This much we know about the 2024 election: Joe Biden is not getting any younger, and his approval ratings have been stuck in a doom loop for two years.
So, despite his protestations, it’s obvious that California Gov. Gavin Newsom is running a shadow campaign to shove aside his fellow San Franciscan and Willie Brown protégé, Kamala Harris, and replace Biden as the backup candidate, just in case the president’s infirmity and corruption catch up with him.
To that end, Newsom has been posing comically as a statesman on the world stage with gratuitous trips to China to shake hands with Xi Jinping, and to Israel after the Hamas attack.
Thursday evening, he gets the opportunity to pretend he is a real presidential candidate when he debates Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Fox News.
It should be a walkover for DeSantis.
From his management of the pandemic to his budget surpluses, lower taxes, lower energy prices, superior education outcomes, and an emphasis on law and order, he outperforms Newsom on every score.
Serving only himself
At 45, DeSantis also is younger than Newsom by 11 years, and better educated, having graduated from Yale and Harvard Law School before joining the Navy and serving in Iraq.
Newsom has a mediocre political science degree and has never served anyone but himself.
Newsom grew up with the Gettys and the Pelosis and swans around as if he owns the world while DeSantis still is the guy who has to work for everything.
After running California into the ground, Newsom’s bumptious self-regard is a laughable contrast to DeSantis’ awkwardly earnest humility.
Homelessness, rampant drug use, and human excrement on sidewalks are the most obvious manifestations of Newsom’s elitist leadership style, but less visible metrics on California’s misery index include woeful student learning outcomes and a yawning gulf between rich and poor.
For his handling of COVID alone, Newsom should be disqualified from public office.
Here the contrast with Florida is epic, as a new book, “The Newsom Nightmare” by former gubernatorial rival John Cox, lays out.
While DeSantis “adopted the Swedish model of allowing society to remain open while protecting those at higher risk,” Newsom instituted the most draconian lockdown in the country.
The strategy paid off for Florida, with a death rate among seniors 20% lower than California’s.
The Wall Street Journal also ran the numbers this week and they are brutal: California has the second-highest jobless rate in the country at 4.8% compared to Florida’s 2.8%.
In California, taxes total $10,167 per capita vs. $5,406 in Florida.
Yet for all that taxpayer money, Newsom presided over a $31 billion budget shortfall this year while DeSantis ran an $18 billion surplus.
Electricity prices are twice as high in California, and gas costs $1.80 more per gallon because of Newsom’s insane climate policies.
On K-12, California spends 45% more per pupil than Florida, but student test scores are “significantly lower.”
California has almost seven times more homeless on the streets, despite having twice Florida’s population.
Florida has halved its homeless numbers with a “tough love” approach, writes Cox.
More than 1 million Golden Staters evacuated in the three years to July 2022, while almost 750,000 people moved to Florida.
There is no question who is the better governor, but you can count on Newsom to wrench the debate away from his failures and onto favorite Dem topics like abortion and Trump derangement.
Resetting his image
Frankly, it should be beneath DeSantis to elevate Newsom to equal status by agreeing to the Sean Hannity-hosted debate.
But DeSantis needs something to grab the public imagination and reset his image — anything to arrest his steady slide in the polls.
Some blame his flat personality and off-putting, singsong voice for his flagging campaign.
Others blame his “arrogant” style and refusal to take advice from donors.
DeSantis has a certain dogged resilience, but you can’t underestimate the impact of the $25 million that has been spent attacking him, most from pro-Trump groups.
Running as an America First conservative is not for the faint-hearted, as Donald Trump knows better than anyone.
You will be opposed by the establishments of both parties and most of the media.
Running against Trump only doubles the pain.
But the beauty of the Republican primaries is that everyone has to run the gauntlet, and those who survive will be battle-ready and able to withstand anything.
Newsom, on the other hand, is soft. He has no opposition in California, and his golden life, supping at the tables of billionaires, prepares him only for obsequiousness.
“I think that it’s important that Republican voters get the sense that we may not be running against Biden,” DeSantis says, to explain why he’s slumming it with a nonstarter.
A Newsom presidency “would accelerate the collapse we’ve seen under Joe Biden. The stakes are really high for America.”
DeSantis will be hoping the debate will showcase a fresh, youthful alternative to the Biden-Trump rematch that dismays most voters, and he will try to turn it into a genuine contest between red and blue visions for America’s future.
Perhaps it will be less a pitch for 2024 than a prelude to 2028, when both men likely are front-runners, but it is important nonetheless.
Even if you are angry with DeSantis for challenging Trump, or disappointed that he has failed to catch fire, remember that he is the future of populist conservatism, and will be the Republican best positioned to stop Newsom doing to the country what he has done to California.
NEWS CREDIT
