Only in California could a politician this incompetent and hypocritically elitist avoid getting tossed out of office. Ten days ago, Gavin Newsom imposed a vaccination mandate on all students above the age of 12, including both public- and private-school enrollees.  As it turns out, the Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday in a buried lede that Newsom has made one exception — his own daughter.

To be fair, Newsom’s order allowed for personal-belief exemptions — but …

The governor has said the state’s process offers an “accommodating” personal belief exemption and will provide adequate time to hesitant parents to talk to their doctors and school nurses. He said his own daughter, who recently turned 12 years old and is eligible for the vaccine, has not yet received it because she has “a series of other shots” to get first.

This does have shades of French Laundry-esque double standards, even with the caveat of “personal belief” exemptions. In the first place, it’s clear that Newsom’s “personal belief” is that he can order everyone else to vaccinate their children, meaning he has no beef with the shot or any liberty issues. He’s not even relying on the exemption to excuse his daughter from the mandate, only claiming that they haven’t gotten around to it yet because of some weird backlog on other injections. If that’s good enough for Newsom, why wouldn’t that be good enough for other parents?

And what is this “series of other shots” that take priority over the COVID-19 vaccination anyway? The FDA authorized the Pfizer vaccine for 12 and up on May 10, almost exactly five months prior to Newsom’s mandate. The vaccine is in plentiful supply too, which is why Newsom feels comfortable in imposing the mandate. If the other shots take priority, it would be interesting to know why, and why Newsom hadn’t bothered to get that accomplished in the last five months. Are the Newsoms opposed to other vaccines and now having to play catch-up? Why wasn’t the Los Angeles Times interested in asking that question?

On top of that, Newsom is apparently working with the state legislature to severely restrict these choices by other parents rather than allowing them the same options Newsom has used with his own family:

“I think it’s likely we have to address this,” Pan said of the Legislature. “We don’t want schools closing down or classes in quarantine. If you have a loophole or gap that allows too many students to remain unvaccinated, then you won’t have a school that is safe where students can learn. We have already had enough disruptions.”

Newsom’s office would not comment on whether the governor would support legislation to eliminate personal belief exemptions for the COVID-19 vaccine.

Mandates for thee and not for me. If it weren’t for double standards, Newsom wouldn’t have any at all. Newsom has a particular pattern of this hypocrisy, but Californians decided that they were more afraid of a black conservative than in holding Newsom accountable. Looks like a good time to home-school in the Golden State.