Before the life coach came.

SFIST — Rumors are percolating that Gavin Newsom might pull a Sarah Palin.

That is to say, he could very well resign. Or not. No one can say for sure, of course.

As I see it, Gavin really has three choices:  man up, maintain status quo, or resign.

He’ll probably just continue to be the best (paranoid) walkaway mayor there ever was.

Go, Gavin!

Go.

The answer is 42.

DaniWeb — Remember Terry Childs?

He was the network administrator for the city of San Francisco who — claiming he was protecting the city government’s computer system from incompetent coworkers — changed the system’s passwords and then for more than a week refused to give them to anyone, even after being arrested.

Childs eventually did give the passwords to Gavin Newsom, and was charged with four felony counts.

Well, it’s more than a year later, and Childs is still in jail, without yet having been convicted of anything.

Due process is serving Childs well. But what about San Francisco?

Is the city’s IT system safer than it was one year ago?

The city spends $200 million a year on IT, and still has little to show for it.

Based on Gavin Newsom’s latest PR stunt, he’s more interested in the promise of peripheral user applications like Twitter to run his administration than improving the actual technological infrastructure of the government.

And you know, for once I agree with Gavin.

“Technology Nightmare” just isn’t a sexy headline. Unless it’s Halloween in San Francisco.

Whereas “San Francisco showcases free applications” is a super sexy press release headline. Hey, I want to win that prize money!

The truth is this: the Terry Childs incident should never have happened at an enterprise the size of the City & County of San Francisco.

It happened on Gavin’s watch, hasn’t been addressed, and is a perfect illustration of how the mayor with the gelled hair would rather focus on shiny new things, that actually fixing old and broken infrastructure while improving the lives of taxpayers.

No wonder the man-child mayor is so unpopular at home.

"...maybe they are counting wrong?"

Associated Press – A new Field Poll shows California Attorney General Jerry Brown with a strong lead in next year’s race for governor, even before he’s declared himself a candidate and despite months of campaigning by his Democratic rival and three Republicans vying for their party’s nomination.

The poll underscores the struggles of Newsom’s campaign.

He trailed Brown nearly 7-to-1 in fundraising during the first half of the year, even before Brown announced an exploratory committee last week that will allow him to collect larger campaign donations.

The bromance begins...

Newsweek – As political life goes, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom had a good day yesterday.

He jetted south from the city by the bay to meet up with his new buddy President Clinton.

Then, according to the L.A. Times, the pair talked with a group of students about green energy and jobs before heading to a fundraiser that, with Clinton by Newsom’s side, surely made for a pocket-padding evening.

Read between the lines, though, and the picture doesn’t look quite as rosy for him. Newsom’s problem is one of poor timing, which reveals many more weaknesses in his campaign than strengths.

With more than a year to go before California’s 2010 gubernatorial showdown, Newsom had raised just $1.2 million as of this summer when fundraising numbers were last disclosed.

It might be a respectable amount for governors’ races in other states, but it’s chump change next to his leading opponent’s $7.4 million in the bank. Even his would-be GOP rival (in a state that traditionally goes blue) has outraised him more than sixfold.

Several Democratic insiders who once believed Newsom had one of the best shots at the crown now tell him that to maintain his credibility, he’ll need at the very least a few more million in the bank before the end of the year.

If not, he’ll look like a weak candidate who, perhaps suspiciously, can’t build momentum.

Ouch.

The circus tent taxpayers bought Oracle.

San Francisco Chronicle – A scheduling snafu involving the big annual Oracle party and the TV show “Trauma” has wound up costing San Francisco taxpayers $270,000.

The mega mix-up revolves around the party that Oracle tosses for 22,000 select clients.

For years, Oracle has rented out a big chunk of the eastern side of the island for its party, including an old airplane hangar.

That was the plan for this year’s Oct. 14 bash as well.

However, the city rented out the hangar to NBC’s “Trauma,” which, while filming in the city, has provided a number of people with jobs – including the mayor’s actress wife, Jennifer Siebel Newsom.

Oracle – one of the biggest conventions of the year – found itself out in the cold.

Now, to keep everyone happy, the city is putting up a football-field-size tent on Treasure Island for the Oracle party. Cost: about $270,000.

Newsom didn’t try to explain away the mix-up or defend the ensuing costs.

How’s that?

The city is in an ongoing budget crisis and no explanation from the man-child mayor?

Network World is on the ball with a thoughtful analysis of the Newsom administration’s ineptitude, facilities mismanagement and callous response to the scandal.

Now times are tough in the high-tech industry, but Oracle last year made a profit of $5.6 billion on revenue of $23.2 billion. Not bad. They’re willing to spend $7.4 billion to buy Sun. And, of course, Oracle head honcho Larry Ellison is among the most ostentatiously rich people on the planet; Forbes has him pegged at No. 4, worth a sweet $22.5 billion.

