Newsom is one of the most punchable people to have ever eyed the leap onto the national stage. People have a Pavlovian impulse to make him miserable. Maybe the general public won't, but you want to bet the election on it?
Whitmer and Pritzker have a bunch of baggage that people on this site who are hyping them absolutely loathe. Whitmer in particular is unusually primed to be the next, "I'd support a woman, but not her" candidate, and Pritzker is a friggin' billionaire
There's a definite John Edwards parallel in that people think that other people like him but they don't like him personally and then eventually they learn that everyone else feels the same way.
