There is an obvious answer to what California Gov. Gavin Newsom is doing. He's running for president. There is nothing inherently wrong with that. He is nothing if not ambitious. He's termed out as governor and in two years will be looking for a place to land.

California once was the state where a visionary might start up a gee-whiz concept in a garage. Now bureaucrats and powerful unions would crush that concept in its infancy.