Ron DeSantis puts me in mind of a low budget movie I once worked on. There was a guy who had the right look for the part but he simply could not act. He absolutely couldn’t. He looked stiff, frozen, scared, unnatural and when a love scene was attempted, it was embarrassingly awkward. DeSantis brings back that memory. Take a look.
This new Desantis 2.0 strategy of spending time with the people in smaller settings might work if he had a personality. You can’t fix this. pic.twitter.com/AD7nEL2gBc
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 29, 2023
The phony grin, the awkwardness. And it’s not just this encounter. Yesterday he hassled a kid at a fair for eating an Icee.
Poor little kid is just trying to enjoy an Icee on a hot day and gets a health lecture from Ron DeJoyful. A guy who lives on fried chicken sandwiches and chocolate pudding dropping weight on Ozempic. pic.twitter.com/Dduu6pjzUm
— Ron Filipkowski (@RonFilipkowski) July 28, 2023
The man has no ability to communicate naturally. He’s not a people guy. Bill Clinton, by contrast, loved people. Probably no president in recent history has ever pressed the flesh to greater effect than Clinton. He’s gifted with an amazing memory. If he met somebody once he would remember their face and name. He genuinely enjoyed talking to people and hearing their stories. So if Clinton, on this scale, is a 10, DeSantis needs to work to rise to a 2.
The man is pathetic and you can’t fix this. And the donors are getting worried, make no mistake. Let’s face it, Ron DeSantis makes Ted Cruz look positively charming. Roll that one around in your head. Puck News:
Alas, fundraising has already slowed for the campaign itself, after an early burst of bundler activity that quickly maxed out its most eager donors. Left on the sidelines are the biggest hitters, like Ken Griffin and Steve Schwarzman, who could fund other vehicles but have held off from giving to DeSantis as they await the results of the first four primaries before investing time or money. “The main thing that donors are upset about,” said another major donor, “is how quickly DeSantis fell apart.”
There’s a new self-help guide circulating among the donor set in the form of a Wall Street Journal op-ed by Mitt Romney. It quotes Dumb and Dumber to warn the deep-pocketed that they are free to support other candidates through the first four primary states, but no later than February 26. At that point they must coalesce around one candidate other than Trump. I’m told you’re going to see a lot more of these coordinated pieces by “serious people” advocating that the field should consolidate fast after Iowa.
Who might that candidate be if not DeSantis? That’s where the Glenn Youngkin fantasy persists. I’m told former DeSantis donor Thomas Peterffy is considering wiring another $1 million to Youngkin’s super PAC as another nudge to run for president. Of course, this money can be used for 2028, if Youngkin chooses to hold out till then. But that capital would represent Peterffy’s second million dollar donation to Youngkin since DeSantis passed a 6-week abortion ban.
Another leader among the donor pack is former Trump Commerce secretary Wilbur Ross, who is hosting a fundraiser for Youngkin next week at his Southampton home. The thinking is that as a centi-millionaire, Youngkin knows the right way to shake the hands of true billionaires like Griffin, Schwarzman, Bill Harrison and Ken Langone, in a way that will convince them to carry him through the first four primary states, even if his showing isn’t spectacular and he has oodles of lost time to make up for.
Karl Rove, the true political consiglieri to the Republican donor pack, has spent many hours trying to persuade Youngkin to run. Sure, he can also persuade these donors who are true Bush-ies at heart—pro-business, pro-jobs, anti-regulations—that Youngkin is DeSantis minus his Disney battles and all the Very Online culture wars stuff. But people close to Youngkin tell me that he is obsessed with his own state’s midterm elections, and that’s what’s holding him back, despite the fact that he’s term-limited as governor. Is this a major political miscalculation? (Trump was living proof that policy wins matter increasingly less to voters.) I’m sure not a single voter outside of Virginia would care about the political composition of that state’s legislature. But Youngkin tells people that he believes he needs to turn the legislature red in order to win national credibility.
Another billionaire cooling on DeSantis: Rupert Murdoch, who has preferred Youngkin since he met both of them at his Montana Ranch in the spring. Yesterday, the New York Post reported that DeSantis had to offer half-price admission to his Hamptons fundraiser last week and scrapped two after a lack of interest, a ding from a paper that once called him “DeFuture.”
DeFuture is now DePast. DeSantis’ problem is that he got reelected governor by 20 points and people were telling him he was going to be the next president of the United States. That’s not happening now. The day does not go by when either his campaign doesn’t botch something, or he doesn’t make himself look bad.
The only question now is how much longer does he want this torture to go on. Mitt Romney specified that people should start dropping out of the race and solidify the nomination by the end of February. It will be interesting to see if DeSantis survives that long or anywhere near it.
Oh for the day when mercifully for both Democrats and GOPers alike DeSantis will become DeSunkwithoutatrace.
When you are a racist, a nazi, and a soulless phuck…hard to hide. Of course, ALL their candidates fit that bill, along with 40 goddamn percent of the phuckers in this slave colony.
We here in VA are very well aware of Youngkin’s plans for this year’s elections. He has endorsed the sitting state senator for my district—-needless to say, I am giving as much as I am able to her opponent. If you can help my state, find a Democrat you resonate with and send them “some love”, as David Bromstadt would say!