Why Jerry Brown will probably never make a fourth try at White House
One big hurdle facing Brown is the inherent difficulty of running for president and simultaneously serving as California governor. As Dan Schnur, a veteran political strategist now teaching at USC, once put it, "There aren't any direct flights from Sacramento to Manchester [N.H.], and you can't run the state from a cellphone at O'Hare [airport]."
He should know. Schnur was part of then-Gov. Pete Wilson's administration when he waged a spectacularly unsuccessful 1996 run for president. It seems no accident that Ronald Reagan also failed the first time he sought the White House, in 1968, while serving as California governor.
But beyond age and logistical difficulties, there is another factor that has helped force Brown to abandon his White House dreams, apparently once and for all: He is acutely aware of his legacy, according to several who have taken up the subject with him, and is mindful of the damage he would suffer were he to launch another unsuccessful campaign for president.
Instead of being remembered as the governor who brought California back from the brink — a not-insignificant achievement to stack next to those of his legendary father, former Gov. Pat Brown — he would become the Democrats' Harold Stassen, a onetime political wonder who turned into a campaign punch line.
http://www.latimes.com/local/politics/la-me-pol-california-politics-20150111-story.html