Casey Macbeth Takes Over DeSantis Campaign As It Goes On Life Support. The Delusion Bubble Is Hilarious

Ron DeSantis once cast himself as the antidote for chaos. He was going to be “Donald Trump without the baggage.” Instead, he turned out closer to Ted Cruz without the personality, to quote GOP strategist Stuart Stevens. Ouch. DeSantis thought that he would run his 20 point gubernatorial victory straight into the White House, but what he doesn’t get is that state politics and national politics are not the same animal. Not even close. DeSantis is not a Romney, Reagan, or a Bush, governors who have been described as “expansive” and having “optimistic personalities.” DeSantis has no personality. He’s been described as “off-putting at best, rude at worst.”

It is Christmas Eve, 2024. In three weeks DeSantis’ fate will be decided in Iowa. He’ll either win there, as Ted Cruz did in 2016, and then wash out to Trump’s tremendous lead, or he might stay in the race a bit longer. What we know is that the pre-mortem has already begun and the two DeSantii are in a complete bubble of delusion. Here’s what that looks like.

They are both so strange. I can't decide which one is more so. I still don't get why she's always repeating her kids ages. Like we get it you have kids. Good for you. Can she talk about anything else?

— Marie DuVernay (@MarieDuVernay12) December 24, 2023

Thank you. I have asked people why this woman endlessly repeats this statistic. This makes sense.

— Ursula Faw (@ursulafaw56) December 24, 2023

As to the pre-mortem, the New York Times has a piece up, “What Went Wrong For Ron DeSantis.” I can guarantee you that no headline like that has ever been written for a candidate who then went on to glide effortlessly to the presidential nomination. This is part of the DeSantii delusion, that people have always underestimated Ron, he’s always been the underdog, but he has shown them. He has shown them in a congressional district and a state. Getting a presidential nomination is a completely different kettle of fish and so far these two have bombed. What they are good for, though, is comic relief.

Ryan Tyson, Mr. DeSantis’s longtime pollster and one of his closest advisers, has privately said to multiple people that they are now at the point in the campaign where they need to “make the patient comfortable,” a phrase evoking hospice care. Others have spoken of a coming period of reputation management, both for the governor and themselves, after a slow-motion implosion of the relationship between the campaign and an allied super PAC left even his most ardent supporters drained and demoralized. […]

The turmoil at the super PAC — which followed a summer of turbulence inside the campaign — has been almost too frequent to be believed. The super PAC’s chief executive quit, the board chairman resigned, the three top officials were fired and then the chief strategist stepped down — all in less than a month, enveloping Mr. DeSantis’s candidacy in exactly the kind of chaos for which he once cast himself as the antidote.

Here’s a thumbnail sketch of what happened in 2023.

Profligate spending and overly bullish fund-raising projections put the campaign on the financial brink after only two months.

The candidate himself, prone to mistrusting his own advisers, did not have a wide enough inner circle to fill both a campaign and super PAC with close allies, leaving the super PAC in the hands of newcomers who clashed with the campaign almost from the start.

Mr. DeSantis’s decision to delay his entry into the race until after Florida’s legislative session concluded meant he was on the sidelines during Mr. Trump’s most vulnerable period last winter. Then, once Mr. DeSantis did hit the trail, he struggled to connect, appearing far more comfortable with policy than people as awkward encounters went viral.

“You’re running against a former president — you’re going to have to be perfect and to get lucky,” said a person working at high levelYs to elect Mr. DeSantis and who was not authorized to speak publicly. “We’ve been unlucky and been far from perfect.”

Here’s another in an endless stream of examples of how weird Ron is.

Oh
My
God pic.twitter.com/QECsu9OoCY

— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) December 23, 2023

It honestly makes you wonder how the man got as far as he has. He has no couth. Something happened in his socialization skills early on for him to be in his 40’s and socially retarded like this.

As we speak, DeSantis’ standing in national polling averages has steadily declined, from above 30 percent in January 2023 to close to 12 percent today, December 24. That is one hell of a downward plunge. Yet somehow he’s going to turn all this around in three weeks? And will that happen in the same universe that Donald Trump gets all his indictments dismissed from the courts?

Here’s one last clip you need to see, a parody cobbled together by the Trump Forces, not by us.

This is clearly the work of someone within the Trump orbit. The sad thing is that the DeSantis team has always had an embarrassment of riches where Trump 'oppo' was concerned, and they've ignored it from the outset. In this case, "you reap what you DON'T sow".

— BruceGoldberg (@bgoldbergpdx) December 23, 2023

I can’t wait to see what happens if/when DeSantis loses the Iowa Caucus. If Trump wins and DeSantis loses, DeSantis will have to seriously consider bowing out of the race. If DeSantis wins and Trump loses, that may herald a two-punch defeat for Trump, who might then again lose in New Hampshire.

Nobody knows at this point. Nobody can know. But what is known is that when DeSantis finally does meet defeat, his true character will come out at that time. His true face will be revealed. And I, for one, can’t wait to see what that face looks like. I don’t think we’re going to see the patrician dignity of George H.W. Bush when he graciously acknowledged defeat to Bill Clinton. I think we’re going to see the face of a being off the Outer Limits.