I love Charlie Daniels, but this has always bothered me: From the lyrics to his classic “Uneasy Rider”:
I just ordered up a beer and sat down at the bar
When some guy walked in an’ said, “Who owns this car?
With the peace sign, the mag wheels, and four on the floor”Well he looked at me and I damn near died
And I decided that I’d jus wait outside
So I laid a dollar on the bar and headed for the doorJes’ when I thought I’d get outta there with my skin
These five big dudes come strollin’ in
With this one old drunk chick and some fella with green teeth
Okay, so first one guy walks in. Then five more guys come in — plus a drunk woman and the green-toothed gentlemen.
That’s eight guys!
Then the lyrics continue:
An’ I was almost to the door when the biggest one
Said “You tip your hat to this lady, son”
An’ when I did, all that hair fell out from underneathNow the last thing I wanted was to get into a fight
In Jackson Mississippi on a Saturday night
‘Specially when there was three of them and only one of me [emphasis added]
Wait — how did it go from eight to three?!
Like I said, I love Charlie Daniels, but my boy’s not the greatest at math. Oh well. Still a heck of a storyteller.
And his biggest hit was “The Devil Went Down to Georgia.”
(Of course, since the Devil went DOWN to Georgia, the implication is, Hell must be north of Georgia. I’m thinking Richmond, Va.)
Either way, the devil wasn’t the only one defeated in Dixie: Gavin Newsom, the exquisitely coiffed governor of California, just rolled snake eyes, too.
Even his hometown news site admitted it.
From SFGATE: Newsom Is Touring Southern States. It’s Exposing Some Hurdles in His Path to 2028
Newsom began the first stretch of the book tour for his memoir “Young Man in a Hurry” this weekend in the South, with stops in Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina. His team said starting in that region was “quite intentional” — but he’s already ruffled some feathers. While he is mostly sharing heartening anecdotes from the book, including how he handled being a student raised by a single mother and struggling with undiagnosed dyslexia, he is also clearly using his hourlong stage appearances to appeal to potential swing voters.
No, it’s NOT about appealing to swing voters — at least, not yet. Newsom only cares about Democratic voters because, without them, swing voters are meaningless.
He’s got to win his party’s nomination first.
That’s why his book tour was built around a Bizarro version of the Southern Strategy: Newsom needs black support.
It’s his biggest vulnerability.
We discussed this earlier in the week:
Black people are roughly 20% of the Democratic Party. In the critical primary state of South Carolina, nearly 60% of the voters are black.
[…]
Gavin Newsom is slick, but he’s no Slick Willy. There’s a reason why Toni Morrison dubbed the Man from Hope our “first black president.” Whereas Bill Clinton had an aw-shucks, good-natured, instantly relatable Southern charm, Gavin Newsom is as white as mayonnaise. Newsom isn’t “street” — unless that street is Wall Street.
He’s the Patriarchy personified.
Without black support, Gavin Newsom risks being the next Bernie Sanders. In CNN’s 2020 postmortem on Sanders’ loss to Joe Biden, the #1 reason cited was:
Lack of Black Support
Sanders ran into a wall in 2016 among black voters. Hillary Clinton catapulted herself to victory by winning blowouts throughout the South, where black voters make up a huge chunk of primary voters. Sanders needed to improve upon his performance.
Instead, Sanders did as bad in 2020 among this pivotal group. Among African Americans who voted for Biden or Sanders, Sanders won just 23% in the median state with an entrance or exit poll. That was the same percentage he garnered in 2016.
Black voters propelled Biden to his big win in South Carolina, which started him on his journey to defeating Sanders.
This is why Gavin Newsom set up shop in Dixieland: He’s learned from Sanders’ campaign mistakes. Striking gold in New Hampshire or Iowa is meaningless if your cupboard is bare in the South.
