RCP’s Carl Cannon and Outkick columnist Mary Katharine Ham discussed, Wednesday on the RealClearPolitics podcast, Joel Kotkin’s new piece about whether the governor of California is the inevitable frontrunner for the 2028 Democratic presidential nomination: “Slouching Toward Gavin Newsom” “Kotkin says Newsom’s record as governor of California should be disqualifying, but he is basically arguing that Democrats don’t have anybody else,” Carl Cannon said. “Newsom has this charisma that’s more than most politicians. It’s almost electric. Obama was like this. Clinton was like this. Most others don’t have it. So it’s more than good hair.” “Now, that doesn’t always survive Iowa or New Hampshire or the primary in South Carolina. But someone else is going to have to make an argument why they are a better general-election candidate than Gavin Newsom, and we haven’t heard that yet,” Cannon said. “I mean, the on-the-ground results in California are very bad, in many ways, hugely hurtful to people, with a price tag that’s through the roof,” Mark Katharine Ham said. “So if people consider that part of it, he should be disqualified. But often in this business, charm is what gets you hired, and then people find out whether you can do the job.” “Walz and Newsom have a similar dynamic-neither has governance results they should be proud of,” she said. “But someone actually has to stand up and say, I’m better, and here’s why.” “Whether his opponents can use that against him effectively is the question, but there’s plenty of fodder,” MKH said. “But you also end up with the same dynamic, possibly, as the 2024 Republican primaries, which was a good governor, Ron DeSantis, with good on-the-ground results, versus an extremely charming dude, right? And I don’t say that’s all that President Trump had going for him, but people gravitated toward this person, saw the good governance of this other version, and said: Nah, it’s not working for me.”
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