Joe Biden is a mess, failing as president, falling in the polls, and fissuring into senility, and that seems to have given California's own Joe Isuzu, Gov. Gavin Newsom, some ideas.

Newsom in fact has suddenly stepped forward as a potential Democrat presidential candidate set to step over Old Joe and his pathetic sidekick, Kamala Harris, with plans to persuade the rest of the country to Californify with him.

He has:

...been groomed for White House occupancy by rich, progressive San Francisco elites. And now he’s “picking exactly the kinds of fights that presidential candidates like to pick” and is “clearly laying the groundwork for a presidential run,” in 2028 if not 2024.

...according to Issues & Insights.

He's also buying ads in odd places, according to the New York Post, shelling out six-figure amounts:

California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s campaign has bought ad time in Florida for the July 4th weekend, prodding speculation about his presidential aspirations.

The Democrat’s campaign reserved $105,000 worth of spots on Fox News in the Sunshine State in order to position himself as an alternative to popular Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, according to SF Gate.

“Stay tuned,” spokesman Nathan Click told the outlet.

The Newsom-friendly San Francisco Chronicle's Eric Ting says he's running, too:

First, the whispers around whether Biden will seek re-election have grown curiously loud in the past few weeks, with several national outlets publishing stories in which anonymous administration and Democratic Party officials have expressed doubts about Biden's candidacy and continued ability to govern. These whispers come amid a continued downward trend in the president's approval rating and mainstream publications raising age-related concerns that were once considered taboo. Biden is 79.

...and...

...Newsom has dramatically escalated his national posturing in the past week ...

Ting cited a long interview Newsom did for the Atlantic Monthly, and the fact that Newsom opened an account on President Trump's social media site, Truth Social claiming that his goal would be "calling out Republican lies."

That, plus Florida and his targeted fights against Gov. Ron DeSantis, plus his fancy dinners with the Pacific Heights crowd of billionaire Democrat elites looking for a successor to Joe, all pretty well add up to Newsom running for president. 

Newsom claims he's not running for president in 2024, and political analysts have long claimed that he defers to his longtime political bosom buddy, Kamala Harris and her ambitions for the presidency, but who the heck believes that?

Harris is falling apart in the polls even worse than Joe is. She can't win and everyone knows it.

For Democrats, there's a power void. And Joe Isuzu is not going to let a little necessary backstabbing to his old pal Kamala stop his big ambitions for the White House. Far as the Brillcreamed One is concerned, he survived his California recall last year, so that makes him the Democrats' anointed one.

Who else do the Democrats have? Beto O'Rourke? Pete Buttigieg? Hillary Clinton? They are all pathetic losers. Effectively, the Democrats have no one — and so Gavin to the rescue.

It's pathetic stuff, given the disaster he's made of the state, running a business climate so bad there's a Sri Racha shortage, while major businesses such as Tesla and Chevron have been pulling up stakes and heading for Texas.

Newsom has sought to position himself as a defender of leftist values, offering free abortions and encouraging abortion seekers to come to his state. He's also gone the full "Disney groomer" route and called on Disney and other businesses unhappy with recent Florida state decisions about not allowing teachers to talk sex of any kind with children under the age of 8, to come back to his state where such talk can flow. Thus far, nobody has taken him up on the offer.

Issues & Insights points out that he's made the state number one in homelessness, raising that population 42% between 2014 and 2020, while the rest of the country's homeless population fell 9% in the same period.

No longer golden, California is the center of the universe for homelessness. At 4.3%, the state’s unemployment is worse than in all but seven states, the poverty rate is higher than in any other state, blackouts are becoming more rule than exception, soft-on-crime policies have shown up in ugly street crimes, a politically created drought has a distinct Third World feel, and personal freedom is on the decline while economic freedom has been near rock bottom for more than two decades.

He's also made it a destination of choice for illegal aliens, offering drivers licenses, in-state tuition, free medical care, protection from law enforcement, and other goodies for illegal border crossers and visa overstayers. As a result, one out of four of the nation's illegals lives in California.

He'd like to bring that to the rest of the country.

As Ting notes, it may be that his time is now, and if he doesn't move, he will lose his big chance. Joe is falling apart, and Democrats are looking for a replacement. 

The only problem now is that he might just get his record examined by voters, and be found wanting. That never stopped Gavin, who, having survived his recall, sees himself as bulletproof. He's stepping in as Democrats' savior because who else is there?

Let's see about that.

Photo illustration by Monica Showalter with use of screen grabs from YouTube and YouTube.