Gavin Newsom Will Regret His Book Launch | The American Spectator

This month has been, in all but name, the formal launch of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s presidential campaign.

On Tuesday, Newsom put out his memoir, Young Man in a Hurry: A Story of Discovery, but that was preceded by a monthlong coordinated media push designed by his aides to introduce him as the leading presidential contender for 2028. No doubt, Newsom and his closest political advisers — who a year from now will transition onto his campaign team — had been plotting this political moment for months.

There was the nearly 4,000-word New Yorker profile. The Vogue puff piece with photographs by Annie Leibovitz, the one that read, “He is embarrassingly handsome, his hair seasoned with silver, at ease with his own eminence as he delivers his final State of the State address.” There was also the New York Times profile that called him “one of the Democrats’ best hopes for pulling together a shattered country.” Then there was the Marie Claire profile of his wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom, complete with a glossy photo spread. For that article, Newsom came out to say that she would make an “extraordinary” first lady. (RELATED: Gavin Newsom’s Democrat Fangirls)

To kick off the attention on himself for the week of his book’s release, Newsom granted an exclusive interview to CNN’s Dana Bash. Newsom’s answers came as though from a candidate who is actively seeking the presidency. The headline news from the interview came when he, ever so humbly, said his kids and wife will determine whether he runs. (RELATED: Newsom Practically Demands to Be the Democratic Candidate)

Right now, Newsom’s effort to establish himself as the Democrats’ top candidate appears to be paying dividends. He has wall-to-wall media coverage. He has been crowned as the frontrunner by media outlets. Polls show him leading among likely Democratic primary voters. Nate Silver said last week that he had recently done a fantasy draft of Democratic primary candidates with some former colleagues, and that Newsom was the first pick. In prediction markets as well, Newsom emerges as the top Democratic candidate. (RELATED: Meet Neppo Marx, the Democrats’ Great White 2028 Hope)

But this is all way too early.

The public only has so much appetite for following any candidate’s moment in the spotlight. If Newsom tries to manufacture another moment for himself a year from now, Americans will be too bored to pay attention.

Making things worse for Newsom, Americans aren’t paying that close of attention right now to the in-all-but-name hard launch of his campaign given that the presidential election is still nearly three years off.

When the presidential primary season begins in earnest next spring, it will be Democrats other than Newsom who will have big political moments. Some lesser-known person will catch fire, and interest will grow in his or her biography. Another candidate who is nationally known will start doing surprisingly well, and public fascination with him or her will increase. But Gavin Newsom will be old news, especially in a culture where attention spans on any given subject are short.

Had Newsom waited until February of next year to launch his memoir alongside his announcement of his presidential bid, he would have been able to manufacture attention that would boost him right as the primary campaign began. The public would have paid much closer attention to the laudatory media spreads written with the promise of exclusive early access to him and his memoir. As it is, people are just going to be bored when we have to go through this whole introducing-Gavin-Newsom-to-America exercise again so soon.

Here’s where Newsom made his mistake. He is terrified of all of the baggage he is carrying from his past, and so he thought that now, before the election really began, was the time to share all of that baggage with the American public. His plan, simply put, was inoculate himself against attacks on his past. (RELATED: The Women Who Will Haunt Gavin Newsom’s Presidential Campaign)

This makes sense, given that he really does have a shocking amount of baggage.

There was the affair he had with his married appointments secretary. The 19-year-old he dated when he was the 38-year-old mayor of San Francisco. The fact that he was handed his businesses by way of investments from Gordon Getty and his connections to San Francisco high society. The reality that he got his start in politics by way of Getty and his pals. And so much more baggage that I chronicle in my book, Newsom Unleashed: The Progressive Lust for Unbridled Power. Allegations of cocaine usage, allegations of showing up to places drunk as mayor, and allegations of asking for donations for his wife’s nonprofit, with the implication being that he would help them as governor. There are the embarrassing romantic relationships, his role as a playboy in San Francisco high society, and the various minor scandals, such as his failure to report gifts and his use of public resources for his own benefit. There is also his entitled attitude, which was demonstrated in his maskless French Laundry dinner.

In his interview with Dana Bash, Newsom sought to counter the bad moments from his life by saying that he is always seeking to better himself and that his growth is reflected in his book. “I’m constantly trying to improve, I’m constantly trying to, there’s humility, there’s grace, and that’s reflected in the book,” he said. “And there’s discovery, but there’s also maturity. This is about a young man becoming a man, a better father, a better husband.”

Newsom seeks to address some of his scandals in his book, such as when he describes his affair with his secretary as “the stupidest and also briefest of affairs.” He avoids mentioning other scandals entirely, such as his relationship with a teenager when mayor of San Francisco.

But the book’s overall impact, according to its media reception as well as its actual narrative, is telling a story of overcoming hardship. This is a classic political bootstraps story, the type of book you would want to take with you on the campaign trail. (However, whether people will actually believe Newsom’s tale of woe, given his privileges and charmed life, is another question.) This is not a book focused on getting ahead of scandals.

Perhaps Newsom has enough staying power that he can ride this wave of political stardom deep into primary season, or perhaps he will be able to successfully manufacture another political breakthrough moment during the primary. After all, he has managed to remain a national political figure ever since he decided, as mayor of San Francisco, to grant marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Press coverage of him has remained strong throughout his governorship.

But launching his book now is a mistake. He’s wasting political capital when few Americans care. And worst of all, as the frontrunner, he’s painting a giant target on his back and inviting fellow Democratic hopefuls to shoot.

READ MORE from Ellie Gardey Holmes:

The Women Who Will Haunt Gavin Newsom’s Presidential Campaign

Jennifer Siebel Newsom’s Feminist Meltdown

Is Gretchen Whitmer Back In?