California Gov. Gavin Newsom appears determined to follow President Joe Bidens path in all the wrong ways, including the habit of making racially tone-deaf remarks while insisting he is just like the voters he plainly looks down on.
According to Western Journal, Newsoms latest misstep came during a stop in Atlanta on his current book tour, where the governor tried to craft a folksy, underdog persona before a predominantly black audience.
The performance echoed Bidens long record of racially awkward gaffes, the kind that would have ended most political careers if the media held Democrats to the same standard they apply to Republicans.
Instead, Biden was rewarded with the presidency, and Newsom now seems to be testing whether the same formula of condescension, identity pandering and media protection can carry him into the 2028 race.
Bidens history in this department is well documented and stretches back decades.
In 2006, during the early stages of his failed 2008 presidential bid, he infamously remarked, You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent Im not joking, a line so brazen that his own campaign later had to insist, in effect, that he was joking after all.
That was only a prelude to the 2020 campaign, when Biden went on The Breakfast Club and delivered what should have been a career-ending insult to black voters.
If you have a problem figuring out whether youre for me or Trump, then you aint black, he declared, as if black Americans were obligated to support the Democratic Party or forfeit their identity.
Between those two episodes came a 2019 moment that distilled Bidens worldview into a single, revealing sentence.
Speaking about education, he said, Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids, a formulation that implicitly separated poor kids from white kids and treated minority children as a monolithic underclass.
Biden tried to walk the comment back, but the damage was done, at least for anyone paying attention.
There you have it, in a single sentence: Poor kids are just as bright and just as talented as white kids, critics noted at the time, underscoring how naturally he seemed to equate poverty with non-whiteness.
The presidents defenders insisted he simply misspoke, yet the pattern has been too consistent to dismiss as mere verbal clumsiness.
Biden would go on to try and dig himself out of this whole, but the basic thought was there: There were poor kids, and then there were black kids, as one commentator put it, mocking Bidens own verbal tics with lines like, No joke. My word as a Biden. Wheres Jackie? Huh?
Into this well-established tradition of Democratic racial awkwardness steps Gavin Newsom, the polished, camera-ready governor of California.
No one seriously believes Newsom is suffering from cognitive decline, but he has lately leaned into a different kind of excuse for his missteps, blaming his more embarrassing moments on dyslexia and bristling when critics describe him as illiterate.
The governor has even tried to turn his supposed learning struggles into a kind of moral shield, suggesting that attacks on his intelligence are somehow cruel or discriminatory.
Yet he has not bothered to master the art of using that narrative with any subtlety, instead trotting it out in ways that feel opportunistic and contrived.
Newsom is currently on a promotional tour for a book that, given his own admissions about reading, he may not have fully engaged with himself.
Anyhow, Newsom is on a book tour now for a tome he probably hasnt read, much less written. (Sorry in advance for the slur, guv.), one critic quipped, capturing the skepticism that surrounds his sudden embrace of the struggling-student persona.
On Sunday, the governor brought this act to Atlanta, a city whose political leadership and electorate are heavily black and deeply familiar with being patronized by national Democrats.
The mayor of Atlanta is black. A large percentage of Atlantas voters are black, the commentary noted, setting the stage for Newsoms attempt to sell a poorigin story a fabricated narrative of hardship designed to make a wealthy, connected white politician seem like he shares the struggles of minority voters.
Newsom has tried this before, spinning tales about his supposedly hardscrabble youth and hustlin to get by.
His earlier effort, involving a story about hustlin with mac and cheese during a period of childhood fatherlessness, was widely mocked as contrived and unconvincing.
Yet, as with so many Democratic politicians, failure only seems to encourage repetition.
But everyone deserves a seventh chance, and in this way, Newsom proved himself presidential on Sunday, the analysis observed, with heavy irony.
The presidential model in question was not Ronald Reagan or Dwight Eisenhower, but Joe Biden at his most condescending.
That president, alas, was President Biden, because he trotted out a new version of the 2019 Iowa gaffe: My SAT score was super-low, so Im just like yall, you feel me? the commentary explained.
Trying to ingratiate himself with the Atlanta audience, Newsom declared, Im just trying to impress upon you, Im like you.
Im no better than you. You know, Im a 960 SAT guy. And you know, Im not trying to offend anyone, you know, trying to act all there if you got 940, but literally a 960 SAT guy.
Rather than projecting humility, the remark came across as a clumsy attempt to equate low standardized test scores with the lived experience of black voters.
It suggested that Newsom believes the way to connect with a largely black crowd is to present himself as academically mediocre, as though that were the defining feature of their lives.
He then doubled down by tying his supposed academic struggles to his claimed learning disability.
Youve never seen me read a speech, because I cannot read a speech, he continued. Maybe the wrong business to be in. Uh, you know, my dyslexia I havent overcome dyslexia. Im living with it.
