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The emperor has no clothes β and no empathy.
Itβs likely, though, he still does have a standing reservation at the French Laundry.
Of course, itβs Gavin Newsom, of whom I write.
The smug and ambitious progressive California Governor whose political aspirations went up in flames as Los Angeles continues to burn to the ground, leaving a shocking number of residentsβ lives in tatters.
And itβs Newsom, who has become the arsonist, setting the fire to his political fortunes with a series of unforced errors β putting a cap on years of mismanagement and abandoning crucial infrastructure in favor of useless far left policies that made social justice and climate warriors feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
Since the inferno broke out, Newsom has shown that heβs ill prepared and shameless: shifting blame to others and trying toΒ ditch one of his devastated constituents.
Itβs like he and the epically feckless KarenΒ βIβd rather be in GhanaβΒ Bass had made a political suicide pact for 2025.
As Pacific Palisades was ablaze, Anderson Cooper asked Newsom about the dry hydrant situation there. Instead of owning any failure,Β he passed the buck.
βLook, the local folks are trying to figure that out,β he told Cooper.
Actually, Gov., you should have ensured the local folks had it sorted as risks were well known.
This all stops with the top, even if it was a βlocalβ issue. This apocalyptic inferno wasnβt some freak accident in a backwater that no one could find on the map. This was Los Angeles, home to millions, and a city that remains under constant threat of wildfires.
Then he cowardly tried to use a fake phone connection to brush off an anguished mother sifting through the rubble of her community.
βGovernor! Governor! I live here, Governor! That was my daughterβs school!β said Pacific Palisades resident Rachel Dervish, running after Newsom as he tried to hightail it back into his SUV.
βIβm literally talking to the president right now to specifically answer the question, of what we can do for you and your daughter,β he said with all the blessed chutzpah of Jan Brady speaking on the phone with George Glass.
When Dervish asked to hear the call, βbecause I donβt believe it,β Newsom, who was clearly not on a line with anyone, then switched tact. He said he was trying to get olβ Joe on the horn but he had no service. He explained that he had tried five times and was walking around looking for a signal.
She continued to press him on the lack of water in the hydrants.
βWhy was there no water in the hydrants, Governor? Is it going to be different next time?β she asked.
βIt has to be, it has to be, of course,β he said when she told him he was doing nothing.
She was desperate and grief stricken. She was also β like so many in her neighborhood β angry.
There were red flag warnings and yet, Bass was in Africa and Newsom was out to lunch. Why wasnβt he micromanaging their preparedness and their water supply.
Natural disasters are a fact of life in the Golden State and itβs impossible to guess mother nature β but there are also ways to prepare for battle and mitigate the damage from her wrath.
Take Ron DeSantis, who every year is faced with a destructive hurricane season. He is an extremely competent crisis manager who prepares for the worst, marshals all resources and communicates extremely effectively with Floridians.
He seems to revel in the details, in the foresight and in the aftermath, helping residents return to normalcy as soon as possible.
The act of governing is not sexy. Just look at the Florida Governorβs terribly unflattering white rain boots. Karl Lagerfeld he is not.
Newsom, on the other hand, is slick and handsome. But he is empty and incompetent. He is skilled in delivering platitudes about diversity and inclusion, hyper-focusing on βmarginalized communities,β including the endangered Delta smelt, according to Trump.
And for all his talk about tolerance, he was cold and dismissive to Dervish. Sometimes being a leader means listening and being a soft place to land. Expressing both confidence and humanity.
Itβs what George W. Bush understood when he stood on the pile at Ground Zero and said, βIΒ canΒ hear you. The rest of the world hearsΒ you.β
Newsom, who was very high in the demβs presidential depth chart, spectacularly failed this moment on both a political and a human level.
Voters will not forget.