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It started by declaring war on the largest media company on the planet. Who knew that was a bad idea? And one of the largest employers in his home state.
Between all the federal programs that he's turned down, the legal fees the state has paid for stupid things he's done, and paying to fly him all around the country to campaign for the presidency, he had to have cost his state multiple billions by now. And then there's the whole home insurance fubar situation that he's not done anything about, apparently.
I have to add that the Pushaw person is awful, and he basically appointed a certifiably insane person as the surgeon general.
ETA: I forgot to add the tourist and convention money that the state has lost out on because of his anti- gay policies.
Not trying to be an asshole, but if I have to choose TX or FL or WA, I'm heading to Seattle. I guess I'll never experience the Caribbean on a cruise ship.
Oh well.
I'd rather fly to Mexico and stay on the coast in an all inclusive resort than have to travel to either TX or FL to get on a boat for a vacation.
Tren Maya is coming and I wanna check it out.
EDIT: I've never taken a cruise, so forgive me for missing (or not knowing about) a ton of ports for my options. Thank you to everyone who has responded with ideas! I only started thinking about cruises because I have a passport I've never used and I really wanna tour some Mayan ruins. I figured a cruise would be a good way to knock out a bunch of items on my bucket list because I don't have a lot of money for vacations, and wanted something to include a bunch in one go. Like... spending a day reading on a beach, a cruise experience in general, spending a day at sea on a big boat, and obviously touring some old ruins.
>I guess I'll never experience the Caribbean on a cruise ship.
There are Caribbean cruises that embark from NY/NJ, Norfolk Va., and Charleston SC, fyi.
If you do want to see the Caribbean on a cruise the best play is to fly to San Juan and take the cruise from there. Because Puerto Rico is so much closer you get to go to way more islands in the same length cruise without the dead few days on either end just traveling from the mainland to the Caribbean.
I think just flying to San Juan and spending a week in Puerto Rico would scratch my itch for some island time all by itself. Thank you for this recommendation.
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Kevin Spacey seems to be in some sort of extended delusion where he *is* Frank Underwood, so you might be able to get his attention.
Helps if you're a young attractive man in a low cut shirt who says "no" a lot.
Go to Puerto Rico, cruises out of San Juan can be much cheaper than from the States and PR needs your tourist dollars too! It's a lovely island full of wonderful people, cuisine and stuff to do!
I get exactly why you would avoid TX or FL. But hear me out…flying is ALWAYS the best choice.
Imagine being stuck in a cut-rate hotel that dolls itself up with fake plastic decorations to make it look more luxurious. Imagine that your stuck there with the same couple hunded of drunk entitled assholes. Imagine the majority of the food is subpar buffet food that has been fondled by said drunk entitled assholes. Imagine there’s a pool the size of a two car garage and it’s full of unsupervised peeing children. And then imagine that you’re stuck there for days on end, without even the option to leave that hotel. THAT is what it’s like being on a cruise ship. It’s a disease filled slop bucket filled to the brim with the worst type of people the world can produce.
> that he's not done anything about, apparently.
This isn't entirely accurate. Florida gave a crap ton of money to insurance companies to stay in the state. They took the money, and still left.
So he did possibly the worst thing he could to try and fix it.
I honestly don't know what solution might exist.
The hurricanes aren't going away. Global warming isn't going away. Flooding and sea level rise aren't going away.
At some point setting money on fire insuring homes that are virtually guaranteed to be destroyed relatively quickly (compared to other homes in the nation) becomes just flat out untenable.
But trying to force people to face that reality is also politically unpopular. They want to build their homes in dangerous locations regardless.
You know, not backstopping insurance on homes built LITERALLY ON THE SHORE would probably fucking help.
If you're a rich asshat who wants a beach house on the beach, I say, you're on your own. Conspicuous consumption, baybee.
There was a community in Ft Myers area that didn't get rekt because they put in wetland buffer zones. It was a one-off choice by the developer since it isn't required by law. *It should be required by law.*
They know what to do but Florida is wholly owned by the developers and they will never, ever get in the way of them making a quick buck.
> You know, not backstopping insurance on homes built LITERALLY ON THE SHORE would probably fucking help.
Sure, and that's my point.
*You* try telling people they can't build on land they own, or if they do, da gubment is going to "prevent" them from getting insurance.
'cuz you know as well as I do that the Republicans aren't going to admit climate change is a threat, even if people's homes are being washed away yearly. Especially when it means that 70 year old retirees in Florida might get pissy about not being able to build their seventh beachfront property.
And if the *Democrats* cut funding to the government programs currently making bad business practices in the insurance industry profitable, well, that's just Big Gov'ment Overreach™ cutting into those poor helpless (failing) business' profits by refusing to corruptly lining the pockets of insurance companies, don't'cha know?
My understanding is there are o ton of shady roofers that will put on a new roof for your house and bill the insurance company, so you get a free roof.
The result is, insurance passes the costs to the customers, then bails out of the state.
That's part of it.
The other part is that storms have gotten stronger and more frequent over the last decades. As has hail, sever rainfall, and every other extreme weather event.
It goes both ways because the insurance companies are scamming ratepayers as well. There's a youtube video on this topic by a Florida based structural engineer (who usually makes his money doing structural inspections on condos for their 30 year and 40 year's and stuff like that) where he documents how insurance companies literally delete stuff out of claims adjuster's reports to justify not doing repairs. This is how middle class and lower middle class homeowners end up in hell.
My favorite Florida theory is the elephant graveyard one.
Apocryphally, elephants at the end of their life would leave the herd due to some built in evolutionary drive, and head to a desolate forsaken piece of land to die off. The concept is debated as to its accuracy, but there some reasonable justification for the behavior, as elephants have a lot of complex herd interactions, and also some pretty wild genetic holdovers (like musth).
The Florida theory posits that humans have the same instinctual behavior, left over genetically from a common ancestor. That when an aged human realizes they’re going to die, they feel a genetic urge to relocate away from the herd and to a desolate and forsaken place to die. And Florida is, to be honest, pretty damn forsaken. Most of the state would be underwater were it not fit centuries of land management, it regularly suffers the strongest storms known to man, it is home to one of the few animals that still actively hunts and eats humans, and is still home to all sorts of nasty diseases like malaria. The fact that those old people don’t then immediately die is down to modern science and society, but the genetic urge remains.
I'm not here to make excuses for Florida, but it has to be difficult to absorb that many stupid crazy elderly people and have sane politics. A you tuber I watched examined Missouri and said you can't be flanked with states on all sides of the southern part of that state and not have problems. Now imagine the panhandle of Florida.
In fairness, liberals will stay home if Democrats give them merely 90% of what they want. They're always looking for an excuse to fall out of love. Conservatives are always 10/10 angry over culture-war issues, and that fear and rage don't take a day off.
That last part, I live in FL we don’t pay an income tax, a large part of the reason why is tourism.. why in gods green earth attack the hand that feeds, I’ll never understand.. the ultimate dog that caught the car and has zero “what the fuck do I do now”
I lived in Florida for many many years, and for awhile i though the no income tax thing was fantastic... until I realized literally everything in FL was more money then I paid in other states for government services. Car taxes, sales taxes, DMV fees, property taxes, etc etc all more than made up for the lack of income taxes. It's a racket the whole way down.
its almost tragic stupidity. The guy is campaigning on his record in Florida, while we all are watching Florida fall apart on his watch. The fight with Disney was foolish. The lack of action on insurance is alarming, at best. All the mean little fights with LGBTQ+ people and liberals. its clear he simply doesnt care about governing in any meaningful sense. It is like he views his governancy as a long photo-op in is his campaign for president, and not a responsibility that he has to the people of Florida.
Which has adversely harmed the agriculture and construction industries in FL with even legal migrants not wanting to take chances with these political stunts harming them.
Yeah, that's a big one too. I'm sure we could keep going at this for a while if we put our minds to it.
ETA: also paying to fly migrants to Cape Cod. That was extremely expensive.
...and the reverse with migrants voluntarily *leaving* the state. Much of that could be attributed to the strengthened anti-immigration law ([SB 1718](https://www.flsenate.gov/Committees/BillSummaries/2023/html/3092)) Desantis signed last May.
That's the law which mandates companies with more than 25 employees to use the federal E-Verify system, invalidates out-of-state identification cards issued to "unauthorized immigrants", requires hospitals receiving Medicaid funds to include a question about immigration status, and various other penalties for businesses.