The spectacle was uncomfortable enough that Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, seated nearby, appeared to laugh nervously through the exchange.
Meanwhile, you see Mayor Andre Dickens trying desperately to laugh his way through this, Im sure the same way that many black leaders also felt with Biden. See? Presidential, the commentary observed, drawing a direct line between Bidens and Newsoms patronizing styles.
Newsoms 960 SAT guy routine may have once been intended as a generic regular guy anecdote for California voters.
I understand that Newsoms 960 SAT talk was initially an attempt to make him seem relatable back when he was just a rich kid running for higher office, but that seems to have backfired, the analysis noted.
Now, however, the story has been repurposed into a shield against criticism and a bridge to minority voters, all in one.
So now the new story is that he has dyslexia, and how dare you criticize him for being dumb? Also, hes dumb, so hes just like you, the critic wrote, skewering the implication that the audience should see themselves in his supposed intellectual shortcomings.
The subtext is unmistakable and deeply insulting.
You all know what I mean when I say you, you dig? Nudge nudge, the commentary added, highlighting the wink-and-nod quality of Newsoms pandering.
Beyond the racial optics, there is a more basic question of competence that should concern any serious voter.
First, its worth noting that the presidency doesnt care whether you have a learning disability. Russia will not care if you cant read intelligence reports on Ukraine because of an impediment, the piece pointed out, emphasizing that the Oval Office is not a therapeutic environment.
Americas adversaries are not going to make allowances for a commander in chief who boasts about his inability to read prepared remarks.
Kim Jong Un will not put his hand on your back and promise to dismantle his nuclear arsenal to avoid you bursting into tears because you cant sift through the CIA dossier on it, the commentary continued, underscoring the absurdity of treating dyslexia as a political asset rather than a challenge to be overcome.
The analogy is stark but apt: certain jobs require certain abilities, regardless of personal narratives.
Before we even go into the racial optics of this, lets please note that the same way blind people cant pilot 777s, we similarly dont put people who strut about telling us how they havent really overcome dyslexic illiteracy but are instead living with it in the Oval Office, the critic argued.
Conservatives have long been attacked for questioning the mental acuity or judgment of Democratic leaders.
Trump gets dragged for challenging Democrats to an IQ test, but this guy gets a pass for effectively saying I cant read, but thats not my fault? Do better, the commentary said, pointing to the double standard in media coverage.
Once the competence issue is raised, the racial dimension becomes impossible to ignore.
But second, the optics must be talked about, the piece insisted, noting that many observers immediately recalled Bidens poor kids remark when they heard Newsoms Atlanta comments.
I know the poor kids gaffe is about a hundred-thousand Biden gaffes ago and hes the gift that keeps on giving, even after he was forced out of the 2024 race but it still sprang to many peoples minds after the Newsom gaffe, the analysis observed.
The comparison is not accidental; both men revealed a worldview in which minority voters are treated as a bloc of struggling, less-educated dependents in need of enlightened white liberal leadership.
Social media reactions to Newsoms remarks were swift and largely negative, particularly among those tired of being condescended to by coastal elites.
And when people werent focused on that particular gaffe, the reaction was not a positive one: So that went well, the commentary noted dryly.
Yet, if recent history is any guide, the political fallout may be short-lived.
And watch how this gets spun, the piece warned, recalling how the media initially flirted with more progressive alternatives to Biden in 2020 before closing ranks around him when it became clear that far-left candidates would be easy prey for Donald Trump.
Remember, in the first few weeks of the 2020 primaries when it became clear someone might beat Biden and plausibly challenge Donald Trump the media loved to make hay while the sun shined for more progressive candidates, the analysis recounted.
Suddenly, when it started getting too progressive, like the kind of candidate who Trump would beat 10 times out of 10 (cough cough Bernie Sanders cough) they rallied behind racist Uncle Joe and wallpapered over this until the moment had passed.
The same pattern could easily repeat in 2028 if Newsom emerges as the establishment favorite.
Mark my words: If it comes down to Newsom and a field of pliable, media-friendly Democrats, thisll be a big deal for a few weeks in 2028. If the Democrat suddenly becomes too unelectable (hi, Rep. Ocasio-Cortez!), itll all be forgotten, the commentary predicted.
In that scenario, Newsoms Atlanta performance will be recast as a minor stumble on the road to redemption.
Hell be the comeback kid with a 960 SAT, the critic wrote, anticipating the inevitable rehabilitation narrative.
And any attempt to question his intelligence or his patronizing attitude toward black voters will be met with accusations of bigotry.
And dont you dare call him illiterate or stupid. What, youre racist against all the poor black people whore just like, um, Gavin Newsom? the piece concluded, exposing the cynical logic that equates legitimate scrutiny of a powerful white politician with an attack on the very minority communities he is busy insulting.
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