This week, big brain Beltway bloviators feverishly penned a multitude of hot takes that hyped Gov. Gavin Newsom's White House prospects in the next presidential campaign cycle.
Mark Z. Barabak, Political Columnist for the Los Angeles Times, ain't buying it.
"Ignore the noise," read the headline over Mark's column on Thursday. "Here's why Gavin Newsom is not running for president in 2024."
Returning to Newsmakers TV for a Friday political gabfest, the Bay Area-based Barabak, who started covering presidential politics before Prince Gavin was old enough to buy Chardonnay, has chronicled campaigns and elections in 49 states (still looking for a California angle in Rhode Island).
Like those Back East pundits, he too was feeling feverish, but it was a bout with Covid, not Newsom '24, that was the proximate cause: "I may be the only person who's gotten Covid in the wilderness," he said, recounting how he contracted the virus on a backpack trip with a buddy.
Despite his current confinement to quarters, the coronavirus had not dimmed Barabak's characteristic zest and passion for politics, which he channeled for us into an unremitting stream of analysis, commentary and insights on the nation's current dreary political landscape, punctuated with assessments of California's leading political players, including:
Vice President Kamala Harris (should Biden not run again, any bid to deny her the nomination risks fracturing the Democratic Party, with its base of Black women voters);
Newsom (despite hectoring passive Democratic leaders and his provocations of Florida's Trumpy governor, there are multiple discernible reasons he won't risk a 2024 campaign);
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (even if the Dems shock the world and hold the House in the mid-term, look for her to bow out after one more term, if not sooner);
Senator Dianne Feinstein (despite constant left-wing attacks on her age and alleged senility, no way, no how will she quit before her incumbency ends in '24).
Plus: political prognosis following the Supreme Court's overturning of Roe v. Wade and prospects for its aggressive and emboldened new conservative majority; why Dems have reason to be optimistic about holding the Senate, and evaluating the ongoing threat to America's democracy posed by Donald Trump and Trumpism.
All here, right now on Newsmakers TV. Check out our interview with Mark Barabak via YouTube below or by clicking through this link. The podcast version is here.
JR
Image: Political Junkies (sdpb.org).