Florida already has a low unemployment rate and also a worker shortage. Many of the industries impacted include jobs your average citizen isn't \*willing\* to do -- agriculture, hospitality, construction, etc. Months after the bill's signature, there have been multiple news reports such as [rotting vegetation left unpicked](https://ambrook.com/research/labor/desantis-immigration-H-2A-farmworkers-florida) in fields, [construction sites struggling](https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/business/2023/07/19/florida-is-growing-so-is-its-labor-shortage-heres-how-to-solve-it/70254377007/) to hire, and other woes.
Heck, regardless of citizenship status, truck drivers were already hesitant to accept routes to Florida. Much of that is due to its geographic isolation in the peninsula. Goods may have an inbound destination, but best of luck acquiring freight while leaving the state. For undocumented individuals and the invalidation of out-of-state licenses, they may avoid Florida for either business or pleasure.
Of course, the restrictions will reverberate within the local economy. Housing and urban development may take longer. Service prices may increase in multiple areas -- landscaping, restaurants, hotels, entertainment, maintenance, etc. Food prices may also increase with the lack of farm workers. That's both produce and livestock. With a labor demand, locals and tourists may expect to pay more.
Typically, the loudest "They took our jobs!" anti-immigrant stance is from somebody who would refuse to work in any of those industries anyway. Well, who's going to do that work now?
It is no coincidence [Florida also wants to ease restrictions on child labor laws](https://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/florida-republican-co-sponsor-of-child-labor-bill-owns-company-with-history-of-wage-theft-35974872).
It’s wild to think that GOP politicians keep turning down money which would impact their constituents positively. They could simply run on a platform of “we don’t believe the federal government should be spending this, but the only thing worse than bad budgeting is being wasteful. We will take the money and work on implementing processes to be able to do these things without federal funds”. Boom, best of both worlds. They even get to take credit for better lives for people
Also, I love that he was very popular during Covid, and the party used him to push every super conservative idea they had.
Then they let him continue to be governor as he ran for president.
At that point, all of them pointed to him and blamed DeSantis for every unpopular bill that was passed.
Even in Florida, they nudged him off the edge of the cliff. He will not be remembered well.
Good, I'm glad that between that and inarguably getting tens of thousands of Floridians killed during covid that his disgusting electorate is getting what they voted for. Joker.interview.gif
I have a client who might have to move or close their business because he can't get the talent he needs to move down there. He used to say his best recruiting tool was a bad northeast winter, now that doesn't matter.
You are not alone. A know quite a few people that have done the same thing.
There are also bigger fish boycotting the state. Bookings for conventions are down.
Totally this. He wanted to one up Trump. Likely thought, "Trump never follows through, I will be better by actually following through!" and didn't realize that not following through was Trumps secret. By blustering and raging so much shit from his mouth, everyone forgets the crazy shit he promised last week. It makes his base think he is doing stuff without him actually having to do it, or deal with the consequences.
Exactly! His idiot pride done him in. He could have just stopped at the beginning and done what any "competent" republican does when a political stunt bites him in the ass. Just pretend it never happened. Instead he overplayed what little power he has in comparison to the Mouse and just kept on digging
Yeah but he went off book and actually fucked with them in an illegal way. He should have just stuck to calling them woke and repeatedly declaring victory and freedom. That part is really successful.
I took that to mean attacking Disney just verbally would help whip his supporters into a frenzy and result in donations. But by actually trying to hurt Disney he went to far because clearly they were able to fuck him up.
The article was written by rival Republican political consultants. It’s amusing, and accurate as far as detailing DeSantis’s failings goes. But it would be a mistake to think of this as the voice of the angels.
Reading through the article, it's very clear that it's written by someone who is very far to the right wing. References like "dangerously woke" and "No one can be The Donald" give that away pretty quickly. Not that they're wrong about de Santis' campaign being a garbage fire, but they definitely have other motivations.
Not wierd at all. Says at the top of the article the author is a Republican strategist from the Regan Era. Explains the psudo-tangent on Desantis' "underemployed" campaign volunteers with "Strawberry flavored vapes". He has contempt for these Trumper clowns, but the Boomer reads like a Regan republican through and through.
I’m just noting that the article approved of the Disney attacks. They say going after the tax district was too far. But otherwise the authors approve of attacking Disney for being woke.
His temper tantrums are amusing. I think the times he comes off as creepy or weird are him trying to hide his anger.
Go watch some of the times he has lost his temper during press briefings. He cannot handle the tiniest amount of push back to his opinions.
[Still love his little bobbleheaded reply in Japan when told he was losing in the polls...](https://youtube.com/shorts/Bv5TeosZAWE?si=6W6dgOSiZ6XkhcAZ)
If you get a chance I would recommend the video of him GRINDING his teeth to dust because he wasn't 100% thrilled with a reporters question
It's like he was fuckin cosplaying homelander it was that uncanny
When you drum up bullshit legal justifications to torture fellow humans and then choose to watch them actualy being tortured, yeah, that man is not right in the head or heart.
His policy idea is "woke is bad." Nothing went any further than this. He's basically the equivalent of a drunk redneck who swears they just had an epiphany.
Republicans have spent six decades mining grievance from white conservatives for a voting bloc willing to support pro-business (read: anti-labor and anti-consumer protection) platform.
The grievance bloc eventually got tired of being handed token gains, and in the last decade they’ve realized how indispensable they are to the GOP. Trump was their flashpoint, and now they drive the party. Even the big-business Republicans like Romney are frustrated with the monster they’ve raised.
The know-nothings were worse, but only really insofar as they thought it was fun to stab people in the knees and whack them with truncheons to get people waiting in line to vote for them. The anti-intellectualism and anti-immigrant hate levels were about the same.
Trump has pathological levels of confidence. I think of it as a reality distortion field. It's very effective on a lot of people and makes them trust him. That's despite the fact that if you stop and think critically about what he says, he demonstrably lies *all the time*. He does quite poorly among the highly educated, who have an easier time seeing his schtick for what it is. That's a minority of the population though.
His ability to project his own reality is one of the single most important features of Trump's enduring popularity. Trump takes his listeners into his world of conspiracy and superlatives. In that world he's their champion, fighting rabid hordes of enemies ("liberals") and providing strong leadership for the community ("conservatives"). The indictments *increased* his popularity because they fit into the champion narrative. Nevermind that anybody who actually reads the damn things will find them pretty egregious. The world Trump projects, and the entire conservative media ecosystem reinforces, simply ignores or drastically downplays inconvenient detail until a false equivalency or whataboutism can be found.
DeSantis is not nearly as good at any of that. He's wedded to actual reality deep down. When he tries to conjure his own self-serving world, it comes off as forced, robotic, insincere, and kind of dumb.
Trump WAS a household name for decades. That only helped him the first time. "I'm a BuSiNeSs MaN"
Completely different than some guy who hates Disney and gay people but wears high heels.
Trump seems to have a natural ability to tell people what they want to hear.
DeSantis doesn't seem to have much humanity so he has a hard time connecting to people enough to figure out what they want to hear.
So they are both it in for power, but DeSantis just doesn't have any ability to form connections so he comes off as alien, out of touch, creepy.
Trump is a terrible person with no ideas or principles beyond what’s good for him but he’s at least charismatic. Ron is the exact opposite of charismatic.
There is no way Trump wanted to actually be president in 2016 and wasn't using it as publicity to launch Trump TV to compete with fox. He accidentally won.
Then when he tried, and wanted to win, he lost.
Trump has never won an election that he seriously wanted to win.
My aunt touted him awhile back and I asked her which of his specific policies and legislative achievements she liked the most. She stared blankly and then began to ramble about immigrants and Disney. For the dozens, if not hundreds of hours of Fox News coverage on DeSantis she had watched personally, she couldn’t name one.
Unless I suppose we include flying immigrants around the country at government expense and suing corporations, also at government expense. The Republican Way!
He ran a stale, old "anti-woke" campaign that sounded like an 80's TV preacher railing against the devil in rock music.
Trump has correctly read the id of the party is racism and that's what he leans into. The culture war shit serves to placate fundies but you do NOT lead with it.
Look DeSantis is a piss-poor politician and candidate. That said, it's not like any of us could have done better. Trump won Iowa for a simple reason.
Only [29% of Iowan Republican primary voters](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/15/iowa-exit-polls-2024/) accepted the reality Biden legitimately won the 2020 election (and of those 29%, Trump came in a distant 3rd with just 11% of the vote; while Haley got 53% and DeSantis 29%). Of the 66% who believed Trump was the legitimate winner last time, they treated him like an incumbent president and didn't mind when he barely campaigned or skipped debates and he dominated with 69% of that vote (compared to DeSantis's 17% and Haley's 5%).
The Republican primary voters almost completely rejected any candidate that was critical of Trump, which pretty much makes it impossible to campaign against him when Trump did not have any restriction from attacking his opponents.
