First on the list is his overreaction to the COVID-19 issue. His actions included:

During his reign of petty tyranny, Newsom:

• “Brawled with Orange County, where residents had been enjoying their beaches in the Southern California spring weather,” even though police said beachgoers were “mostly keeping social distance” practices.
• Routinely condescended toward Californians who didn’t behave as he demanded.
• Was fittingly called an “out-of-touch elite,” a “narcissist,” “Big Daddy #thugboy,” and “The King of Sacramento.”
• Held more political prisoners during the pandemic than any other governor.
• Signed the bill that penalizes doctors who spread “misinformation or disinformation related” to COVID. It was such poor legislation that it was repealed after first being derailed in the courts.
• Considered himself a savior. He claimed his 2021 recall election was ”a matter of life and death” because the favorite to replace him, had he been recalled, was radio talk show host Larry Elder, who promised that if he was elected governor, he would repeal “right away” any “facemask mandates and vaccine mandates.”
• Was complicit in California students’ historic learning loss. His four children were protected, however, because they were sent to a private school that returned to in-person instruction while many public schools remained closed.
• Issued “39 executive orders, unilaterally changing 200 laws spanning most sections of the California code” – all before the end of May 2020.
• Went maskless, as did his rich friends, at a party in a three-Michelin-star Napa Valley restaurant while expecting everyone else to comply with mask rules.
• Hectored and disparaged anyone who didn’t agree with his oppressive pandemic response, which turned out to be fatally wrong.

When confronted a few weeks ago about the harshness of his COVID restrictions while on “Meet the Press,” Newsom said that had he known then what he knows now, “I think we would’ve done everything differently.”

If that last sentence isn't belaboring the obvious, I have no idea what is.

The country is now good and sick of all things COVID, and this would be a good addition to the GOP's supply of outrageous slings and arrows to toss at the California Governor. And his own hypocrisy, in the party at the Napa Valley winery, among other incidents, would provide another good hit, if the GOP opponent is quick enough to take them up (that may well assume facts not in evidence).

Under Newsom's watch, California schools have gone from bad to worse.

While the LAUSD’s students fall behind, California’s politicians show the same indifference to learning gaps and failed instruction as the districts’ leaders. On Saturday, September 23, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a bill requiring that all California teachers and staff receive cultural competency training regarding LGBTQ+ students.

The only competency training that teachers should be getting is on how to teach reading, math, history, and science, and the only message that elementary school students should be getting is that learning is joyful and that knowledge will unlock the mysteries of the world.

The California school system has apparently not yet seen the idea too loony that they won't preach it to schoolchildren, including that they may be "Foxgender," "Moongender," or presumably "Wackogender," which has to be making some California parents long for the days when people thought Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown was a nut - Brown, at least, dated Linda Ronstadt, which back in those days lent him some cool points.

The fact is, Gavin Newsom is carrying around a big basket of disadvantages. While he has been running an odd kind of shadow campaign for President, California is seeing runaway retail and street crime. The state has the largest population of people sleeping, shooting up, and defecating on the city streets. Honest (and productive) citizens are literally fleeing the state for friendlier, lower-taxed places like Texas and Florida. San Francisco, a city my father visited in 1945 and described as beautiful, clean, friendly, and prosperous (and a city that Gavin Newsom was once Mayor of) is deteriorating into a dystopian hellscape. There's just no way any of that can appeal to the mainstream American voter.

Remember, this is what he has to run on:

CA is the best

#1 in state debt - $519 billion
#1 in deficit spending - 29% of budget
#1 in cost of living
#1 worst state to retire to
#1 in homeless population
Only #2 in worst air quality but we're working on that

Yay @GavinNewsom! Awesome job!!!

👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

— CantFixStupids (@cantfixstupids) September 30, 2023

So, yes, it's certain that Governor Newsom has Presidential ambitions, and it's also near-certain that 2024 won't be his year. While it's doubtful old Joe Biden will be the Dem's standard-bearer next year, he's not the only one standing in Newsom's way - his being a rather bland white guy will hurt him among the current base of the Democratic Party - although he may have a way to deal with at least one obstacle.

Of course, Newsom does have some advantages. His "progressive" cred is tarnished but still good. And the Democrats are cohesive; once a candidate is chosen, they all pull together to win elections. That's why whenever Democrats have had Congressional majorities in recent years, they act. Most of us who are to the right of Leon Trotsky might not like how they act, but act they do, and their cohesiveness (in a number of areas) was enough to put Joe Biden in the White House. Republicans tend to have a wider range of opinions and priorities, making that kind of Borg-like cohesion considerably more difficult.

But those advantages may not outweigh Newsom's disadvantages. Gavin Newsom certainly has Presidential ambitions. Whether he can convince the American people to allow him to realize those ambitions is another story - at present, it's unlikely he could win an (honest) Presidential election in 2024. 

2028 may be a different story. But let's worry about that in 2028.