Writes Michelle Goldberg, in "What on Earth Is Gavin Newsom Doing?" (NYT).
March 14, 2025
"I was open to the idea behind Gavin Newsom’s new podcast, in which the California governor has been breaking out of his political bubble..."
"... to talk at length with right-wing media stars such as Charlie Kirk and Steve Bannon. Democrats need to get better at speaking to people who don’t share their assumptions and at long-form conversations requiring improvisation and spontaneity.... Trying to leverage Kirk and Bannon’s notoriety to reach new audiences could have been an interesting experiment. Instead, it’s a protracted exercise in self-harm for both Newsom and any liberal who decides to listen to him. That’s because the governor frequently seems less interested in arguing than in finding common ground, assuming the good faith of people who have next to none. He leaves wild right-wing claims unchallenged and repeatedly concedes Republican premises. When Bannon described rebuilding his movement after what he claimed was the stolen 2020 election, Newsom’s response was, 'Well, I appreciate the notion of agency.'"
Writes Michelle Goldberg, in "What on Earth Is Gavin Newsom Doing?" (NYT).
Writes Michelle Goldberg, in "What on Earth Is Gavin Newsom Doing?" (NYT).
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70 comments:
I'm struck by Michelle Goldberg's insight that politicians need to become good "at long-form conversations requiring improvisation and spontaneity". This must be an artifact of the modern era, since politicians didn't used to have to be good at that.
What is wrong with finding common ground as a first step?
I feel like Michelle Goldberg and some other lefties are caught in a death loop where they keep kicking people off the island for having wrong think or not sufficiently defending the party line which allows the left to not have to contend with opposing viewpoints which in turn makes them more likely to kick additional people off the island.
Gavin Newsom doing this in good faith? Hilarious. What a naive, credulous person she is.
Newsom does nothing that is not going to push his own career forward- at least in the minds of he and his handlers.
He is the most self-centered politician in America. Think about that statement and understand that I've considered as many as I could. And I pay attention to so many.
This is calculated and an obvious move to look more like a guy willing to work with others, despite his glaring track record in both San Francisco and California.
All that said, he is a bomb landing. He is the destroyer with a smile and good hair. Nothing he has touched has either survived or turned out better. If you love what he did to SF and CA, you'll be supercharged for what he'll do to this country. Just be prepared to grab your ankles.
Gavy commissioned a monument to his own damn self in honor of his service as SF mayor. He’s a narcissistic ponce, in addition to his moronic politics.
The comments at the NYT are very surprising. A popular, representative comment:
“Please let go of progressive ideology as canon, which you must adhere to completely - or be exiled from the realm of the virtuous. It has brought nothing but harm and may even cost you your democracy.”
Also comments are very definitely for female only sports.
Before the election, NYT commenters were very left wing.
What has happened?
I find his podcast's lack of shoulder-shimmy disturbing. I have a disease, and the only cure is more shoulder-shimmy.
Newsome is looking for his "Sistah Soulja" moment.
Is Goldberg suggesting that in a conversation - especially one you are hoping others will find sufficiently interesting to listen in - that every time one person says something with which you disagree you must stop the conversation and explain why he is wrong? That you should not let some things pass to let the conversation continue?
Does this not sound like every liberal everywhere all the time? They seem to be incapable of letting things pass. "You're wrong!"
This is why many find them insufferable. They are so reliably annoying and boring. Nothing interesting to contribute.
Newsome doesn't push back, because be can't. He is not that adept. Have you heard his10 year old interview with Adam Carolla?
Feck off, Goldberg! You slept through this:
“Remember that the Biden Cabal’s primary reason for existence was to print enough funny money to allow them to continue looting the Treasury. By far the most corrupt administration in American history.”
—— Stephen Green
I hope he takes Goldberg’s advice and continues the left’s suicidal strategy of resistance theater. Sane voters seem to love it.
Maybe torching a Tesla or two to would prove he’s a legit 2028 contender.
"La-la-la-la-I-can't-hear-you!" --M. Goldberg
Don't argue with Bannon to challenge his "right-wing claims". Argue with him because he's a master and you will only get better if you test yourself against him. Shying away from Bannon's rhetoric looks cowardly.
… assuming the good faith of people who have next to none …
Goldberg should easily recognize people who operate with next to no good faith, as she sees one every time she looks in the mirror.
