Walters: Newsom autobiography adds struggle to story of politically privileged past

"One of its most common tools is to write a book, or have a book written, to introduce the presidential supplicant to voters. Historians trace the practice to Thomas Jefferson, whose 1785 book, Notes on the State of Virginia, predated his first campaign for president in 1786. Using the book as a conscious tool of image-building is a more recent phenomenon, however, leading critic Jaime Fuller to lament the banality of such tomes in his 2019 Literary Hub article."

"The latter comment pretty well describes the book carrying California Gov. Gavin Newsom's name, but ghostwritten by veteran California journalist Mark Arax. It'll be published this month. According to accounts by journalists given pre-publication copies of Young Man in a Hurry: A Memoir of Discovery, Newsom's autobiography dwells on his life prior to running for governor. It's clearly aimed at moderating, or humanizing, his long-standing image of benefiting socially, financially and politically from his ties to the wealthy Getty family."

"achieved through his father's long career as a Getty family consigliore, with the divorce of his parents, his mother's financial struggles and her suicide to end the misery of cancer. This is me taking the mask off, Newsom said in an interview with Politico. And it's not just me taking a mask off and then sanitizing what's underneath. It's scrutinizing what's underneath."

Presidential hopefuls rely on crafted public self-presentation that dates to the nation's early leaders. Critics characterize modern campaign self-presentations as banal and overly folksy that try to convey relatable upbringings while masking privilege. Gavin Newsom emphasizes his pre-governor years, portraying tensions between Getty-family patronage and family hardship, including parental divorce, his mother's financial struggles, and her suicide following cancer. The emphasis seeks to humanize Newsom and counter perceptions of entitlement tied to Getty connections. Newsom describes the effort as a candid self-examination aimed at scrutinizing identity rather than merely sanitizing it.

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