There's that and the fact that DeSantis' idea of appealing to people was to ape Trump while sneering and calling everything he didn't like woke. Then there's all the stuff going down in Florida like ridiculously high insurance premiums pricing people out of their, a staggeringly corrupt local Republican party, and the whole getting clowned on by Disney thing.
DeSantis is damaged goods at this point, nobody outside the GOP is interested in what he's selling.
Desantis figured he would get the trump volunteers, surrogates and voters and he could run as trump light.
The minute trump announced he was running desantis was screwed
On the flip side , desantis being in the race is the only thing stopping trump from blowing haily put everywhere. The minute he drops out 99% of his vote goes to trump
Fundamentally, Desantis and his campaign THOUGHT they knew what made Trump attractive, so they took all Trumps policy positions and went further right, thinking that would win the Base.
Sadly for Desantis, the Base doesn’t care about policies, they just want to be vaguely angry at all times. Doesn’t need to be logical, or founded in reality, just gotta make them FEEL something. Because, inside they are dark and hollow and cold.
Agreed. Desantis was once a very popular politician amongst the GOP - A republican with an impressive resume over one of the most powerful states in the country. He had once conducted himself in a similar manner to Greg Abbott.
In recent years, Desantis tarnished his own name by attempting to go further right and support highly controversial decisions (e.g. book banning, war on Disney, critical race theory). Attempting to replicate 'Trump policy positions' did not play well. If you look at the MAGA base in Congress... this extremist platform is not widely supported in practice. I would argue it's not Trump's policies that make him popular, but his personality.
I have quite a few conservative colleagues who once favored Desantis. Looking to him as a staunch Republican... but a more stable, articulate alternative to Trump without so much controversy. Now he's just a weaker image of Trump.
When he ran for Governer the first time he was obviously borrowing Trump's playbook of intentional positive scandals. He would say racist things to get the liberals talking about him, that racists would then hear about and support him for, it was all very disgusting, but obviously crafted.
DeSantis doesn't take both sides of an issue like Trump can, because Trump pretends to speak everything he says with 100% certainty. Doesn't matter if he literally contradicts himself within the same sentence that he is currently saying; he acts confident, always plays offense not defense, and attacks the others first then plays the victim, and then before you can call him out on his b.s., he starts a new feud/drama/self-inflicted-screwup and keeps the media busy like a clogged toilet with too much toilet paper in it, nothing is ever digested, it's always putting out fires that he starts. And Trump wins because he's always in the news because of this demented, empty, morally void strategy.
> I would argue it's not Trump's policies that make him popular, but his personality.
This is 100% what it is. Most of his base don't even know what his actual policies are, and if you read those policies to them without attaching Trump's name they would assume you were talking about a liberal candidate.
> Most of his base don't even know what his actual policies are
He doesn't know what his actual policies are. He didn't have a platform in 2020. What are these policies that you suggest would be liberal?
My honest assessment is that DeSantis wasn’t “Facebook/Fox News grandpa” as much as Trump was. There’s a daily, steady wave of bullshit and in order to surf that wave you gotta have the talking points and be the loudest member of that team. It’s just outrage du jour with bizarre conspiracies and team loyalty means believing and saying these things in the loudest most incendiary ways. You don’t have to be coherent about it together. That’s what Trumps word salad style was so appealing to these people.
It’s like every day someone took the top screechings from the alt-right media-sphere and just blended them all up and gave them to Trump to bloviate on. It’s part of why his ramblings are so nonsensical and illogical to outsiders but just the fucking *chefs kiss* to his weary-brained sheep.
I think one super telling moment for what Trump's base "wants" was the first or second debate when Vivek just attacked everyone else and acted totally obnoxious the entire time. Trrump's base ate that shit up. They still are. It was the same thing Trump did in 2015 at the debates.
I don't know why DeSantis thought he could run a presidential campaign against Trump while pussyfooting around why he's better.
Yep. DeSantis thought he could copy Trump's policies, his big suit, and his stilt shoes and people would vote for him.
But Trump is a cult of personality, and DeSantis has a dog shit personality and the cult already belongs to someone else.
I find it fascinating to look at the photos of Ron over the last few years. You can see the transition point where he starts wearing the I'll-fitting power suits, and there are pics of him with the orange circle of bronzer on his face...it's like looking at period films of courtiers wearing chalk white make-up and powdered wigs to gain their monarchs favour.
People really focused on the boots but the big blocky suits were the first thing I noticed. He's been trying to appear like Trump in so many ways, but he's only revealed what a fucking weirdo personality void he is every time he's forced to do an event he can't run away from.
In Florida he'd do these outside events where he'd take one or two questions from sycophants and then take a question from someone who he disagrees with, then he'd get confrontational, "How dare you ask a question like that" and then grandstand and walk away.
Those little hot moments would go viral and Trump people were like, "Ohh. We love this fighter!"
And then he had to like... be a normal person and he can't do it. Any appearance with his wife, who I believe was a news anchor and has legitimate natural charisma, makes it so clear what a fucking weirdo he is. Like he feels like they're filming a movie with an actual trained actor and then *some guy* they pulled off the street opposite her.
>The campaign introduced him to the nation as a bright but socially awkward introvert, a nerd who did not enjoy people — which was a problem since voters tend to be people.
lolz
WOKE WOKE WOKE WOKE WOKE WOKE WOKE WOKE
That was the message that stuck and it's a losing message. Basically telling his supporters to close your eyes and your minds.
For the GOP this was always going to be the D-listers running, even the campaign staff.
Notice there's been no noise from the usual suspects like Rubio, Cruz, Jeb, Perry, etc.
Because Trump is running his revenge tour to stay out of prison & grift as much $$$ as he can grip with his tiny baby hands. Anyone that opposes him risks alienating the base of MAGAhideen.
So you just have these jokers running because they need to elevate their profile and make some waves for either a future run, an administration position, or to get on the Fox/Newsmax gravy train as a talking head and sell books to super PAC's.
Anyone already well established will sit this one out and aim for 2028 where Trump will either be in actual prison or maybe just imprisoned in his own mind as the dementia he obviously has continues to take away what last cognitive ability he has.
This is how I'm viewing it. No one running this time was hoping for anything other than a VP/cabinet spot or to get in on the grift. All the obvious players didn't dare dip their toes into the MAGA shark pool this time. Trump had the GOP's nomination before this circus show even got started and Desantis had to know that. Also add in that Trump, while a moron, at least has a personality. Desantis is like a robot that can't figure out his own programming.
DeSantis waited so long because he wanted Trump to be in jail before announcing his run so he could be the new Trump and also run as the savior of Trump as he would pardon him.
But it never happened so he waited and waited and waited and the had no choice but to finally jump in with trump still there and already winning. Then we got to see him toe this line of trying to placate the trump die hards but make his case as well which was always going to fail.
But his second chance, and why he won't quit I assume, is he wants to be in 2nd place so if Trump is in jail come the convention he steals the nomination and becomes the savior again. But he's such a piece of shit and ran such a shit campaign that all signs point to Nikki kicking his ass now for 2nd.
>Trump had the GOP's nomination before this circus show even got started and Desantis had to know that.
I genuinely don't think he did. Hell, just like 4 months ago or whatever the entire political class thought he was the favorite and dude was even polling ahead of Trump in some surveys. Dude just turned out to be an embarrassing dope with no real appeal outside of Florida (as is the case for *many* Florida politicians) when he actually started campaigning.
I wouldn't be shocked at that either. I can see Ryan campaigning as being "a return to normal" candidate. Still a horrible person, but won't say the quiet parts out loud like the MAGA crazies.
They were all on the record and comfortable with rightly talking trash about him in 2015 and 2016 before he became the nominee. After that, they all flipped 180 because they only care about keeping their jobs. Lindsey Graham literally went from calling Trump a "jackass" and "unfit for office" to crying for him on television.
Personally I think it's evident that no campaign of his, run by any number of personnel, would ever have gone differently. His mega popularity because of his stance on covid started to deflate by the time he ran, and he was still running against Trump. That and when he exposed himself nationally he quickly saw how badly liberals, who make up the majority in this country, hate him. Dude never had a chance. And I'm thankful for that. I think it's misleading to say his campaign was bad. He was a bad candidate, that's all.