Oh, and the reason why Governor hair gel accepts the premise that the 2020 election was stolen is because he personally knows the people who stole it.
Keith said, "...that every time one person says something with which you disagree you must stop the conversation and explain why he is wrong? That you should not let some things pass to let the conversation continue? Does this not sound like every liberal everywhere all the time? They seem to be incapable of letting things pass. 'You're wrong!'"
I have repeatedly said that the democratic party is the party of women and gays. Throughout my life I have found the tendency mentioned above to be more significantly representative of women than men, by a wide margin.
In other words, your queries of Michelle check out.
Inman @ 9:20
Have heard him speak at numerous occasions and I'm convinced he's a sociopath.
"Instead, it’s a protracted exercise in self-harm for both Newsom and any liberal who decides to listen to him".
Michelle Goldberg, from the School of Good Faith Debating Team? Who exactly is harmed by listening, and how are they harmed, Michelle? She doesn't explore this in her piece - she has a Gate to Keep, here.
Gavin Newsom is doing what he does best: Looking out for Gavin Newsom. Don't get between him and the camera, Michelle.
That was then, this is now, Michelle.
Or did you really think Newsom was sincere about...well, anything?
Last night on Gutfeld, they showed a clip of Newsom on one of his You Tube or pod cast videos. Newsom's hand movements were really weird--lots of motion, lots of Tim Walz style finger movement etc. Tyrus looked at the video and said it looked like Newsom was negotiating with a deaf prostitute. California's Brylcreem Boy is anything but an authentic person--once you get past the plastic mask, there's just more plastic.
Gutfeld has an interesting take on Gavin's hand gestures... while Gavin talks to Bannon. Skip ahead to the 15:38
Rusty said, "Have heard him speak at numerous occasions and I'm convinced he's a sociopath."
American Psycho.
“ that every time one person says something with which you disagree you must stop the conversation and explain why he is wrong..”
Then somebody writes a book entitled “Let them be wrong” where the author advocates not responding and just letting people say things. And the becomes the greatest New York Times bestseller and deemed a giant revelation of wisdom.
Gavin could solve California's energy problems by offering to have his hair cut and donated to a petroleum processing plant.
Newsom commissioning that statue of himself reminded me of a Twilight Zone episode.
An astronaut lands on a planet populated with intelligent but imperceptibly small people who he forces to build a life-size statue of himself.
"Sick, scared little man with delusions of grandeur."
The Little People (clip)
Ann - Goldberg’s befuddlement at Newsom’s approach to his right wing podcast guests sort of matches my befuddlement at your approach to Trump in recent times.
Doesn't Goldberg know it's permissible to lie to infidels?
Yeah, the Gutfeld! - Tyrus analysis of the hand jive was pretty funny last night.
FTR I don't find either Newsom or Bannon very interesting.
assuming the good faith of people who have next to none. He leaves wild right-wing claims unchallenged and repeatedly concedes Republican premises
They never actually challenge any of the claims factually, well they say "you're wrong," but they never answer the reply to that, because at that point, you are going to have to get into some details that Gavin Newsome knows all too well.
My assumption is that they don't get into facts because they know they will lose. Look at the trolls here, they can never get past "You're wrong, just look at the news outlets, they all agree with me, and the ones that don't are dishonest so shut up!"
That's nothing more than a confession of the weakness of your arguments.
"sort of matches my befuddlement at your approach to Trump in recent times."
You are always more than welcome to challenge anything you read here, you can present the facts as you see them, but if you slink off as soon as your challenge is questioned, we will all simply assume that you realize you had no case to begin with. And every one of you slinks off.
For a presidential candidate, demonstrating that you can have a civil conversation with interviewers you disagree with is a plus. And don't Republicans have to deal every day with interviewers who have no "good faith"? Ask Bernie bro Joe Rogan what it's like to have to sit down with the people who said Ivermectin was horse paste and the lab leak theory was racist disinformation.
Admittedly, Newsom is a narcissist. People in politics are narcissistic (and possibly sociopathic) to a greater extent than the rest of the population. I wonder, though, do we think that he's the biggest narcissist because of his "pretty boy" reputation? Could an ugly or slovenly politician be as narcissistic or more narcissistic as Newsom, or is narcissism inseparably associated with good looks or thinking that one has good looks and taking care to present oneself in the best light?
