The word ‘affordability’ came up twice in Newsom’s one hour and 24 minute interview with Couric.
In early February, Vogue’s Maya Singer wrote a profile of California Governor Gavin Newsom that described him as “embarrassingly handsome, his hair seasoned with silver, at ease with his own eminence as he delivers his final State of the State address.”
Then in mid-February, the New Yorker’s Nathan Heller wrote a long profile of Newsom, with observations like this:
For Newsom, a middle-aged man with a large, young family, a glow of professional attainment, and, most days, enough Oribe Crème in his hair to dress a good Crab Louie, the challenge has been to look both humble and concerned. He slumped his shoulders as he listened, as if to shrink his frame. When he nodded, he bent from the waist — not just agreeing but offering small, grateful bows.
…He was dressed in a white shirt, dusky-blue suit trousers, and a blue tie knotted, with two crisp dimples, into a four-in-hand. The social-media menswear guru Derek Guy, in a post on Newsom and neckties, pronounced him “one of the few politicians left who knows how to wear one.”
Now, Katie Couric has interviewed Newsom on her podcast. Guess what she wanted to talk about?
Couric: Do you have a Zoolander problem?
Newsom: No, I — Jesus. (scoffing) Yes, Zoolander.
Couric: Are you just ridiculously good-looking as Vogue said? No, seriously. What do you do about that?
Newsom: You don’t do anything about it. Because if you’re going to do something about it, then you’re you’re [BS]-ing people. You know what? I am who I am. And I’m — It’s fine. You don’t have to like me. Or maybe you like a slick person. I don’t know. Whatever. It’s okay.
Couric: The reason why I brought it up because of because you talked about being authentic and I think it sometimes works against you.
I am embarrassed on behalf of all journalists. The guy is a governor entering his eighth year in office, running the executive branch in the state ranking at or near the bottom of all 50 states in affordability, grocery bills, in-migration rates, growth, energy infrastructure, state tax competitiveness, air and water quality, public safety, K–12 education, fiscal stability, highway maintenance, gas prices, labor costs, housing costs, and regulatory burdens. The data points to him being the worst or least-effective governor in the country.
Couric’s way of acknowledging this is saying, one hour and nine minutes into the interview, “some of the stats are not so great. California has the highest tax rate, the highest poverty.”
The word “affordability” came up twice in Newsom’s one hour and 24 minute interview with Couric. In the first, the governor said that President Trump “can’t control the agenda on affordability,” and in the second, Newsom made an offhand reference to “I know you go through the affordability litany and everything else.”
Whether he’s willing to say so out loud yet or not, Gavin Newsom is running for president. His record as governor is the single best indicator of how he would perform in the Oval Office. And for one interviewer after another, Newsom’s record is a second-tier interest at most, well behind how handsome he is.