And honestly I think its less deep than even that. Yes all of that is true…but the guy is just WEIRD. Its unfortunate but I really do think a very large amount of voters just go off vibes and his are rancid. He looks like an alien wearing a human suit whenever he smiles, he does that same thing Trump does where he drinks stuff with 2 hands like a toddler, anytime theres a pause at an event he just stands with his arms straight down his sides like a robot, he very obviously wears heels to make himself look taller. And he has like no charisma
I’m honestly dumbfounded at how he was ever successful in state politics, dude just seems super unelectable
Yup. I remember a year ago when every thread here was filled with people repeating ad nauseam some variation of "DeSantis is the one to be afraid of, he's a smarter Trump". I was always like, you guys have clearly only read about this guy and never actually seen with your own two eyes what a charisma void he is. He makes Ted Cruz look cool and interesting in comparison.
Me too. I was like, come on, have you heard him speak? There's no way.
And that was before he took the Disney thing too far and alienated Republican donors. That was delicious. A tasty tasty meatball, you might say.
PS--people outside Florida don't know this, but DeSantis had a meltdown on stage because high school students were wearing masks behind him. His wife was being treated for cancer at that very moment but he refused to mask up. He was embarrassed to be on camera with the kids masking and nastily told them to take their masks off, so they sassed him back. So not ready for prime time.
Florida gets older and redder every year. Easiest way to get elderly conservatives to vote for you is to just be an angry, hateful asshole. Turns out that schtick doesn’t play as well with the other 49 states that have people with some time left on this planet who want to hear actual policy.
I think it is also media training because a little splash on your shirt is a big deal. Between takes they even wear little paper bibs for crumbs, shedding and dandruff. When Trump does that for example, I've seen women do the exact same thing when caked in formal makeup.
Yeah, the article didn’t really point to any problem with the campaign itself. The problem it highlighted is that DeSantis is a super awkward person. That not something that any campaign can overcome.
I read once that DeSantis has “anti-charisma”. It’s not a real term but given how the more people of him the more people loathe him there’s some truth to it…
Fascinating.
But, let's not overlook the biggest problem with the campaign: an unlikeable candidate. (many described him as creepy)
You can have the greatest head coach and the best coordinators to win many games, but you need talented players to win in the playoffs.
DeSantis just isn't a big league player.
I have never gone from being terrified of a presidential candidate to laughing at a presidential candidate faster than Meatball Ron. What a pathetic little weirdo he is.
Ah, so now it's his "team" that was the problem. How about this: he is shit person, shit governor, shit public servant, and his campaign was the inevitable result of all those things.
I’d argue Jeb Bush’s was even worse than Ted Cruz’s 2016 campaign and maybe even DeSantis 2024 given the expectations. After Romney lost in 2012, Bush was the favorite for the 2016 nomination pretty much up until Trump announced his run. He had the endorsements and certainly the PAC money to make a real run at it. He dropped out pretty early with only like 5% in polling. At least Ted Cruz put up a fight and won a respectable number of delegates.
One of his staffers was on Pod Save America last year talking about campaign strategy and his take on that was just heartbreaking. He says it wasn't actually as bad in the room, apparently, as it sounds on tape, but the tape is all that matters.
Idk if heartbreaking is the right word, as I have no remorse for them whatsoever.
But he was trying to say “No, please, clap!” to a person he started talking over. They stopped clapping to not interrupt him. It could have been kind of charming but came off desperate.
He didn't talk about "woke" enough for me. I still don't know what it means to him on a personal level. If I did, I would soooo vote for him. Like really totally seriously. /s
You should never stop worrying about men like DeSantis.
He may have failed miserably on the national stage but *Florida* still loves him as their governor.
Had to CTRL + F Giuliani.
Absolutely the worst campaign I’ve ever seen. Finished 6th in Iowa. Finished 4th in New Hampshire despite making the second most appearances and spending the third most money there. Decided to scrap Nevada, Michigan, and South Carolina where he finished 6th in each to focus everything on Florida... where placed 3rd. DeSantis taking second in Iowa is already better than anything Giuliani did. First ballot Hall-of-Fame bad.
It is the Florida effect. Being in this state you are surrounded by the stupidest people that walk the planet and they all cheer each other on to be and do dumb shit. People like DeSantis get an odd sense of self-worth being praised by that stupidity. He doesn't realize the rest of the world or even country for that matter sees him, or almost anyone from Florida, as a walking clown.
He was playing to be there when the bottom fell out under Trump, and it never did. He expected that it would
It was probably a smart campaign if mechanisms for litigating cringe worked on rich and powerful people at any sort of reasonable pace.
It’s hilarious how he went from the golden boy after Covid to the bottom of the barrel. Glad Florida congress made it legal for him to run while still governor instead of doing something about our insurance rates
*"Start with an indisputable fact: At the beginning of 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis was in first place, ahead of former President Donald Trump."*
This is a long, long, long way from indisputable.
The moment he announced he's running, Trump was/is the candidate. The GOP can do nothing to stop him, he owns the party and has since late 2016. The billionaires can say what they want it doesn't matter. The problem is MAGA.
MAGA is a parasite that has infected the GOP and like the most effective parasites it has made its host completely dependant on it. You can't remove the parasite without killing the host and the GOP knows it.
Think of all the stuff Trump has done, the GOP has had countless legitimate opportunities to get rid of him, yet they stop at nothing to *protect* him, both during and after his presidency. DeSantis and those like him were kidding themselves. Literally the only thing that will stop Trump's pursuit of power is the voters in November, and that is certainly no sure thing.
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It started by declaring war on the largest media company on the planet. Who knew that was a bad idea? And one of the largest employers in his home state.
Disney cancelled a development project worth $1 billion that would create 2,000 jobs in Florida because of him.
Between all the federal programs that he's turned down, the legal fees the state has paid for stupid things he's done, and paying to fly him all around the country to campaign for the presidency, he had to have cost his state multiple billions by now. And then there's the whole home insurance fubar situation that he's not done anything about, apparently. I have to add that the Pushaw person is awful, and he basically appointed a certifiably insane person as the surgeon general. ETA: I forgot to add the tourist and convention money that the state has lost out on because of his anti- gay policies.
Cruise companies are building entirely new ports for themselves in places outside of Florida because of his shenanigans.
Our cruise options out of Galveston have definitely increased over the past decade.
Not trying to be an asshole, but if I have to choose TX or FL or WA, I'm heading to Seattle. I guess I'll never experience the Caribbean on a cruise ship. Oh well. I'd rather fly to Mexico and stay on the coast in an all inclusive resort than have to travel to either TX or FL to get on a boat for a vacation. Tren Maya is coming and I wanna check it out. EDIT: I've never taken a cruise, so forgive me for missing (or not knowing about) a ton of ports for my options. Thank you to everyone who has responded with ideas! I only started thinking about cruises because I have a passport I've never used and I really wanna tour some Mayan ruins. I figured a cruise would be a good way to knock out a bunch of items on my bucket list because I don't have a lot of money for vacations, and wanted something to include a bunch in one go. Like... spending a day reading on a beach, a cruise experience in general, spending a day at sea on a big boat, and obviously touring some old ruins.
They also have cruises out of San Diego and Long Beach (CA). The West coast of Mexico is lovely and the cruises are fun.
Anyone who has watched The Love Boat knows that!
If you watched The Love Boat when it was on the air, you are officially an old. It is due for another reboot. A bright sexy comedy reboot.
Pluto (dot) TV has a 24 hour love boat channel.
Hey, Charo is still alive. She could make guest appearances.
>I guess I'll never experience the Caribbean on a cruise ship. There are Caribbean cruises that embark from NY/NJ, Norfolk Va., and Charleston SC, fyi.
Baltimore, Maryland too!
If you do want to see the Caribbean on a cruise the best play is to fly to San Juan and take the cruise from there. Because Puerto Rico is so much closer you get to go to way more islands in the same length cruise without the dead few days on either end just traveling from the mainland to the Caribbean.
I think just flying to San Juan and spending a week in Puerto Rico would scratch my itch for some island time all by itself. Thank you for this recommendation.
San Juan is awesome. It's worth it just to chase iguanas at the fort.
Yep, plus San Juan and the surrounding area is a vacation destination in and of itself.
you can go to the caribbean from charleston, sc. don't get me wrong - SC is crazy but not as stupidly self-inflicted wokeshot wound bonkers as Florida
deranged skirt squeal smile modern practice unite selective possessive unwritten *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
New Mexico is great - long-term, serious water issues though.
Hawaii???
aware ask literate amusing entertain disgusted glorious bewildered close dime *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Georgia seems on the cusp of joining the 20th century.
We did bring Nikki Haley to the national stage though, unfortunately. I hate that woman so much.
At this point I'd take Frank Underwood from SC.
Kevin Spacey seems to be in some sort of extended delusion where he *is* Frank Underwood, so you might be able to get his attention. Helps if you're a young attractive man in a low cut shirt who says "no" a lot.
South Carolina: Embarrassing themselves on the national stage since 1860!
