If you are a Democrat politician, the path is relatively easy. The mainstream media functions as your PR agency and builds you up. Billionaires donate to far left 'activists to alter sacrosanct voting rules and engage in various electoral malpractice. This enables even dummy candidates such as Joe Biden and John Fetterman to get elected.
As former Governor of New York, Mario Cuomo, famously said: “You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.” But Republicans have to excel in the poetry of campaigning to get to the prose of governance. The candidate has to be a showman in addition to being an achiever.
One key to the success of a campaign is to launch at the right time when the enthusiasm is building. The enthusiasm is like a wave that can catapult the candidate to becoming a primary contender.
After that it is up to the content of to say the right thing and highlight his favorable record to impress voters.
Now we look at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Even his harshest Republican critics will concede that he has done well as Governor of Florida. This enabled him a comfortable reelection.
But a state election is drastically different from a presidential election.
So how did Ron DeSantis do with his presidential campaign launch?
Unlike candidates such as Nikki Haley or Tim Scott, DeSantis has a real chance of securing the nomination due to his record. But alas for him, he erred rather gravely on several fronts.
Clint Eastwood famously said in one of the Dirty Harry pictures that “A man's got to know his limitations.”
DeSantis is simply doesn’t have the charisma or the appeal or the showmanship and above all the appeal of President Trump. DeSantis is neither a charismatic presence nor is he a master persuader like Trump
Unlike Trump, DeSantis probably cannot fill stadiums and regale audiences with his stories of his life and his accomplishments.
There is also no way any such candidate can stand against President Trump and survive his blistering attacks.
It was perfectly obvious that Trump was going to run for 2024. Trump supporters know he was cheated in 2020 and are going to stick with him in 2024.
Discretion is a better part of valor. When an optional war cannot be won it is wiser to evade the conflict.
As Bill Maher observed, nobody wants a tribute band when the actual band is still playing.
DeSantis should have declared in advance, in mid 2022, that he intends to focus on making Florida a GOP bastion and that he will not for president in 2024. This would have prevented the attacks from Trump.
DeSantis should have stood with Trump who is also a fellow Floridian when the FBI raided his home and when he was indicted.
DeSantis is a young man who doesn't need to unnecessarily hurry. If he had waited, the path for DeSantis would be easier
Trump wins in 2024 and DeSantis earns his endorsement, which would mean the MAGA supporters would vote for him and maybe he would win it in 2028.
His record would be clean: no primary loss.
But instead, DeSantis did everything that a presidential candidate does without making it official. He even traveled to Israel. He claimed it was a book tour, which obviously nobody believed. He had the state legislature amend the law in Florida to enable a presidential run while remaining governor, but again kept waiting.
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