Reaction to Gavin Newsom in Napa

By MICHAEL HALEY

Newsom drew an unexpectedly large crowd, and a very enthusiastic one at that. Being a Republican, I don't often go to what felt like an insider Democratic Party event, and this was a very progressive liberal crowd.

One sense that I get in those kind of events is a warm fuzzy feeling, a sense that we are the people who care. We care about the down trodden, we care about those without insurance, we care about minorities, etc, etc, and there is a very nice atmosphere that is created by that sense, and I enjoyed that feeling.

 

It is a very different sense than I get at Republican events, where the energy is much more aligned with the feeling that "we are the responsible people," the salt of the earth, the competent ones who are going to bail everyone else out when all else fails. And there is a pride in that.

 

I realized that providing health insurance to everyone, universal health care, is an article of faith for the Democrats, very much akin to the article of faith that the Republicans have in reducing taxes and reducing the size of government. I hadn't quite realized how committed they were to that until tonight, when I could see the reaction to Newsom talking about it, promising it. He touted the fact San Francisco had done it already, without raising taxes no less.

 

In fact he vaunted the fact San Francisco had a balanced budget, and used all the accomplishments of the city as evidence of his good leadership. A woman next to me was as surprised as I was to hear about the balanced San Francisco budget, and whispered "I heard they had millions in deficits," and I said "and they have hundreds of millions in unfunded liabilities." So there was some skepticism in the crowd on that score, he made San Francisco sound like heaven on earth, but the crowd seemed like they believed it.

 

So he is running on his record in San Francisco, and that is sure to be heavily scrutinized if he becomes a highly rated candidate. He is a very personable and very likable guy, and has tremendous self confidence and poise, all of which I liked. 

 

He is also a very progressive liberal, hitting on every far left talking point, even saying that some conservative talk show hosts had come around to accepting that global warming is a major threat. I am not so sure about that one, he did disclude Sean Hannity, but with 41% of the American public still thinking that global warming is exaggerated, this still seems like mostly a political statement.

 

The only time he balked on a progressive view is mentioning that he is not sure about legalizing marijuana, which seemed to be another crowd favorite. He followed that with a gut wrenching story about a mother he knew who was ill sending her son out on the street to find some medical pot for her, and the agony she went through about that. It was more of a politician's trick to layer over the fact that he is against legalizing pot. By the time he was through, we were supposed to forget about that.

 

The biggest applause line and indeed a standing ovation came when a woman thanked him for standing up for gay marriage. This was a very emotional issue for the crowd.

 

I have a feeling that if you were to see him in a conservative setting you would hear a very different speech. That's OK at this point, but at some point he is actually going to have to come up with some plan to fix California's budget problems -- the biggest task of the next Governor -- if he wants to get my vote.

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