Meanwhile, San Francisco’s municipal finances have been anything but rosy given the destitute state of that state.

Under the circumstances, couldn’t the company — or Ellison himself — have picked up the tab for that tent instead of sticking it to the already traumatized taxpayers of San Francisco?

If not, the least the mayor’s office could have done is apologize for the costly screw-up.

Don’t hold your breath.

Gavin and Tom in happy daze.

Gavin Newsom is no education mayor.

But by continually stealing credit for other people’s ideas, he is trying to position himself as strong on education.

This time, he’s stealing credit as a guest blogger on Huffington Post.

In San Francisco, we have a robust rainy day fund. We drew down on our reserves to make sure not a single teacher in San Francisco was laid off…

It’s true that the city has this rainy day fund.  But the mayor of San Francisco has no control over the schools or the education system. The fund wasn’t even Gavin’s idea.

In fact, this “robust rainy day fund” was the idea of then Supervisor Tom Ammiano, a former public school teacher, and today a state assemblyman.

I guess the man-child mayor thinks that if he associates himself with something positive, or says something often enough, people will believe him.

Well, just because you say something doesn’t mean it’s true.

"Gavin, you've been practicing your eye contact..."

By now you’ve heard the news that former two-term U.S. president Bill Clinton is endorsing two-term San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom.

When you think about it, it makes perfect sense – they are both accomplished two-timers.

But this political romance is more about Clinton’s hate of Jerry Brown, than his affectation for the man-child mayor. Or so says conventional wisdom.

Sure, Newsom endorsed Hillary before she lost to my main man, B.  But even I don’t think that’s enough political skin to earn an ounce of flesh from WJC.

No, I’m sure Bill Clinton finally saw the opportunity to fuck over his 1992 nemesis. That’s what got the former president to unzip for this endorsement.

But it ain’t no thing.

Clinton will host maybe two-fundraising events for Newsom and maybe raise one or two million bucks for the Gavinator from Hollyweird. That’s not even enough scrillah for a fair game of catch up in the money race.

After the fundraisers, Clinton won’t waste political capital on the SS Gavin Newsom.

"Why do they say such things?"

SF Weekly — Seek out the political operatives who once worked closely with Newsom, and you’ll find that a number have soured on the mayor.

Ask them why, and you’ll be bombarded with his alleged character flaws. Among them: “thin-skinned,” “disloyal,” “friendless,” “joyless,” “Machiavellian,” “craven,” and “empty.”

One will tell you that Eric Jaye was “the best-paid babysitter in California.”

Several diagnose Newsom with an acute case of narcissism.

“He’s probably the worst mayor in modern history,” said Jack Davis, a strategist who has worked on the mayoral campaigns of Newsom, Willie Brown, and Frank Jordan. “I pity this poor state if lightning should strike and this cad becomes governor amidst the problems that the state has. He’d have a nervous breakdown. There’s no there there.”

Although there are also fervent supporters, dozens of interviews with City Hall staffers, strategists, and fundraisers yielded a surprising amount of disapproval.

Well-known consultants Jim Ross and Bob Brigham — who both worked on Newsom’s 2003 campaign — and 2007 campaign staffer David Latterman all have reservations.

“I’m concerned that his record and his temperament will not be fully vetted by the press,” Ross said.

Brigham was more direct. “I think Gavin would be a pretty awful governor,” he said, though he’s not too worried about it happening: “I don’t see any path to the nomination anymore.”

Hey buddy, can you spare a smell?

It’s been a slow August around here.

That’s because Gavin Newsom hasn’t been in San Francisco, while some of his press release ideas have failed. Just another typical month in the City by the Bay.

To recap the August smells of summer:

– Gavin Newsom is merely a dick, not a criminal. Or so says a legal expert about a city attorney memo Gavin leaked to the media about San Francisco’s sanctuary city policy.

– Why did Gavin go to Chicago to raise money and talk to ignorant young voters outside of CA? Newsom must now think he’s the white Barack Obama.

– PG&E Wave Power is dead in northern California. This “green” Gavin press release idea actually destroys the environment. Common sense prevails!

– Gavin doesn’t have solid support for the Governor’s race. Some recent polls show that the man-child mayor may never realize his fantasy of being the Gavinator.

Will September bring news of his gubernatorial campaign shutting down?

"Here's looking at you, Ruby..."

Gavin Newsom just loves to talk about sex.

Maybe he can’t stop talking about it because he’s a blathering sex junkie.

Of course I’m talking about the affair Newsom had with his best friend’s wife while she worked for him.

SF Weekly thinks there’s a sex tape even as the SF Examiner ponders why he won’t shut up about it. You’d think he’d just let the story die.

I’ve always said the man-child mayor needs media training, but for some reason he just wants to keep telling the Ruby Rippey-Tourk sex scandal story, over and over again.

Gavin is probably just channeling Wendy O. Williams.