Commentary: Newsom stood tall against Trump. Does that make him presidential timber?
Today we discuss presidential politics, window treatments and disasters of the natural and man-made variety.Time for Gavin Newsom to start measuring those White House drapes.Huh?You know, president of the United States.I’m thinking something Earth-friendly, like recycled hemp.Wait, what?Did you catch the nationally televised speech the governor recently gave? The one about “democracy at a crossroads.”I did.It was a fine speech and the governor made some important points about President Trump’s reckless commandeering of California’s National Guard, his administration’s indiscriminate immigration raids and the wholly unnecessary dispatch of Marines to Los Angeles.
(From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Venice Beach.)Newsom was plenty justified in his anger and contempt.Trump, acting true to his flame-fanning fashion, turned what was a middling set of protests — nothing local law enforcement couldn’t handle — into yet another assault on our sorely tested Constitution.Newsom’s speech certainly “met the moment,” to use one of his favorite phrases.I’ll grant you that.
Unlike a lot of extracurricular activities aimed at boosting his presidential prospects, Newsom was addressing a Trump-manufactured crisis unfolding right here at home.It was a moment that called for gubernatorial leadership.Just the kind of leadership despondent Democrats need.So it’s been said.It’s not much of a leap to see Newsom leading the anti-Trump opposition clear to the White House!Actually, that’s a bigger leap than it takes to clear the Grand Canyon.President Trump’s dispatch of National Guard troops to L.A.
is straight from his political playbook.It may serve his interests by distracting and deflecting but abdicates presidential responsibility.Granted, Newsom’s speech received a lot of raves from Democrats across the country.
Many are desperate for someone in a position of power to give voice to their blood-boiling, cranium-exploding rage against Tr...