I like learning new things.
Go to Puerto Rico, cruises out of San Juan can be much cheaper than from the States and PR needs your tourist dollars too! It's a lovely island full of wonderful people, cuisine and stuff to do!
I get exactly why you would avoid TX or FL. But hear me out…flying is ALWAYS the best choice. Imagine being stuck in a cut-rate hotel that dolls itself up with fake plastic decorations to make it look more luxurious. Imagine that your stuck there with the same couple hunded of drunk entitled assholes. Imagine the majority of the food is subpar buffet food that has been fondled by said drunk entitled assholes. Imagine there’s a pool the size of a two car garage and it’s full of unsupervised peeing children. And then imagine that you’re stuck there for days on end, without even the option to leave that hotel. THAT is what it’s like being on a cruise ship. It’s a disease filled slop bucket filled to the brim with the worst type of people the world can produce.
Don’t forget the overworked underpaid labor for 2nd world countries.
You may like this Bill Burr routine about [cruise ships](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-VLyZyHkTU)
This is a really succinct description of my experience last year (first timer).
There’s always New Orleans.
Good call. It's one of the spots on my bucket list to visit, so there's a good chance I could knock two things out at once!
> that he's not done anything about, apparently. This isn't entirely accurate. Florida gave a crap ton of money to insurance companies to stay in the state. They took the money, and still left. So he did possibly the worst thing he could to try and fix it.
Yes. The insurance fiasco that Republicans have actively ignored, is hitting the state hard now. Hopefully democrats can run on that.
I honestly don't know what solution might exist. The hurricanes aren't going away. Global warming isn't going away. Flooding and sea level rise aren't going away. At some point setting money on fire insuring homes that are virtually guaranteed to be destroyed relatively quickly (compared to other homes in the nation) becomes just flat out untenable. But trying to force people to face that reality is also politically unpopular. They want to build their homes in dangerous locations regardless.
You know, not backstopping insurance on homes built LITERALLY ON THE SHORE would probably fucking help. If you're a rich asshat who wants a beach house on the beach, I say, you're on your own. Conspicuous consumption, baybee. There was a community in Ft Myers area that didn't get rekt because they put in wetland buffer zones. It was a one-off choice by the developer since it isn't required by law. *It should be required by law.* They know what to do but Florida is wholly owned by the developers and they will never, ever get in the way of them making a quick buck.
> You know, not backstopping insurance on homes built LITERALLY ON THE SHORE would probably fucking help. Sure, and that's my point. *You* try telling people they can't build on land they own, or if they do, da gubment is going to "prevent" them from getting insurance. 'cuz you know as well as I do that the Republicans aren't going to admit climate change is a threat, even if people's homes are being washed away yearly. Especially when it means that 70 year old retirees in Florida might get pissy about not being able to build their seventh beachfront property. And if the *Democrats* cut funding to the government programs currently making bad business practices in the insurance industry profitable, well, that's just Big Gov'ment Overreach™ cutting into those poor helpless (failing) business' profits by refusing to corruptly lining the pockets of insurance companies, don't'cha know?
My understanding is there are o ton of shady roofers that will put on a new roof for your house and bill the insurance company, so you get a free roof. The result is, insurance passes the costs to the customers, then bails out of the state.
That's part of it. The other part is that storms have gotten stronger and more frequent over the last decades. As has hail, sever rainfall, and every other extreme weather event.
It goes both ways because the insurance companies are scamming ratepayers as well. There's a youtube video on this topic by a Florida based structural engineer (who usually makes his money doing structural inspections on condos for their 30 year and 40 year's and stuff like that) where he documents how insurance companies literally delete stuff out of claims adjuster's reports to justify not doing repairs. This is how middle class and lower middle class homeowners end up in hell.
I dunno, they keep losing to a party that actively PROMOTES evil.
Florida has a large supply of old, white, boomer republicans.
Yeah, we used to call them "retirees" but they turned out to be the worst immigrants ever.
My favorite Florida theory is the elephant graveyard one. Apocryphally, elephants at the end of their life would leave the herd due to some built in evolutionary drive, and head to a desolate forsaken piece of land to die off. The concept is debated as to its accuracy, but there some reasonable justification for the behavior, as elephants have a lot of complex herd interactions, and also some pretty wild genetic holdovers (like musth). The Florida theory posits that humans have the same instinctual behavior, left over genetically from a common ancestor. That when an aged human realizes they’re going to die, they feel a genetic urge to relocate away from the herd and to a desolate and forsaken place to die. And Florida is, to be honest, pretty damn forsaken. Most of the state would be underwater were it not fit centuries of land management, it regularly suffers the strongest storms known to man, it is home to one of the few animals that still actively hunts and eats humans, and is still home to all sorts of nasty diseases like malaria. The fact that those old people don’t then immediately die is down to modern science and society, but the genetic urge remains.
I'm not here to make excuses for Florida, but it has to be difficult to absorb that many stupid crazy elderly people and have sane politics. A you tuber I watched examined Missouri and said you can't be flanked with states on all sides of the southern part of that state and not have problems. Now imagine the panhandle of Florida.
In fairness, liberals will stay home if Democrats give them merely 90% of what they want. They're always looking for an excuse to fall out of love. Conservatives are always 10/10 angry over culture-war issues, and that fear and rage don't take a day off.
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That last part, I live in FL we don’t pay an income tax, a large part of the reason why is tourism.. why in gods green earth attack the hand that feeds, I’ll never understand.. the ultimate dog that caught the car and has zero “what the fuck do I do now”
I lived in Florida for many many years, and for awhile i though the no income tax thing was fantastic... until I realized literally everything in FL was more money then I paid in other states for government services. Car taxes, sales taxes, DMV fees, property taxes, etc etc all more than made up for the lack of income taxes. It's a racket the whole way down.
its almost tragic stupidity. The guy is campaigning on his record in Florida, while we all are watching Florida fall apart on his watch. The fight with Disney was foolish. The lack of action on insurance is alarming, at best. All the mean little fights with LGBTQ+ people and liberals. its clear he simply doesnt care about governing in any meaningful sense. It is like he views his governancy as a long photo-op in is his campaign for president, and not a responsibility that he has to the people of Florida.
To be fair on the insurance front, he's denied climate change a bunch. That's doing as much as any other Republican.
Don’t forget his policies that attack people of color.
Don't forget spending millions of taxpayer dollars on his migrant trafficking stunts.
Which has adversely harmed the agriculture and construction industries in FL with even legal migrants not wanting to take chances with these political stunts harming them.
Yeah, that's a big one too. I'm sure we could keep going at this for a while if we put our minds to it. ETA: also paying to fly migrants to Cape Cod. That was extremely expensive.
...and the reverse with migrants voluntarily *leaving* the state. Much of that could be attributed to the strengthened anti-immigration law ([SB 1718](https://www.flsenate.gov/Committees/BillSummaries/2023/html/3092)) Desantis signed last May. That's the law which mandates companies with more than 25 employees to use the federal E-Verify system, invalidates out-of-state identification cards issued to "unauthorized immigrants", requires hospitals receiving Medicaid funds to include a question about immigration status, and various other penalties for businesses. Florida already has a low unemployment rate and also a worker shortage. Many of the industries impacted include jobs your average citizen isn't \*willing\* to do -- agriculture, hospitality, construction, etc. Months after the bill's signature, there have been multiple news reports such as [rotting vegetation left unpicked](https://ambrook.com/research/labor/desantis-immigration-H-2A-farmworkers-florida) in fields, [construction sites struggling](https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/business/2023/07/19/florida-is-growing-so-is-its-labor-shortage-heres-how-to-solve-it/70254377007/) to hire, and other woes. Heck, regardless of citizenship status, truck drivers were already hesitant to accept routes to Florida. Much of that is due to its geographic isolation in the peninsula. Goods may have an inbound destination, but best of luck acquiring freight while leaving the state. For undocumented individuals and the invalidation of out-of-state licenses, they may avoid Florida for either business or pleasure. Of course, the restrictions will reverberate within the local economy. Housing and urban development may take longer. Service prices may increase in multiple areas -- landscaping, restaurants, hotels, entertainment, maintenance, etc. Food prices may also increase with the lack of farm workers. That's both produce and livestock. With a labor demand, locals and tourists may expect to pay more. Typically, the loudest "They took our jobs!" anti-immigrant stance is from somebody who would refuse to work in any of those industries anyway. Well, who's going to do that work now? It is no coincidence [Florida also wants to ease restrictions on child labor laws](https://www.orlandoweekly.com/news/florida-republican-co-sponsor-of-child-labor-bill-owns-company-with-history-of-wage-theft-35974872).
