Pragmatism, in politics, is a practice of working backward from desired outcomes, rather than forward from abstract ideals.
~ Nathan Heller via The New Yorker

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As a young man, Gavin Newsom was often described in the media as having movie-star good looks. He certainly wields his face the way a movie star does: with the care and precision with which most people handle power tools.
~ Nathan Heller via The New Yorker

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A trace of Gavin Newsom’s childhood shyness lingers in his fondness for performing comedic riffs, usually delivered in a key of ironic self-lament, which insulate him from more direct engagement. He was dressed in a white shirt, dusky-blue suit trousers, and a blue tie knotted, with two crisp dimples, into a four-in-hand.
~ Nathan Heller via The New Yorker

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Gavin Newsom, who at times can seem more like the Tom Cruise of politics, more successful than beloved, has been at pains to make it clear to people that the suave, wealthy glad-hander is a role he imagined himself into, not the way he was born.
~ Nathan Heller via The New Yorker

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On the campaign trail, Gavin Newsom has a mental stack of cue cards that he riffs on the way a jazz pianist might improvise from a chord chart. His movements through the language can be weird.
~ Nathan Heller via The New Yorker

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Gavin Newsom thinks the MAGA movement has mastered a form of ambient, non-stop messaging that the Democrats have not.
~ Nathan Heller via The New Yorker

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Governor Newsom, who has not changed his cellphone number since becoming mayor of San Francisco, in 2004, has nine thousand twenty-two personal contacts on his phone, and is in touch with a startling number of them as he tries to widen his view.
~ Nathan Heller via The New Yorker

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A recurrent phenomenon among California governors, who tend to run glamorous, is playing against type. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a man once known for toting a bazooka, turned himself into a sober-suited policy wonk. Jerry Brown, a onetime figure of “pop politics,” emerged as a curmudgeon.
~ Nathan Heller via The New Yorker

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