Trouble is, he tried to bond with black Democrats by playing up his stupidity. Here’s the video:
Yes. Gavin Newsom told a black audience that he’s just like them because of his low SAT scores and inability to read. pic.twitter.com/6z3pIMjgVg
— Chad Prather (@WatchChad) February 23, 2026
My PJ Media colleague, Stephen Green, recapped Newsom’s foot-in-mouth moment:
“I’m not trying to impress you, I’m just trying to impress upon you I’m like you,” Newsom pandered. “I’m no better than you, you know. I’m a 960 SAT guy. Heh. And, you know, I’m not trying to offend anyone, you know, I’m not trying to act ‘all there’ if you got 940. Heh. But literally a 960 SAT guy. You’ve never seen me read a speech, because I cannot read a speech. [laughing] Maybe the wrong business to be in.”
[…]
Newsom made his “I’m like you… I’m a 960 SAT guy” comments during a book tour stop in Atlanta on Sunday while promoting his memoir, Young Man in a Hurry. In too much of a hurry to stop and consider comparing his mediocre SAT score — which was due to dyslexia — to a largely black audience.
Newsom has a lot riding on his book being a best-seller — and if you don’t believe me, ask yourself, when was the last time you saw Karine Jean-Pierre ANYWHERE? Despite a helluva book tour and millions of dollars of free publicity, her book was a dud. It turns out that nobody cared what she had to say.
And now her career is over.
Newsom’s career isn’t over (yet), but his hopes of making inroads among Southern black Democrats just hit a landmine: Instead of endearing himself, he separated himself; instead of being relatable and “just one of the guys,” he exhibited all the classic symptoms of Lame White Boy Syndrome.
His way of bonding with black ppl is to tell them how stupid he is & that he can’t read.
This means my first read on him was correct. He’s been handed so many things & put in high positions he never earned or deserved.
Do you wanna know the craziest part of this footage that will haunt him forever? He’s literally slowing his speech down & talking in a sporadic cadence.
He’s not just TELLING them that they’re all probably stupid & probably can’t read, he’s LITERALLY SLOW-ING-DOWN-HIS-SPEECH to make them understand the words that are coming out of his mouth!!!! As if they’re children!!!! That means he REALLY BELIEVES they’re slow. He’s not just saying it—he didn’t misspeak!!!! He BELIEVES it!!!!
Do ya love it?!?!! Do ya just love it, black ppl?!????
Instead of building bridges to the black community, Newsom triggered a wave of new, troubling questions, including:
Why does he think black people can’t read?
If Newsom can’t read, how the heck did he write a book?
More importantly, why would I buy a book from a guy who doesn’t know how to read?!
Charlie Daniels might not be a mathematician, but at least he knew how to sing. (And considering how many musicians go broke, clearly, being astute with numbers isn’t a prerequisite for being a music star.) Newsom, it seems, isn’t particularly good at anything.
After all, the two biggest takeaways from Newsom’s Southern Strategy are that he’s a shameless, tone-deaf panderer — and he doesn’t know how to read.
Y’know, call me a traditionalist, but I kinda want my president to be able to read the bill he’s about to sign!
Fun fact: San Francisco is at 37.7749° North, and Atlanta is 33.7501° North. Which means, of course, that San Francisco is to the north of Georgia.
So I guess it’s true: The devil and Gavin Newsom both went down to Georgia.
And they both returned home in defeat.
One Last Thing: 2026 is a critical year for America First: It began with Mayor Mamdani declaring war on “rugged individualism” and will reach a crescendo with the midterm elections. Nothing less than the fate of the America First movement teeters in the balance.
Never before have the political battlelines been so clearly defined. Win or lose, 2026 will transform our country.
We need your help to succeed!
As a PJ Media VIP member, you’ll receive exclusive access to our behind-the-paywall content, commentating privileges, and an ad-free experience. VIP Gold gets you the same level of “insider access” across our entire family of sites (PJ Media, Townhall, RedState, twitchy, Hot Air, and Bearing Arms). That means: More stories, more videos, more content, more fun, more conservatism, more EVERYTHING!
And if you CLICK HERE and use the promo code FIGHT you’ll receive a Trumpian 60% discount!
Thank you for your consideration.
