More stories are starting to appear in the media that Mayor Eric Garcetti might run for president. I think that would be pretty cool. He’s partly a hometown boy. Although he grew up mostly in the San Fernando Valley, he lived for a year in Brentwood. His parents have lived here for many years. Garcetti knows Brentwood well.
People say he’s very smart, he does his homework and he knows where he wants to go. He’s fluent in Spanish, he joined the Navy Reserves and he is part Mexican, part Italian and part Jewish. That’s a lot of boxes he can check. He’s also viewed as calm, deliberative and possibly a tad cautious. I have a feeling that by 2020 those qualities will be in very much in demand.
Of course, California is a big state and offers much diversity. There’s talk that Oprah Winfrey, who lives in Montecito, might run. She can go toe-to-toe with Trump when it comes to celebrity status, camera presence, name recognition and money made. Unlike Trump, she started with nothing, she’s female and she’s black. So she gets to check some boxes, too.
I keep reading opinion pieces saying we don’t need another celebrity. I’m not sure why that should be a disqualifier. Didn’t we all grow up being told that we, too, could one day become president? Celebrities have rights, too, I believe.
People say Jerry Brown will be too old to run for president. I disagree. He still seems as sharp as ever, maybe even sharper, because at his age, he doesn’t much care what people think of him. That’s very liberating. He can say what he thinks.
I think he’s a very clear thinker and a terrific problem solver. Brown took the lead on environmental and alternative energy issues long before most took the issue seriously. He has the courage to raise taxes when necessary and invest in infrastructure – things we all know we need. He has made cap and trade work and I don’t see why it wouldn’t work elsewhere.
And unlike many Democrats, Brown is very tight-fisted and has generated a healthy surplus for the State of California. Republicans should love the guy if fiscal responsibility is something they still value. It’s getting harder and harder to tell these days.
Brown is now 79. Benjamin Franklin was 81 while attending the Constitutional Convention of 1787. I think it’s time we made it official: 80 is the new 60!
California has delivered presidents before in Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. It is often said California represents the future. If you want to know where the rest of the country will be 20 years from now, we should look at California today.
California has its issues to be sure, but if all of America were more like California 20 years from now, I think that’s something to look forward to.
Of course, California will be another 20 years ahead by that time, so that’s something to look forward to as well.