Is Newsom a guy who can't push back? That could be true. He made his way through a one-party city and state by cultivating people who had money and power and never faced serious opposition -- certainly not in a face-to-face situation. He hasn't had any trouble voicing woke orthodoxy when he's the only one who has a live microphone, but he could have trouble in debates.
"My name is Gavin Newsom. I am 57 years old. I live in the Governor's Mansion at 1526 H St, Sacramento, CA, on the second floor. Tom Cruise is a friend of mine but he doesn't live with me. I believe in taking care of myself, in a balanced diet, and a rigorous shoulder-shimmy routine. In the morning, if my face is a little puffy, I'll put on an ice pack while applying handfuls of Dapper Dan. I'm up to 1000cc's. I'm a Dapper Dan man. After I remove the icepack, I use a deep pore-cleanser lotion. In the shower, I use a water-activated gel cleanser, then a honey-almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub. Then I apply an herb mint facial masque which I leave on for ten minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine. I always use an after-shave lotion with little or no alcohol because alcohol dries your face out and makes you look older. I'm dedicated to appearing as juvenile as possible. Then moisturizer, then an anti-aging eye balm, followed by a final moisturizing "protective" lotion. There is an idea of a Gavin Newsom, some kind of abstraction, but there is no real Gavin, only an entity, something illusory, and though I can hide my cold gaze and maybe you can shake your shoulders as well as I can, and maybe even sense our lifestyles aren't anywhere close to comparable: I simply am not there."
"He leaves wild right-wing claims unchallenged and repeatedly concedes Republican premises."
Good idea. Leaves him more time to devote to sane and reasonable left-wing Democrat premises like child grooming, voting fraud, climate alarmism, excessive government spending, supporting foreign wars and unhindered immigration.
"Ann - Goldberg’s befuddlement at Newsom’s approach to his right wing podcast guests sort of matches my befuddlement at your approach to Trump in recent times.
Actual items: I'm not claiming to be the Ann explainer, but what you don't seem to notice, is that Ann doesn't "approach" Trump or anyone else, for that matter. She approaches principles, and the subjects are adjudged in relation thereto.
Or put differently: Great minds talk about ideas. Small minds talk about people.
The left are so boxed in.
How dare you talk to anyone on the "right!"
How do we get the horribles to vote for us?
Newsom is such a self-important pretty boi puppet.
He is the perfect person for the inane loyalist left.
@Quayle
Precisely! I view Ann as having a great mind which makes her approach to Trump’s ideas so befuddling to me.
Meanwhile, Kirk gets abuse from his side for giving Newsom oxygen.
They keep nipping around at this idea they need a long form liberal Joe Rogan. The fatal flaw in the theory is with ling form people will get to know you and atm people don’t like what they hear from the left. Some don’t like to hear what it says about themselves…
Gavin can moderate. He can podcast. He can lay low for 4 years, instead of being the trash prog lying hypocritical political racing stripe of a governor he is. He can run for president. But he won't win unless he can lie a helluva lot better than he has so far. I suggest he start watching the early parts of Bill Clinton's 1992 campaign, where Bill lied his way into the White House claiming "the worst economy since the Great Depression." That was a winning Big Lie candidacy. It might work again.
Newsom is hoping that by Summer 2027 people will only remember him for his podcasts and not that he was governor of California for the previous 8 years.
You say narcissist like it’s a disqualifying thing when our last four presidents have been Obama, Trump, Biden, and Trump. Clearly the America people disagree with you.
Progressive liberalism (i.e. monotonic divergence) is not a viable religious philosophy. Abort. Sequester.
It's actually entertaining watching him try to pretend to be reasonable. But it's about as effective as a peacock trying to look like a carrier pigeon by putting on camo and sucking in its tail and gut. But he's trying. Even dropped the shoulder-shimmy and replaced it with the hand jive. Wonder what he'll replace the hand-jive with now that Gutfeld totally scorched that routine.
My take on him and his acquired mannerisms is what Bones might tell Captain Kirk (James Tiberius, not Charley)..."He's gay, Jim."
