Breakfast w/Greg: Bill Clinton stumps for Gavin Newsom; Serena Williams is officially number 1 again

Good morning!

I’m all energized from my night at The Magic Castle in Hollywood last night where I watched the incredible JoAnne Worley perform her one-woman show. I’ll have photos and highlights later today but let me just say, Miss Worley makes the world a better place.

I’m still smiling because of this force of nature’s talent, energy and great humor.

GAVIN FOR GOVERNOR: San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom is running for governor of California. It seems like an impossible job but I sure would like to see if he can make a go of it.

But getting there will not be easy because battling the very pro-gay rights Newsom for the Democratic nomination is former governor Jerry Brown, currently the state’s attorney general. So Newsom is bringing out the big guns: on Monday, former President Bill Clinton showed up in LA to lend a hand.

My good pal Michael Finnegan covered Clinton’s appearances and writes in today’s LA Times: It is highly unusual for a former president to endorse a candidate in a seriously contested Democratic primary for governor of California. Newsom advisors hope that Clinton’s high standing among Democrats will play well with primary voters who are more familiar with Brown, a former governor and Oakland mayor who is now the state attorney general.

They also hope Clinton can help Newsom overcome Brown’s huge fundraising advantage. At the end of June, Brown reported $7.4 million in the bank; Newsom had $1.2 million.

BACK ON TOP: Well, everyone knows Serena Williams has been the best tennis player in the world for the past two years when it comes to the sport’s grand slam tournaments. But she has been ranked number two because she has tanked out of just about every other tournament that’s not Wimbledon or the US and Australian Opens.

This led to poor Dinara Safina spending much of the year as number one because she had been the most consistent despite never having won one of the slams. Everyone focused on her non-slam reign and she seemed to feel the pressure and has been in a free-fall since Wimbledon.

Well, because of Dinara’s terrible play and Serena winning two matches at the China Open, Miss Williams is now number one again. I hope Dinara can relax now, start playing better and win the Australian Open in January to silence her critics.

It shows, once again, the pathetic state of women’s tennis. The number one ranking is no longer special, not like when Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf all held it for seven years or more apiece. When younger upstarts like Tracy Austin or Monica Seles were able to wrest it away from them – for awhile anyway – it was a huge deal.

Let’s see if Serena, winner of 11 grand slam singles titles, will finally start playing like the best player in the world more often.

“It feels pretty good. I’m really excited, I guess,” she told reporters. “I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself, but I’m obviously happy to be there because I feel like I’ve been working so hard all year and just happy to be back.”