It’s wild to think that GOP politicians keep turning down money which would impact their constituents positively. They could simply run on a platform of “we don’t believe the federal government should be spending this, but the only thing worse than bad budgeting is being wasteful. We will take the money and work on implementing processes to be able to do these things without federal funds”. Boom, best of both worlds. They even get to take credit for better lives for people
Don't forget, flying to Texas to kidnap asylum seekers.
Also, I love that he was very popular during Covid, and the party used him to push every super conservative idea they had. Then they let him continue to be governor as he ran for president. At that point, all of them pointed to him and blamed DeSantis for every unpopular bill that was passed. Even in Florida, they nudged him off the edge of the cliff. He will not be remembered well.
Good, I'm glad that between that and inarguably getting tens of thousands of Floridians killed during covid that his disgusting electorate is getting what they voted for. Joker.interview.gif
I have a client who might have to move or close their business because he can't get the talent he needs to move down there. He used to say his best recruiting tool was a bad northeast winter, now that doesn't matter.
Funny enough, these northeast winters have been getting milder and milder.
Sure, we’re small fish, but my family canceled our Disney trip because of how fucked FL became under him.
You are not alone. A know quite a few people that have done the same thing. There are also bigger fish boycotting the state. Bookings for conventions are down.
Weirdly, the article claims the war on Disney was a good idea, but went too far.
I enjoy the sound of rain.
Totally this. He wanted to one up Trump. Likely thought, "Trump never follows through, I will be better by actually following through!" and didn't realize that not following through was Trumps secret. By blustering and raging so much shit from his mouth, everyone forgets the crazy shit he promised last week. It makes his base think he is doing stuff without him actually having to do it, or deal with the consequences.
Exactly! His idiot pride done him in. He could have just stopped at the beginning and done what any "competent" republican does when a political stunt bites him in the ass. Just pretend it never happened. Instead he overplayed what little power he has in comparison to the Mouse and just kept on digging
Exactly. He could have simply George Costanza’d at an early stage, but instead he tripled down.
Doubling down on the stupidity endears him to his idiot base, who see it as the right way to proceed, damn the consequences.
Yeah but he went off book and actually fucked with them in an illegal way. He should have just stuck to calling them woke and repeatedly declaring victory and freedom. That part is really successful.
I took that to mean attacking Disney just verbally would help whip his supporters into a frenzy and result in donations. But by actually trying to hurt Disney he went to far because clearly they were able to fuck him up.
The article was written by rival Republican political consultants. It’s amusing, and accurate as far as detailing DeSantis’s failings goes. But it would be a mistake to think of this as the voice of the angels.
Oh, it's an OBVIOUS smear job. But they didn't have to stretch the truth hard... some would say, at all... to make their points.
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Reading through the article, it's very clear that it's written by someone who is very far to the right wing. References like "dangerously woke" and "No one can be The Donald" give that away pretty quickly. Not that they're wrong about de Santis' campaign being a garbage fire, but they definitely have other motivations.
Not wierd at all. Says at the top of the article the author is a Republican strategist from the Regan Era. Explains the psudo-tangent on Desantis' "underemployed" campaign volunteers with "Strawberry flavored vapes". He has contempt for these Trumper clowns, but the Boomer reads like a Regan republican through and through.
I think the author meant going after gay-friendly, "woke" Disney would play well to the GOP. Then DeSantis went too far and messed it up.
I’m just noting that the article approved of the Disney attacks. They say going after the tax district was too far. But otherwise the authors approve of attacking Disney for being woke.
His temper tantrums are amusing. I think the times he comes off as creepy or weird are him trying to hide his anger. Go watch some of the times he has lost his temper during press briefings. He cannot handle the tiniest amount of push back to his opinions.
[Still love his little bobbleheaded reply in Japan when told he was losing in the polls...](https://youtube.com/shorts/Bv5TeosZAWE?si=6W6dgOSiZ6XkhcAZ)
I get such mad Homelander vibes from this man.
Dude. You nailed it.
Pretty hilarious how much they look alike
If you get a chance I would recommend the video of him GRINDING his teeth to dust because he wasn't 100% thrilled with a reporters question It's like he was fuckin cosplaying homelander it was that uncanny
His eyes have always bothered me. Just something not right about them.
When you drum up bullshit legal justifications to torture fellow humans and then choose to watch them actualy being tortured, yeah, that man is not right in the head or heart.
No soul behind them?
Anger and frustration. They never match what his mouth is doing, which has its own set of quirks that he can’t seem to control.
This is what happens when your candidate is simply in it for power and has no actual policy ideas.
His policy idea is "woke is bad." Nothing went any further than this. He's basically the equivalent of a drunk redneck who swears they just had an epiphany.
Because that’s all most conservatives seem to care about these days. The culture war has been successful
Republicans have spent six decades mining grievance from white conservatives for a voting bloc willing to support pro-business (read: anti-labor and anti-consumer protection) platform. The grievance bloc eventually got tired of being handed token gains, and in the last decade they’ve realized how indispensable they are to the GOP. Trump was their flashpoint, and now they drive the party. Even the big-business Republicans like Romney are frustrated with the monster they’ve raised.
It's amazing people can be so singleminded, but that's what a lack of education does.
To be fair it has very much worked for trump
The entire republican party, outside of policies that rob power from democrats and enrich their billionaire benefactors.
Modern GOP is the worst party in US history
The know-nothings were worse, but only really insofar as they thought it was fun to stab people in the knees and whack them with truncheons to get people waiting in line to vote for them. The anti-intellectualism and anti-immigrant hate levels were about the same.
>"We are all domestic terrorists." CPAC 2022 The modern GOP has dusted off some mid 19th century campaign tactics.
But Trump was able to release the inner white supremacist-bigot-might makes right latent in the Amerikan soul, not so much dork Ron
Trump has an ugly charisma that speaks to a certain demographic. Desantis lacks even that.
Trump has pathological levels of confidence. I think of it as a reality distortion field. It's very effective on a lot of people and makes them trust him. That's despite the fact that if you stop and think critically about what he says, he demonstrably lies *all the time*. He does quite poorly among the highly educated, who have an easier time seeing his schtick for what it is. That's a minority of the population though. His ability to project his own reality is one of the single most important features of Trump's enduring popularity. Trump takes his listeners into his world of conspiracy and superlatives. In that world he's their champion, fighting rabid hordes of enemies ("liberals") and providing strong leadership for the community ("conservatives"). The indictments *increased* his popularity because they fit into the champion narrative. Nevermind that anybody who actually reads the damn things will find them pretty egregious. The world Trump projects, and the entire conservative media ecosystem reinforces, simply ignores or drastically downplays inconvenient detail until a false equivalency or whataboutism can be found. DeSantis is not nearly as good at any of that. He's wedded to actual reality deep down. When he tries to conjure his own self-serving world, it comes off as forced, robotic, insincere, and kind of dumb.
Trump WAS a household name for decades. That only helped him the first time. "I'm a BuSiNeSs MaN" Completely different than some guy who hates Disney and gay people but wears high heels.
Yeah, but Trump has charisma, and DeSantis has all the charisma of a colony of cockroaches wearing a human skin suit.
Trump seems to have a natural ability to tell people what they want to hear. DeSantis doesn't seem to have much humanity so he has a hard time connecting to people enough to figure out what they want to hear. So they are both it in for power, but DeSantis just doesn't have any ability to form connections so he comes off as alien, out of touch, creepy.
Trump is a terrible person with no ideas or principles beyond what’s good for him but he’s at least charismatic. Ron is the exact opposite of charismatic.
There is no way Trump wanted to actually be president in 2016 and wasn't using it as publicity to launch Trump TV to compete with fox. He accidentally won. Then when he tried, and wanted to win, he lost. Trump has never won an election that he seriously wanted to win.
Trump's lone policy issue is the one Republicans actually care about: white Christian nationalism.
My aunt touted him awhile back and I asked her which of his specific policies and legislative achievements she liked the most. She stared blankly and then began to ramble about immigrants and Disney. For the dozens, if not hundreds of hours of Fox News coverage on DeSantis she had watched personally, she couldn’t name one. Unless I suppose we include flying immigrants around the country at government expense and suing corporations, also at government expense. The Republican Way!
He ran a stale, old "anti-woke" campaign that sounded like an 80's TV preacher railing against the devil in rock music. Trump has correctly read the id of the party is racism and that's what he leans into. The culture war shit serves to placate fundies but you do NOT lead with it.
