Newsom is an empty suit in some respects. I wouldn’t vote for him for governor. However, to be fair, when it came to nuts & bolts governance, he was a pragmatic mayor by SF standards. He did somewhat tame the Peskin-led SF Board of Supervisors and inject some semblance of reality into the budgets. When given a chance to appoint somebody to fill a vacant BOS seat, he went for a relative moderate.

As for his “It’s going to happen, like it or not” issuance of marriage licenses to same-sex couples, his actions initially backfired in the form of Prop. 8. Ultimately, however, it was a major step in shaping the debate on this issue. To the point where we now have seven states with same-sex marriage without having messed up anybody’s “traditional” marriage. We have a conservative former U.S. Solicitor general who will be arguing the case on behalf of same-sex marriage at the U.S. Supreme Court. And, most important of all, public opinion on the issue both in and outside of California is shifting in favor of marriage equality and will continue to do so. So, “like it or not,” it is happening. And Newsom can rightly claim some credit.

Yep, truer words were never spoke.