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The Front-Runner

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The Atlantic profiles Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), noting that he has a 30-page file on why the Democrats lost the 2024 presidential election.

“He starts listing them: incumbency, inflation, interest rates, Israel—and that’s just the letter I. ‘Yes, too woke,’ he adds. ‘Yes, 107 days,’ referring to the short campaign after Joe Biden’s forced withdrawal.”

“But the California governor distills his party’s problem down to one word. Weak. Newsom slaps his hand on a marked-up hardback of Bill Clinton’s memoir, brought down from the shelf a minute earlier. ‘Given the choice,’ he tells me, summing up a crucial Clinton insight—one many Democrats still can’t quite seem to grasp — ‘the American people always support strong and wrong versus weak and right.’”

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About Political Wire

goddard-bw-snapshotTaegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.

Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.

Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.

Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.

Goddard is the owner of Goddard Media LLC.

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