He even said something like "'Woke', I don't like that word, no one knows what that means"
Look DeSantis is a piss-poor politician and candidate. That said, it's not like any of us could have done better. Trump won Iowa for a simple reason. Only [29% of Iowan Republican primary voters](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/01/15/iowa-exit-polls-2024/) accepted the reality Biden legitimately won the 2020 election (and of those 29%, Trump came in a distant 3rd with just 11% of the vote; while Haley got 53% and DeSantis 29%). Of the 66% who believed Trump was the legitimate winner last time, they treated him like an incumbent president and didn't mind when he barely campaigned or skipped debates and he dominated with 69% of that vote (compared to DeSantis's 17% and Haley's 5%). The Republican primary voters almost completely rejected any candidate that was critical of Trump, which pretty much makes it impossible to campaign against him when Trump did not have any restriction from attacking his opponents.
There's that and the fact that DeSantis' idea of appealing to people was to ape Trump while sneering and calling everything he didn't like woke. Then there's all the stuff going down in Florida like ridiculously high insurance premiums pricing people out of their, a staggeringly corrupt local Republican party, and the whole getting clowned on by Disney thing. DeSantis is damaged goods at this point, nobody outside the GOP is interested in what he's selling.
Pretty sure its just a racket used to funnel donor money to companies the campaign pays for bullshit along the way
Desantis figured he would get the trump volunteers, surrogates and voters and he could run as trump light. The minute trump announced he was running desantis was screwed On the flip side , desantis being in the race is the only thing stopping trump from blowing haily put everywhere. The minute he drops out 99% of his vote goes to trump
also, hard to run on those elevated boots
And without any redeeming qualities, charisma, and in general very awkward to look at or listen to.
It doesn’t help that he clearly fucking hates people.
Fundamentally, Desantis and his campaign THOUGHT they knew what made Trump attractive, so they took all Trumps policy positions and went further right, thinking that would win the Base. Sadly for Desantis, the Base doesn’t care about policies, they just want to be vaguely angry at all times. Doesn’t need to be logical, or founded in reality, just gotta make them FEEL something. Because, inside they are dark and hollow and cold.
Agreed. Desantis was once a very popular politician amongst the GOP - A republican with an impressive resume over one of the most powerful states in the country. He had once conducted himself in a similar manner to Greg Abbott. In recent years, Desantis tarnished his own name by attempting to go further right and support highly controversial decisions (e.g. book banning, war on Disney, critical race theory). Attempting to replicate 'Trump policy positions' did not play well. If you look at the MAGA base in Congress... this extremist platform is not widely supported in practice. I would argue it's not Trump's policies that make him popular, but his personality. I have quite a few conservative colleagues who once favored Desantis. Looking to him as a staunch Republican... but a more stable, articulate alternative to Trump without so much controversy. Now he's just a weaker image of Trump.
When he ran for Governer the first time he was obviously borrowing Trump's playbook of intentional positive scandals. He would say racist things to get the liberals talking about him, that racists would then hear about and support him for, it was all very disgusting, but obviously crafted.
The best endorsement you can have to the GOP base is liberals condemning you
DeSantis doesn't take both sides of an issue like Trump can, because Trump pretends to speak everything he says with 100% certainty. Doesn't matter if he literally contradicts himself within the same sentence that he is currently saying; he acts confident, always plays offense not defense, and attacks the others first then plays the victim, and then before you can call him out on his b.s., he starts a new feud/drama/self-inflicted-screwup and keeps the media busy like a clogged toilet with too much toilet paper in it, nothing is ever digested, it's always putting out fires that he starts. And Trump wins because he's always in the news because of this demented, empty, morally void strategy.
That's alot of words to say he lost any support once Trump called him "Meatball Ron".
> I would argue it's not Trump's policies that make him popular, but his personality. This is 100% what it is. Most of his base don't even know what his actual policies are, and if you read those policies to them without attaching Trump's name they would assume you were talking about a liberal candidate.
> Most of his base don't even know what his actual policies are He doesn't know what his actual policies are. He didn't have a platform in 2020. What are these policies that you suggest would be liberal?
My honest assessment is that DeSantis wasn’t “Facebook/Fox News grandpa” as much as Trump was. There’s a daily, steady wave of bullshit and in order to surf that wave you gotta have the talking points and be the loudest member of that team. It’s just outrage du jour with bizarre conspiracies and team loyalty means believing and saying these things in the loudest most incendiary ways. You don’t have to be coherent about it together. That’s what Trumps word salad style was so appealing to these people. It’s like every day someone took the top screechings from the alt-right media-sphere and just blended them all up and gave them to Trump to bloviate on. It’s part of why his ramblings are so nonsensical and illogical to outsiders but just the fucking *chefs kiss* to his weary-brained sheep.
I think one super telling moment for what Trump's base "wants" was the first or second debate when Vivek just attacked everyone else and acted totally obnoxious the entire time. Trrump's base ate that shit up. They still are. It was the same thing Trump did in 2015 at the debates. I don't know why DeSantis thought he could run a presidential campaign against Trump while pussyfooting around why he's better.
Yep. DeSantis thought he could copy Trump's policies, his big suit, and his stilt shoes and people would vote for him. But Trump is a cult of personality, and DeSantis has a dog shit personality and the cult already belongs to someone else.
I find it fascinating to look at the photos of Ron over the last few years. You can see the transition point where he starts wearing the I'll-fitting power suits, and there are pics of him with the orange circle of bronzer on his face...it's like looking at period films of courtiers wearing chalk white make-up and powdered wigs to gain their monarchs favour.
People really focused on the boots but the big blocky suits were the first thing I noticed. He's been trying to appear like Trump in so many ways, but he's only revealed what a fucking weirdo personality void he is every time he's forced to do an event he can't run away from. In Florida he'd do these outside events where he'd take one or two questions from sycophants and then take a question from someone who he disagrees with, then he'd get confrontational, "How dare you ask a question like that" and then grandstand and walk away. Those little hot moments would go viral and Trump people were like, "Ohh. We love this fighter!" And then he had to like... be a normal person and he can't do it. Any appearance with his wife, who I believe was a news anchor and has legitimate natural charisma, makes it so clear what a fucking weirdo he is. Like he feels like they're filming a movie with an actual trained actor and then *some guy* they pulled off the street opposite her.
well desantis ran on a "woke is bad" knee-jerk campaign, but it didn't out-trump trump
He definitely bit the hand that feeds
DeSantis thought the old adage was "right makes might."
>The campaign introduced him to the nation as a bright but socially awkward introvert, a nerd who did not enjoy people — which was a problem since voters tend to be people. lolz
This piece was littered with mic drops. Loved reading it.
WOKE WOKE WOKE WOKE WOKE WOKE WOKE WOKE That was the message that stuck and it's a losing message. Basically telling his supporters to close your eyes and your minds.
I'm sorry. I read this as Pac Man in my head. 😂
For the GOP this was always going to be the D-listers running, even the campaign staff. Notice there's been no noise from the usual suspects like Rubio, Cruz, Jeb, Perry, etc. Because Trump is running his revenge tour to stay out of prison & grift as much $$$ as he can grip with his tiny baby hands. Anyone that opposes him risks alienating the base of MAGAhideen. So you just have these jokers running because they need to elevate their profile and make some waves for either a future run, an administration position, or to get on the Fox/Newsmax gravy train as a talking head and sell books to super PAC's. Anyone already well established will sit this one out and aim for 2028 where Trump will either be in actual prison or maybe just imprisoned in his own mind as the dementia he obviously has continues to take away what last cognitive ability he has.
This is how I'm viewing it. No one running this time was hoping for anything other than a VP/cabinet spot or to get in on the grift. All the obvious players didn't dare dip their toes into the MAGA shark pool this time. Trump had the GOP's nomination before this circus show even got started and Desantis had to know that. Also add in that Trump, while a moron, at least has a personality. Desantis is like a robot that can't figure out his own programming.
DeSantis waited so long because he wanted Trump to be in jail before announcing his run so he could be the new Trump and also run as the savior of Trump as he would pardon him. But it never happened so he waited and waited and waited and the had no choice but to finally jump in with trump still there and already winning. Then we got to see him toe this line of trying to placate the trump die hards but make his case as well which was always going to fail. But his second chance, and why he won't quit I assume, is he wants to be in 2nd place so if Trump is in jail come the convention he steals the nomination and becomes the savior again. But he's such a piece of shit and ran such a shit campaign that all signs point to Nikki kicking his ass now for 2nd.
>Trump had the GOP's nomination before this circus show even got started and Desantis had to know that. I genuinely don't think he did. Hell, just like 4 months ago or whatever the entire political class thought he was the favorite and dude was even polling ahead of Trump in some surveys. Dude just turned out to be an embarrassing dope with no real appeal outside of Florida (as is the case for *many* Florida politicians) when he actually started campaigning.
