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Daily Beast Reports On How Awful Ron DeSantis Is On The Campaign Trail. [1]

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Date: 2023-03-17

Some news outlets are catching on the fact that Governor Ron DeSantis is the definition of a “scripted politician,” and it shows on the campaign trail. The Daily Beast is reporting that DeSantis is proving to be a “nightmare” candidate for those who want to arrange campaign events to introduce him to the voters. I didn’t realize that Ron DeSantis and bike racks would be inseperable.

Bike racks? I’ll get to that in a minute. Here’s the headline:

The GOP Campaign Trail Is Already Getting DeSantis-Proofed RON DEMAND As he explores a run for president, the demanding Florida governor is already coming across as a “nightmare” in the early primary states.

Do tell?

At any given fundraiser or VIP room where he’s present, Ron DeSantis is usually easy to find—in the corner, keeping to himself. Despite having a job that entails exchanging small talk and pleasantries on a daily basis, the Florida governor tends to brush off those obligations and struggles with basic social skills, according to a source close to DeSantis, several of his former staffers, and other GOP operatives who have worked with him and his team. As DeSantis gears up for a potential White House run in 2024, his aloof public persona is being thought of by his rivals—namely, former President Donald Trump—as his Achilles heel in the retail politics-heavy early primary states.

I’m sensing a theme or narrative that is forming.

During his donor retreat in Palm Beach in late February, an attendee stood up and called him “DeSatan,” according to Republicans familiar with the outburst. At his recent book tour stop in Davenport, Iowa, a volunteer English teacher and seasoned caucus enthusiast posed for a photo alongside the governor with the term “fascist” carved out within her design of a paper snowflake. The governor’s aversion to pressing the flesh, and his concern over the risk of unexpected interactions with the public, is already so well-known that early primary state players are working to DeSantis-proof their events in order to attract the flinty would-be candidate and his tight-knit team. The problem is, hosts often have no idea what the DeSantis team wants.

I have to admit I wouldn’t like that shit happening to me on the campaign trail, but I’m not trying to turn my state into a fascist wasteland. If you are going to be a dickhead, you have to expect others to respond to your dickhead actions. But DeSantis is such a control freak, and it is not turning out well on the campaign circuit.

And here is where the bike racks come into play:

“He’s been tighter in his requests than other candidates,” a top New Hampshire Republican told The Daily Beast, adding that only former House Speaker Newt Gingrich came to mind as a bigger “nightmare” to deal with. During his Iowa swing, DeSantis’ apparent use of bike racks to create space between himself and a crowd didn’t go unnoticed elsewhere. “If they want 50 bike racks, we’ll give them 50 bike racks,” a New Hampshire GOP lawmaker quipped to The Daily Beast. A representative for DeSantis did not return a request for comment for this story. While DeSantis is winning over supporters in the conservative movement for his hard-right brand of politics—and has impressed with his electoral success in once-purple Florida—his untested skills under the bright lights of a presidential campaign have led operatives and pundits to wonder if he is just the second coming of Jeb Bush or Scott Walker.

DeSantis acts like GOP voters are violent insurrectionists. Oh wait! Some of them are!

Anyway, another grave insult was hurled at the DeSantis campaign:

But the veteran primary event host compared DeSantis’ insular approach to the way former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ran her campaign in 2016—not exactly a blueprint that the governor would like to follow.

OUCH!

And even if DeSantis was someone who could press the flesh, you wouldn’t want to sit next to him while he was eating.

The chatter over DeSantis’ public engagement has also surfaced past unflattering stories about his social skills—particularly, his propensity to devour food during meetings. “He would sit in meetings and eat in front of people,” a former DeSantis staffer told The Daily Beast, “always like a starving animal who has never eaten before… getting shit everywhere.” Enshrined in DeSantis lore is an episode from four years ago: During a private plane trip from Tallahassee to Washington, D.C., in March of 2019, DeSantis enjoyed a chocolate pudding dessert—by eating it with three of his fingers, according to two sources familiar with the incident. A representative for DeSantis’ political team did not return a request for comment on it.

I’d rather sit next to Jabba the Hutt.

Now, some in the D.C. media crowd will dismiss these reports about DeSantis. Maybe they are not as bad as Fox propaganda, but they push certain narratives and voters be damned. Remember how abortion wasn’t going to be an issue in 2022? Inflation was going to be the overriding concern for voters, and Democrats were doomed. The D.C. media had this narrative and nothing was going to change it.

Well, the current narrative is that DeSantis is the all powerful Trump replacement.

And I would like to take you back in time to 1988 when the media narrative was that George H.W. Bush was a “wimp” and Reagan ass kisser who would most likely lose to Governor Michael Dukakis of MA. And I even bought into that. But an article came out from The Atlantic or TNR (not sure which one) that had a character analysis of Dukakis. The author of this article said that Dukakis was so technocratic and too logical that he would not know how to react to an irrational or fanatical opponent (at this time, the example was what would a President Dukakis do against the Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran?).

I didn’t think much of the article at the time, until Bush started running ads about flag burning. I thought, “Really? This is what Bush is going to run on?” I was young and laughed at that.

Oh how wrong I was.

Then, Bush started pummeling Dukakis about Willie Horton. Also, his affiliation with the ACLU. His stance against the death penalty. And it went on and on. This was stuff I considered “irrational,” and so it appears did Dukakis. He couldn’t respond with emotion to the crazy issues that Bush was pushing.

The knock out blow came during the debate when Dukakis said he would still not support the death penalty if his wife was raped and murdered. I remember groaning out loud during that debate. Even Dukakis admitted after the debate that he blew it.

So much for the fuckin’ media narratives.

Time will tell, but put me in the camp that DeSantis is not going to pan out.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/3/17/2158669/-Daily-Beast-Reports-On-How-Awful-Ron-DeSantis-Is-On-The-Campaign-Trail

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