Newsom has to face the burning embers of DEI (i.e. institutional, systemic racism, sexism, etc), Negligent Green Deals, collateral damage forced by progressive policies, American Civil Liberties Unburdened, etc. Hotel California, you can enter, but never leave... but it has a nice climate.
Koot Katmandu said...
What is wrong with finding common ground as a first step?
Because it will mean that Michelle Goldberg and her ilk will not be able to live their lives with the certainty that they are superior beings to the rest of us.
The horror....the horror......
The danger as Goldberg perceives it is that having a discussion could be misinterpreted as a discussion between equals. Can’t have that.
Democrats need to get better at speaking to people who don’t share their assumptions and at long-form conversations requiring improvisation and spontaneity.
She wrote that, but then goes onto explain why she doesn’t mean it.
"...her approach to Trump’s ideas..."
AI, if an idea is embedded in the constitution or in due process or basic fairness, and Trump happens to be rightly espousing or intimating such idea, it is really "Trump's idea"?
Who anointed Michelle Goldberg as the high priestess of "good faith"?
I don't despise the far left media enough.
Let me predict she will be Gavin's biggest fangirrrll when he's running in 2028, and he will be the combative lying POS he's always been. I don't understand his strategy right now, engaging righties on the podcast turf, other than he wanted to garner some of the viewers like like those guys. But he's acting so out of character in his acquiescence to to so many sharp criticisms of his earlier actions.
He's sharp and slimy, and I dislike him (having lived under his misrule), but he IS an effective communicator. I just can't put my finger on what "message" all this is communicating!
These leftists have absolutely no self awareness of their totalitarians partisan nature.
I will commend Newsom to take on (sic) right wing, popular, new-media outlets. He's still a terrible governor but maybe he can see the error of his ways.
If Michele Goldberg is outraged, Newsom's handlers are saying "Mission accomplished."
"Democrats need to get better at speaking to people who don’t share their assumptions and at long-form conversations requiring improvisation and spontaneity....".
Goldberg's dim little wit tries to come to terms with the dawning realization that telling the same lie, over and over, louder each time, doesn't work as well as it used to.
RideSpaceMountain writes, ”I find his podcast's lack of shoulder-shimmy disturbing. I have a disease, and the only cure is more shoulder-shimmy.”
For podcast purposes, the Newsom shoulder-shimmy has been replaced with the Newsom thumb-trundle, a gesture he licensed from the estate of Marcel Marceau called RideSpaceMountain writes, ”I find his podcast's lack of shoulder-shimmy disturbing. I have a disease, and the only cure is more shoulder-shimmy.”
For podcast purposes, the Newsom shoulder-shimmy has been replaced with the Newsom thumb-trundle, a gesture he licensed from the estate of Marcel Marceau called “Man Extracting Spaghetti from His Nose”.
Jupiter said, "Goldberg's dim little wit tries to come to terms with the dawning realization that telling the same lie, over and over, louder each time, doesn't work as well as it used to."
Even the dead are getting in on the action.
This Interview illustrates Newsom's lack of ability to debate.
Goldberg thinks Newsome is straying off the reservation, so to speak. However, if Newsome somehow nabs the Democratic Nomination for 2028, (this podcast gambit is obviously why he's doing it) she'll be writing a column on how forward-thinking and awesome this was!
I see I'm not the only one to make this conclusion. Maybe it's the predictability of Goldberg.
"Ur doin' it wrong." -- Michelle Goldberg, who always does everything wrong
Proving once again Goldberg is an idiot who also suffers an almost fatal TDS infection.
Tyrus Knows Best</a<
Republicans can only hope and pray that the NY Times continues to employ this bimbo and that Democrats continue listening to her drivel.
I’ve witnessed too many debates where Goldberg was gutted tongue to taint to have even a small measure of respect for Michelle Goldberg’s opinion about anything.
Dear Dems: chill. Gavin's just playing "Level-Head'.
Check your wallet after being on that show
OK, let's hear an elevator pitch for a brand new podcast, subject matter: Personal beauty, grooming, and how to be wildly popular as a professional Public Figure. Featuring your hosts: Gavin Newsom and Meghan Markle.
Back in the 1950s Democrats showed a picture of Nixon captioned "Would you buy a used car from this man?"
Back in the 1950s Democrats showed a picture of Nixon captioned "Would you buy a used car from this man?"
Forget it Jake, it's Michelle Goldberg.
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