Something you should know: J.D. Vance’s grandmother, when she died, had 19 loaded handguns. That explains a lot, I think.

Something else you should know: Gavin Newsom’s father’s best friend was J. Paul Getty and Newsom says that as he started a number of different businesses over his early life, the Getty family were always there to invest in them.

Here I am on a Sunday morning, with C-Span2’s BookTV on, having finished the Sunday NYT crossword (which I really liked today), writing this blog post.

As you can see, I have watched two interviews this morning – – J.D. Vance and Gavin Newsom. Now, what do the two of them have in common? Yes, they are both politicians, but something more than that. They both come across as highly smug and appearing to feel superior to others. And they both talk about how important humility is to them.

Clearly, being humble is not either of their strong suit. But is there anyone who is more haughty than the two of them (other than Donald Trump)? The answer is “yes”, and that person is someone named Kara Swisher, whom I knew nothing about until I heard David Rubenstein interview her this morning before the interviews of Newsom and Vance. She is probably the cockiest person I have ever come upon.

What goes along with cockiness (especially when it isn’t backed by anything), is the appearance of insincerity. The most insincere politician in the past several decades has been, I think, Mike Pence. No matter what Mike Pence says, I am sure he doesn’t believe it. And, it turns out, I have the same response to everything J.D. Vance says and everything Gavin Newsom says. It is obviously clear that I would never support J.D. Vance as a presidential candidate, I think I could say the same thing about Newsom. I had always thought that Newsom should not be the Democratic candidate in 2028, and I think the interview I watched this morning has convinced me of that. If he is the candidate (and I guess there is a fighting chance he will be), I may sit out the entire campaign.

“If Watergate happened tomorrow, it would be a twelve hour story.” That’s a direct quote from Vance on this interview (June 2026). I would suggest that this interview, well reported at the time, should be re-aired and re-aired if Vance is the candidate, but along with commentary, because almost everything he said is utter nonsense, but stated in a very cocky (and therefore insincere appearing) way. Perhaps, some people would listen to Vance and agree with him, being seduced by the hubris that I find so off-putting. So, just re-airing the interview is not enough. His nonsense must be pointed out and explained.

Before I leave this, I should say one other thing. The interviewer of Kara Swisher was David Rubenstein. If I could pick someone to be in my next life,I would probably choose David Rubenstein. And one remarkable about Rubenstein is how humble he does appear. And therefore how unique.

I will never be David Rubenstein in a subsequent life. But one thing I would like to do in this life is interview David Rubenstein. Anyone know how to make that happen?

One last thing before we stop today. Did anyone see the quote from the Pakistani Foreign Minister after the signing of the Saudi-Pakistani-Turkish mutual defense treaty? He said:

“The Islamic world must united to confront the common threat posed by Israel. Israel poses a threat to all of us. Islamic countries must adopt a coordinated approach to address this threat.

“Israel is a product of the Balfour Declaration, which was established in the 1940s as an illegitimate state, and it could post a direct threat to any of the countries in the region.

“No matte who comes to power in Jerusalem – whether it is Bennett or any other leader – the differences are only marginal. Their attitude towards the Palestinians and their anti-Islamic mindset will not disappear. They continue to incite Muslim countries against once another, and as long as the Palestinian issue is not resolved, the Islamic world must stand against them as one.”

So, the problem continues. On both sides. Even where you have a country like Pakistan which (a) does not come close to bordering Israel, (b) is not an Arab country, (c) has been acting as a “neutral” (?) mediator between the U.S. and Iran, and (d) has nuclear weapons.

Where is the leadership we need?

If you are looking for good news….

look elsewhere.