The Brown governorship still has more than nine months to go.
But the victory laps are already well underway.
He’s giving valedictory interviews to national media – a New Yorker profile is the latest. There was a long interview for California Sunday magazine. And any number of conversations with the New York Times.
Get ready for more.
All these media pieces proceed from the same assumption: that this second go-round of the Brown governorship is a success.
There should be more of a debate about that – look at the housing crisis, the escalating pension crisis, the terrible problems of education finance, the lack of progress – for all the hype – in California’s one-state battle on climate change.
But more important, this governorship isn’t over. Another budget season awaits, and it could get tough, if recession clouds form. Trump’s war on California and Americans who would resist him is escalating. There is a lot of work left to do, and a real chance that things will go south.
Of course, Brown is self-inoculated, by his pessimism and the media addiction to the “Sage of Sacramento” narrative.
But as he leaves triumphant, he should be careful not to trip over all the Californians sleeping on the streets.