Running against the party of COVID-19 is a winning strategy

That's nice to know -- and a good portent. Newsom survived and a path to future Democratic victories has been clarified. Republicans have hitched themselves to a minority of vaccine resisters who are spreading death where they can get away with their folly. Heck of a dumb pitch, one would think. Thanks Donald for unleashing the crazy -- and now it even bites the former guy when he suggests getting shots.

We seldom get to see the guv looking this close to authentically happy.

I'll give the day's punditry to Perry Bacon Jr., one of my favorite commentators liberated by the Washington Post from the constrained platform at 538.

Mask-wearing and vaccinations ... are easy to understand. And Newsom’s covid policies demonstrated, in a clearer way than tax credits would, the governor’s broader values, which I think is what actually drives people’s votes. Newsom was essentially arguing that he is a rational, common-sense person who cares about saving people’s lives during a deadly pandemic, while Elder is an out-of-control ideologue.

Newsom’s values are of course much more popular than Elder’s in a blue state such as California. But nationally the 2018 and 2020 elections also featured Democrats running against Trumpism and portraying themselves as the party with normal values — and they won control of the House, Senate and the presidency. Newsom’s victory suggests that running as the anti-Trumpism party still has real political value, even with Trump no longer in the White House.

As my more skeptical friends know, I never thought Newsom that endangered. It's really hard to beat something with nothing. I wondered, in fact, whether Dems promoted some bad summer polls to goose their base. Maybe. Whatever -- it worked.

And the California GOPers have revealed they have no one of substance to run against Newsom in the real re-election campaign in 2022. Their recall stunt just killed that opportunity as well.

On to Virginia, where slightly used Democratic governor Terry McAuliffe (he's seeking to return after being term-limited) aims to ride the same anti-pandemic strategy to victory over a Trumpy GOPer in November. It ought to be possible to run against a killer disease. The Newsom romp says it's the way to go.