You can’t help but notice that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has been getting a lot of attention in the media in recent months and has been mentioned frequently as a likely candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2024.
When I first heard that, I found myself thinking maybe DeSantis would be preferable to Donald Trump.
But the more I learn about DeSantis, the less likely I think it is that he can be competitive against Trump, assuming Trump is healthy enough to run in two years. (I only say that because Trump is 76 — like me — and you can’t assume anything with a person that age…Same applies to President Biden, who would be 80 in November.)
Reports have been coming fast and furious recently that DeSantis does not connect with people; that he is stilted and has no personal magnetism. If he presses forward with a national campaign, he is likely to become the latest politician who, while big in his home state, is too “small” for the national scene.
A great example of DeSantis’ heavy handedness and lack of a sense of humor occurred in March, when he was about to appear at a press conference in Tampa.
The site was the University of South Florida. Standing behind the podium was a group of high school students who were wearing masks. As DeSantis approached the podium, the students looked eagerly at him.
Unsmiling and with furrowed brow, he looked at them and said, “You do not have to wear those masks.”
That drew a few laughs from the students, but the laughs quickly evaporated as DeSantis bore in, saying…
“Please take them off. Honestly, it’s not doing anything. We’ve got to stop with this Covid theater. So, if you want to wear it, fine — but this is ridiculous.”
He came across like a Catholic-school nun about to rap the knuckles of her sixth-graders for failing to pay attention.
The high school students at the DeSantis press conference were clearly confused; some of them took their masks off while others opted to keep them on.
DeSantis could have used the moment to make a joke about masks and humor the students. Instead, he looked like a sour and grumpy young man.
Since then, and partly because of that incident, DeSantis has received a lot of unwelcome press. For example, New York Times columnist David Brooks, a Republican who cannot abide Trump (God bless him), said in a Sept. 15 piece that he was “a DeSantis doubter.”
“I doubt someone so emotionally flat and charmless can win a nomination in the age of intensive media,” he wrote.
Ouch! Coming from one of the country’s most respected political columnists, that is an incredibly damning assessment.
Another body blow came little more than a week later, on Sept. 24, in a Washington Post story by Hannah Knowles and Josh Dawsey. They wrote…
“Republican operatives and donors who have interacted with DeSantis said he sometimes struggles to connect with people, and his speeches are often didactic — not dazzling the crowd. It is unclear how his insular orbit would exist in a sprawling presidential operation…”
“Struggles to connect…didactic…insular.” Those, too, are thumbnail descriptions that stick.
Even before the University of South Florida incident, Dawsey and two other WaPo reporters had given DeSantis a firm kick in the shins.
In a Feb. 26 story, Dawsey & Co. paraphrased some former DeSantis staffers as having “raised concerns about whether he has the personal charisma and retail campaigning skills needed to succeed in the national political spotlight.”
And this from the same story…
“One person who has worked closely with him in Florida described the Harvard-educated attorney as ‘incredibly aloof,’ while a donor who met him recently called him ‘painfully awkward,’ speaking on the condition of anonymity to describe a private interaction.”
A politician who is “flat and charmless,” “incredibly aloof” and “painfully awkward” can get away with that in a state, even in a state as big as Florida. But in a national race, no.
So, for people hoping for DeSantis to beat Trump in the 2024 Republican primary, I say forget it. Mr. Sourpuss will not get elected outside the Sunshine State.
JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC 
Well Fitz, I hope you’re right because DeSantis is a smart version of Trump. He’s Fox News’ golden boy because he “owns the libs” in very attention-getting ways, ie flying migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, ousting the DA from Tampa. He’s a bonafide douchebag. But a dangerous one. And I don’t put atrocities past him if we’re to become president.
Way back in 2015-16, I didn’t think there was a snowball’s chance in hell that an orange-haired wacko could be elected President. So, I’m not ready to get back in the Presidential-prediction business.
But, as for whether having poor social skills is a disqualifier to getting elected, let’s remember what was said about Richard Nixon: “Nixon did not owe his success in politics to personality or charm: in fact, even many of his staunch supporters described him as cold, aloof, crude, arrogant and paranoid.”
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/former-president-richard-nixon-dies
With Hurricane Ian coming, DeSantis will shortly have a property insurance crisis in Florida. Another property insurance carrier went bankrupt in the state this week. DeSantis and the Florida Republican legislature there have known this problem has been coming a long time and done nothing. Some insurance analysts think property tax premiums will be the same as someone’s monthly mortgage payment.
If this or another hurricane cause a lot of property damage in Florida over the next year, this is going to tarnish DeSantis just like Katrina tarnished W Bush.
Let’s see if DeSantis wins over Crist Nov. 8. I agree that DeSantis as President could be more dangerous than Trump.
Trump or DeSantis. Is this the best the GOP can come up with for 2024? A has been or a wannabe? Can’t the elephant crowd find someone halfway likeable with some solid credentials who is right of center but not way right of center?