"Young Man in a Hurry", by Gavin Newsom

This book, the first one published in 2026 that I've read, is Gavin Newsom's autobiography. Newsom goes into great detail about his ancestors, with most of the info about them having been learned in preparation for this book. Indeed, his subtitle for the book is "A Memoir of Discovery", alluding to all he had learned about his ancestors.

Before reading this book Newsom impressed me as too brash and too flaky to be a viable presidential candidate. Now, after reading the book, I would substitute "driven" to describe him. He has always been driven to succeed, starting a successful wine business in his native San Francisco in his 20s and working night and day to make it highly successful. Newsom attributes his drive to his dyslexia, but he never really explains how his dyslexia caused him to be driven. I would have liked to have seen some discussion about what dyslexia is and how one overcomes it, but Newsom doesn't go into this.

The book ends with Newsom taking office in 2019 as California's next governor, succeeding Jerry Brown. While he was governor-elect, President Trump invited Newsom to accompany him and Brown on a tour of the devastating wildfires in California. Newsom relates how Trump tried to bond with him, giving him a private tour of Air Force One, and showing off all the fancy equipment on the plane. After Newsom later bad-mouthed Trump in his inaugural address as incompetent and corrupt, Trump called him and asked "Are we good?" After satisfying himself that it was "just politics", Trump, secure in their friendship, happily hung up.

My cynical side says that Newsom is still too brash to get elected president, but I think he has helped himself by publishing this book. My cynical side also says Emanuel and Shapiro are too Jewish, Buttigieg is too gay, and Pritzker is too fat, for any of these to be electd president in 2028. This leaves Kentucky governor Beshear as the best Democratic candidate by default.

After hearing an interview with Newsom recently, I think the nomination question is going to come down to whether most Democrats buy into his "you have to fight fire with fire" approach. Newsom says that Democrats are too concerned with being "right", and not concerned enough with winning the battles with the right wing. Whether Democrats agree or not will determine his nomination prospects.