Gavin Newsom Can’t Help Himself

Mark Leibovich: “By the time we met at the end of March, Newsom had fashioned himself as a kind of presidential super-surrogate — a chief alleviator of fears about Biden’s lagging poll numbers, advanced age, and ability to again defeat Donald Trump.”

“But being a super-surrogate requires a performative humility, subordinating one’s own ambition to the candidate’s. This is not something that comes naturally to a restless dazzler such as Newsom.”