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Finally.
Mayor Gavin Newsom was cornered by spoke to reporters yesterday outside his office. While the Deputy Prime Minister of Vietnam visited City Hall last night, Newsom stayed inside his office, hiding from reporters. But, being the crafty little critters that they are, local journos found him when he emerged. (Newsom did, we should point out, grant an interview with San Francisco's own Corky Sherwood, Ken Garcia, last Friday.)
Asked what the mayor has been doing since his return, Newsom spit back, "Working hard. And that's all I really have to say."
When CBS 5's Joe Vasquez asked, "There [are] some people who might be reading the newspaper or seeing this on TV, saying, 'What's going on with our mayor? Is he OK?'" Newsom defensively shot back, "I'm doing fantastic. I think you guys should consider your reporting."
Then, Newsom stormed off in a huff, trying to escape out a back exit. Watch raw footage of the uncomfortable press meet-and-greet here.
Vasquez, if you recall, was kicked out of City Hall last week for, well, doing his job.
Anyway, most press types are asking why Newsom doesn't just tell local media that he needs time away from the spotlight -- time to heal, if you will. But having confused the press as his own personal public relations team for quite some time, it looks like he's now blaming reporters for his having to drop out of the race. He's blaming the nanny for getting into trouble with mother and father. Which, of course, is absurd and unnecessarily bratty.
Gavin's spokesman, Nate Ballard, if you recall, quit yesterday. Former Ballard nemesis Chris Daly had nothing but kind words to say about the former Director of Communications, which can mean only one thing: "Ballard's exit is merely a symptom of the overall malaise" at City Hall.
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Poor Gavin. He would have been a fabulous monarch. He was just born in the wrong century and on the wrong continent.
When does Gavin get termed out?
He can serve two terms and he's (somehow) on his second. So that would mean we're stuck with him until 2012.
And as we all know, the world will end in 2012. So we're stuck with this moron until the end of time, basically.
That makes sense re his "I could give a fuck" attitude.
Regardless of whether you like him or not, watching a trainwreck in slow-motion is a little uncomfortable.
whatever, the guy needs to do his job. it's embarrassing to realize that he's just been using SF as a stepping stone, and now that the ladder has been taken out from under him that he's intentionally ineffectual.
he doesn't want to be mayor, he wants to be a star.
Agreed. Newsom doesn't want to do the work of Mayor, he seems to just want the title.
We should have stuck with voting for mayors who have awesome facial hair. They have a better track record.
See?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor_of_San_Francisco
Hmmm, if I had to choose the best mayor based on the facial hair criterion, I'd choose...
DiFi.
DiFi only wins in the ass hair contest.
Newsom bashing is getting sooo tedious.
You are absolutely right. I wish we didn't have to do it. If only Newsom didn't make it so damn easy/necessary.
Newsom bashing is just about as tedious as Bush bashing.
He keeps doing blatantly stupid things, thumbing his nose at the electorate and is an incapable leader. Striking similarities.
Maybe it's time for a little thing called "private life."
Gavin seems like he's on the edge of a nervous breakdown. I wish he would either resign or take an extended leave and put someone competent in charge.
guy's a joke.
"Working hard. And that's all I really have to say."
I know Nate's not around to help him on this stuff anymore, but I don't think quoting Forrest Gump is helping Gavin's credibility as mayor.
The working hard line is especially funny, given that some of the only reporting the Chronicle has been able to do on him recently involved some cell phone pictures of Newsom lackadaisically sweeping up trash on mid Market street. Surely, there are better uses of the mayor's time than sweeping trash on a sidewalk. If there aren't, then he should take a pay cut, yesterday.
Notice any similarities in the footage?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZ1eE2BbXas
Man, that's funny!
Can we change the headline to: "Newsom Speaks, Sits, Rolls Over..." ?
In fairness to Gavin, the press was very hostile to his candidacy bid, and far to neutral about it. The Chronicle in particular just dumped on him. And maybe he deserves some of it, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for Phil Bronstein to call meg Whitman a "Vuitton knock-off," or use similarly harsh and biased and charged language with her.
The Chron actually made up a front page story about Gavin exaggerating his accomplishments when the actual story found he was quite honest about them. Compare with those adds on the radio for Meg Whitman telling me she'll cut spending AND improve education, and wait for the Chron to point out that THAT it's more than an exaggeration, it's a huge lie!
I think the difference is that Newsom was the only credible declared candidate, and he was polling well initially. As such, he deserved the focused attention of the local paper. Meg Whitman is not a credible candidate, as she can't even get republicans at their own policy gatherings to applaud with enthusiasm. her business bona-fides don't hold up to scrutiny either, especially given the recent example of the Skype debacle.
Your un-sourced characterization of Newsom being quite honest about his accomplishments is sort of funny though, thanks for the laugh.
Unsourced? Just read the actual Chron article for yourself, and you see it actually sides with Newsom, big font headlines notwithstanding.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/07/22/MNVS18SRV1.DTL
Whitman is not credible? Who else is then?
Whatevs. Your reading comprehension, or your honesty, is lacking. Here are some quotes from your source:
"the mayor rarely mentions that then-Supervisor Tom Ammiano was its key catalyst."
"While he has been more involved in schools than previous mayors, he can't claim credit for rising test scores and other academic achievements."
"But the specifics of some of his claims are hard to verify from third-party sources."
"The no-new-taxes claim is technically true - for now - but just about everybody in the city will be dipping into their pockets more to pay for city services."
Those are from the "Bottom Line" portions of each fact check bit. The article didn't even address his often repeated claims that he made Healthy San Francisco happen, which is patently untrue.
My reading comprehension?!?
Here are all the claims you picked:
"the mayor rarely mentions that then-Supervisor Tom Ammiano was its key catalyst."
Where is Newsom's fake or exaggerated claim in "rarely mentioning Ammiano." Who cares about Ammiano in the Gov's race?
"While he has been more involved in schools than previous mayors, he can't claim credit for rising test scores and other academic achievements."
If you read the rest of the piece, you'll see that he increased budgets and created some programs to help school children improve scores. The piece actually contradicts itself.
"But the specifics of some of his claims are hard to verify from third-party sources."
Just because the Chron can't verify it does not mean he lies. There's no denying that SF is one of the most environmental conscious cities in the country.
"The no-new-taxes claim is technically true - for now - but just about everybody in the city will be dipping into their pockets more to pay for city services."
The Chron admits Newsom's claim is true.
And for proving exactly nothing against Newsom, the Chron made the front page with this!
If his staff is imploding, I hope he shows the same gumption that he used in deciding to bow out of the Governor race and that he selects staff who are not primarily sycophants. If he's really not up for the job, a resignation would be respectable too.
the time is ripe for him to pull a palin.
If Gavin resigns who replaces him? Anyone?
"Anyone" sounds like a great to choice to me.
I would also like to offer up "Anyone Else", if "Anyone" is unavailable.
Nice Murphy Brown reference.
Art Agnos, duh. :)
Dear Gavin,
Life is a journey. Learn from it's setbacks. The lesson this time is that you have to have humility. The right thing to have done is laugh it all off, get back to making this the great city you always profess it to be, and give it another shot in four or eight years.
Love,
Phlavor
Dear Everyone Else,
Elections can be tough decisions. Sometimes you have to vote for for someone who you know will do a bad job to keep someone who would do a worse job out of office. Who, in the San Francisco political scene, would you like to see as mayor in 2012?