There’s a lot of speculation (it might be too early to call it “copium” but that will come in due time) going on about what went wrong with Ron DeSantis’ 2024 presidential campaign, which seems doomed to failure at this point.
There are perhaps many reasons that DeSantis’ numbers are on a consistent decline with no obvious reason to hope they’ll turn around without a massive course correction.
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Source: Morning Consult
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But one major factor that I believe goes underappreciated is his reliance on consultants and donors to push his campaign in directions that he might not otherwise have taken.
Consider, as just one example, his waffling over the Ukraine war. Perhaps listening to his own political calculation that the base is weary of decades of endless war, the governor said in March that the Russia-Ukraine conflict is a “territorial dispute” and not a “vital interest” of the United States” to fight.
A pile-on by the talking heads in corporate state media and Swampy members of his own party.
… And then he suddenly reversed course, claiming that his very unambiguous statements were “mischaracterized” and calling Putin a “war criminal” for good measure.
Via Associated Press:
A number of Republican senators have also weighed in with criticism. In an interview with radio host Hugh Hewitt, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said DeSantis “doesn’t deal with foreign policy every day as governor,” adding that “foreign policy is all about nuance.” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who has endorsed Trump’s 2024 campaign, told Fox News that DeSantis “is basically taking the Chinese position when it comes to Russia’s invasion.”
Republican Sens. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, John Cornyn of Texas and Roger Wicker of Mississippi said they disagreed with DeSantis’ framing.
In the interview with Morgan, DeSantis sought to toughen his position toward Russia, calling Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal” and arguing that his detractors had incorrectly characterized his “territorial dispute” remarks.
“I think it’s been mischaracterized,” he told Morgan, according to excerpts. “Obviously, Russia invaded — that was wrong. They invaded Crimea and took that in 2014 — that was wrong.”
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If DeSantis is committed to playing the role of never-Trump establishment tool, as he apparently is, why would voters go for him instead of Chris Christie, who has a much longer and better-established track record of servicing that interest group?
Supposing DeSantis ever gets serious about recapturing any of the buzz around his campaign, step #1 would be to fire every one of his Swampland advisors who have been running it into the ditch since he hired them. Not only are they not worth the money – they are entirely counterproductive.
This is not 1992. The average voter has had it up to here with slimeball politicians like Bill Clinton, groomed and manicured to perfection by overpaid consultants like that weird geriatric goon from Louisiana who’s now trotted out on MSNBC to dispense his wisdom. Same thing for Mitt Romney or Jeb Bush or any of the two dozen rivals that Trump dispensed with in 2016. Those days are over.
This breed of slimeball politician is only viable in an environment in which the country is perceived to be headed in the right direction and the populace is therefore willing to tolerate said slimeball politicians. It’s not like most politicians are ever going to be moral or noble; accommodating them is perceived as just the cost of doing business when the economy is in the black. But politics as usual does not work in managed decline, which is what we are in.
This is pitchfork season.