“He’s got huge problems in his state — I mean like huge problems in his state. Yet with all those problems he has a real serious fixation on the state of Florida. I mean it’s bizarre.”

Those words were hurled at California Gov. Gavin Newsom by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

They were in response to a query at a news conference after Newsom agreed to a hypothetical debate with DeSantis hosted by Sean Hannity days earlier during an interview to the Fox News personality.

Just what we need. The Dark Knight version of Mickey Mouse going mano a mano with the Masked Marvel of the French Laundry refereed by the self-proclaimed America First Hype Man on steroids.

Anyone that thinks such an encounter will raise the quality of the national debate, may I suggest booking a weekend retreat in a locked 8-foot by 8-foot room with Marjorie Green and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez with George Santos as the host?

We could go all day and debate which state is more problematic, but it’s always going to come down to perspective.

For years, folks from every other state seemed to take great joy in referencing California as the land of fruits and nuts.

And it’s not because this state grows most of the fruits and nuts they consume.

California got capped on for being the land of fruits and nuts with a healthy crop of oranges while Florida served up Anita Bryant with orange juice.

As an aside, why doesn’t the bulk of the orange crop in Florida go to making orange juice while the bulk of the California orange crop ends up being eaten as nature intended?

Maybe Newsom and DeSantis could debate oranges while Hannity peppers them with acidic questions?

To be fair, DeSantis is correct when he also commented that Newsom should “stop pussyfooting around” and launch a primary challenge against President joe Biden.

Newsom should put up or shut up.

California is a hot mess.

Well, not as a hot a mess as Florida given we are more temperate and low humidity isn’t considered low in California when it’s the lower 90s.

That said, Newsom doesn’t exactly have a Midas touch when it comes it putting long-term solutions in place.

Lets not forget he was mayor of San Francisco up until 2010.

You remember San Francisco, don’t you?

Given Newsom has taken to blaming former Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger for California’s highest-in-the-nation  homeless problem, Newson’s stint as SF mayor shouldn’t be forgotten.

Were his policies as mayor so shallow, short-sighted and so ill-thought out that 13 years later its inspiring a sequel to “The Rise of the Planet of the Apes” using San Francisco for filming instead of marrying tech and a sound stage?

Newsom deflected taking responsibility for California’s homeless problems when  he responded to a Hannity question by laying the fault  at Schwarzenegger’s feet.

Newsom said, “I’ve been here five years. I can’t make up for the fact (that) in 2005, we had an historic number of homeless under a Republican administration.

Schwarzenegger’s role as governor ended in January 2011.

There has been a 10-fold increase in homelessness in California since then.

A period, one might add, where there was no statewide elected Republican in office or serving as mayor of Los Angeles or San Francisco.

Not that the Republicans can solve the problem.

Both sides spend so much time blaming each other —  instead of doing the grunt work to get lasting solutions in place that require a heathy dose of give and take — that nothing gets done.

Speaking of unhealthy fixations, what about DeSantis’ fixation on California?

He’s the one that is actively trying to poach jobs from California.

And he’s the only who is actively using Florida state tax dollars to send immigrants here.

Given the America First Hype Man would never ask the question of DeSantis in a hypothetical debate, just who is poaching jobs from another state an “America First” solution?

It sounds more like Florida first.

Why would anyone in the other 49 states vote for someone as president whose solution involves tearing down the economies of other states to shore up his?

As for airlifting immigrants to California as part of his broad policy to share the federal immigrants burden, Hannity likely wouldn’t ask the obvious question.

After pointing out that DeSantis is trying to point out the hypocrisy of and cities other states declaring their jurisdictions sanctuaries for immigrants, how can DeSantis justify Florida paying to ship immigrants from his state to California?

The Golden State has 2 million undocumented immigrates — almost three times Florida’s number.

There is no hypocrisy there.

But maybe there is when DeSantis claims his airlift is the result of fairness as opposed to political retribution.

And let’s be clear, disagree one iota with Newsom’s take on the culture war and he’ll issue a fiat banning state-fund travel to any state that doesn’t obediently fall in line with  the official California position.

Newsom doesn’t stop there.

When basic healthcare is severely lacking — especially in the most impoverished parts of the state that Newsom flies over on his trips between Sacramento and Los Angeles — how could he justify committing state funds to pay for non-California residents to fly here to get abortions if the state they live in doesn’t share the California Legislature’s official values?

The justification for all of this and more is the fact we are engaged in cultural wars.

That is plain wrong.

There have always been cultural wars. And unless we all become vanilla with no deviating personalities and values there will always be cultural wars.

What is going on here is more akin to the Hatfields and McCoys.

You know the feud. One family was slighted by the actions of the other family.

So they start fighting.

It gets to the point where each family is reduced to reptilian reflexes. They immediately take shots at the other family whenever they encounter each other.

 To think a debate between DeSantis — the man Bambi fears most — and Newsom who apparently can’t solve California’s problems because Arnold is too busy fixing potholes in his Pacific Palisades neighborhood, is going to get us on the road to political rapture is wishful thinking.

About the only thing such a debate will help improve is Hannity’s ratings.

 This column is the opinion of editor, Dennis Wyatt, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of The Bulletin or 209 Multimedia. He can be reached at dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com