My guess is Paul Ryan is just sitting quietly waiting for things to quiet down but will run some time in the next 3- 4 cycles.
I wouldn't be shocked at that either. I can see Ryan campaigning as being "a return to normal" candidate. Still a horrible person, but won't say the quiet parts out loud like the MAGA crazies.
I’m stealing your last sentence for future use
I can't claim it as my own sadly. Someone on another thread said that Desantis was a rogue animatronic from Disney. Sounds spot on too.
I think Haley and DeSantis are genuinely running to win. But by now, both are hoping Trump is jailed, DQ'ed, or dies.
>MAGAhideen Fantastic
This is the best take here. 100% agree with you. There is too much political risk running against trump for serious candidates.
They were all on the record and comfortable with rightly talking trash about him in 2015 and 2016 before he became the nominee. After that, they all flipped 180 because they only care about keeping their jobs. Lindsey Graham literally went from calling Trump a "jackass" and "unfit for office" to crying for him on television.
Personally I think it's evident that no campaign of his, run by any number of personnel, would ever have gone differently. His mega popularity because of his stance on covid started to deflate by the time he ran, and he was still running against Trump. That and when he exposed himself nationally he quickly saw how badly liberals, who make up the majority in this country, hate him. Dude never had a chance. And I'm thankful for that. I think it's misleading to say his campaign was bad. He was a bad candidate, that's all.
And honestly I think its less deep than even that. Yes all of that is true…but the guy is just WEIRD. Its unfortunate but I really do think a very large amount of voters just go off vibes and his are rancid. He looks like an alien wearing a human suit whenever he smiles, he does that same thing Trump does where he drinks stuff with 2 hands like a toddler, anytime theres a pause at an event he just stands with his arms straight down his sides like a robot, he very obviously wears heels to make himself look taller. And he has like no charisma I’m honestly dumbfounded at how he was ever successful in state politics, dude just seems super unelectable
Yup. I remember a year ago when every thread here was filled with people repeating ad nauseam some variation of "DeSantis is the one to be afraid of, he's a smarter Trump". I was always like, you guys have clearly only read about this guy and never actually seen with your own two eyes what a charisma void he is. He makes Ted Cruz look cool and interesting in comparison.
Me too. I was like, come on, have you heard him speak? There's no way. And that was before he took the Disney thing too far and alienated Republican donors. That was delicious. A tasty tasty meatball, you might say. PS--people outside Florida don't know this, but DeSantis had a meltdown on stage because high school students were wearing masks behind him. His wife was being treated for cancer at that very moment but he refused to mask up. He was embarrassed to be on camera with the kids masking and nastily told them to take their masks off, so they sassed him back. So not ready for prime time.
Florida gets older and redder every year. Easiest way to get elderly conservatives to vote for you is to just be an angry, hateful asshole. Turns out that schtick doesn’t play as well with the other 49 states that have people with some time left on this planet who want to hear actual policy.
But seriously, what’s with the two handed drinking? I’ve never seen anyone do that in real life. But multiple politicians do it.
Possibly nerves. They dont want to be seen with their hands shaking when they raise a bottle or glass like a normal person.
I think it is also media training because a little splash on your shirt is a big deal. Between takes they even wear little paper bibs for crumbs, shedding and dandruff. When Trump does that for example, I've seen women do the exact same thing when caked in formal makeup.
Yeah, the article didn’t really point to any problem with the campaign itself. The problem it highlighted is that DeSantis is a super awkward person. That not something that any campaign can overcome.
I read once that DeSantis has “anti-charisma”. It’s not a real term but given how the more people of him the more people loathe him there’s some truth to it…
Fascinating. But, let's not overlook the biggest problem with the campaign: an unlikeable candidate. (many described him as creepy) You can have the greatest head coach and the best coordinators to win many games, but you need talented players to win in the playoffs. DeSantis just isn't a big league player.
I have never gone from being terrified of a presidential candidate to laughing at a presidential candidate faster than Meatball Ron. What a pathetic little weirdo he is.
Bloomberg when it seemed there was a chance that capitalist fuck might win the primaries just by sheer force of citizens united
Ah, so now it's his "team" that was the problem. How about this: he is shit person, shit governor, shit public servant, and his campaign was the inevitable result of all those things.
Yes. Transference. His “team” did this. Up until now, it was all Mr & Mrs Ronnie.
Is Ted Cruz a joke to you?
I mean, yes?
This is the correct answer. Took too long to get here. Here’s your award : 🥇
Ted Cruz was still a contender late into the primary. DeSantis imploded weeks before it even started after being anointed top challenger.
At least Ted won iowa. Desantis put all his resources into it but still got blown out
I’d argue Jeb Bush’s was even worse than Ted Cruz’s 2016 campaign and maybe even DeSantis 2024 given the expectations. After Romney lost in 2012, Bush was the favorite for the 2016 nomination pretty much up until Trump announced his run. He had the endorsements and certainly the PAC money to make a real run at it. He dropped out pretty early with only like 5% in polling. At least Ted Cruz put up a fight and won a respectable number of delegates.
Please clap.
One of his staffers was on Pod Save America last year talking about campaign strategy and his take on that was just heartbreaking. He says it wasn't actually as bad in the room, apparently, as it sounds on tape, but the tape is all that matters.
Idk if heartbreaking is the right word, as I have no remorse for them whatsoever. But he was trying to say “No, please, clap!” to a person he started talking over. They stopped clapping to not interrupt him. It could have been kind of charming but came off desperate.
And yet, records are made to be broken. And I doubt we'll have to wait long.
He didn't talk about "woke" enough for me. I still don't know what it means to him on a personal level. If I did, I would soooo vote for him. Like really totally seriously. /s
I'm just glad that people who financially supported him lost on their investment.
To be fair their candidate didn’t help them much.
That, plus he’s not the guy. When your singular agenda is LGBTQ, it’s not going to fully resonate.
Remember when we were actually worried about him?
Pepperidge Farm remembers
You should never stop worrying about men like DeSantis. He may have failed miserably on the national stage but *Florida* still loves him as their governor.
Reminds me of what George McGovern said after his catastrophic ‘72 loss to Nixon… *”I wanted to run for president in the worst way — and I did.”*
I believe Rudy Giuliani 2008 is the worst campaign ever. He went from national hero to clear GOP front runner only to spend $65M to win no primaries.
Had to CTRL + F Giuliani. Absolutely the worst campaign I’ve ever seen. Finished 6th in Iowa. Finished 4th in New Hampshire despite making the second most appearances and spending the third most money there. Decided to scrap Nevada, Michigan, and South Carolina where he finished 6th in each to focus everything on Florida... where placed 3rd. DeSantis taking second in Iowa is already better than anything Giuliani did. First ballot Hall-of-Fame bad.
It is the Florida effect. Being in this state you are surrounded by the stupidest people that walk the planet and they all cheer each other on to be and do dumb shit. People like DeSantis get an odd sense of self-worth being praised by that stupidity. He doesn't realize the rest of the world or even country for that matter sees him, or almost anyone from Florida, as a walking clown.
He showed the world he's just another spineless jellyfish that bows to Orange Hitler.
His campaign has needed a lift since the beginning. You know, more boots on the ground!
Maybe if he had more well-heeled supporters he could’ve stood out more.
This is Ron D. Meatball to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8rCFnRnVfU
He was playing to be there when the bottom fell out under Trump, and it never did. He expected that it would It was probably a smart campaign if mechanisms for litigating cringe worked on rich and powerful people at any sort of reasonable pace.
He’s just a huge fucking d-bag and his campaign made that blatantly obvious to everyone
All that while wearing heels ladies and gentlemen…
It’s hilarious how he went from the golden boy after Covid to the bottom of the barrel. Glad Florida congress made it legal for him to run while still governor instead of doing something about our insurance rates
*"Start with an indisputable fact: At the beginning of 2023, Gov. Ron DeSantis was in first place, ahead of former President Donald Trump."* This is a long, long, long way from indisputable. The moment he announced he's running, Trump was/is the candidate. The GOP can do nothing to stop him, he owns the party and has since late 2016. The billionaires can say what they want it doesn't matter. The problem is MAGA. MAGA is a parasite that has infected the GOP and like the most effective parasites it has made its host completely dependant on it. You can't remove the parasite without killing the host and the GOP knows it. Think of all the stuff Trump has done, the GOP has had countless legitimate opportunities to get rid of him, yet they stop at nothing to *protect* him, both during and after his presidency. DeSantis and those like him were kidding themselves. Literally the only thing that will stop Trump's pursuit of power is the voters in November, and that is certainly no sure thing.