett simply cannot win in a state where no Democrat has won anything statewide in over 35 years. She is too far to the left and too divisive. Talarico might at least have a chance if it is a big year for Democrats, but he probably is going to have a hard time winning the primary now.
All this though is of course probably dependent on incumbent John Cornyn losing the Republican primary to Ken Paxton.
Again….
I AGREE CG……
Maybe some media scraps
But the juice ain’t worth the squeeze
Newsom and Kelly ain’t bad….
Newsom and Buttigieg gets pushed aside?
Harris piece out questioning her next move…
Says she’s taking the loss hard..,,,
Ok
But she needs to get a gig on MS or CNN
She’s NOT gonna win the Presidency
Follow Up….
Newsom’s Favorability Soars as He Opposes Trump
California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s willingness to battle President Trump has made his popularity soar, with a new poll finding that Newsom’s overall approval rating is now at 56%, a 10% jump since June, NewsNation reports.
Politicalwire
You should note that is California only in that survey.
Many politicians in other places have found success by bashing California, New York and Boston-Cambridge.
Those politicans knocking Blue Cities ARE gonna be in trouble going onto the midterms….
We’ll also have to see what Texas Gov Abbott can cook up?
Miami continues the pushback against Trump and the GOPer’s
Keep Up the Good Work Donald!