There’s one thing I can say with authority, even at this early stage of the DeSantis campaign, and that is that there is not one shred of original thinking. You will not find it there. What you will find in the DeSantis campaign, RD-24, which sounds like a sex lubricant, is the recycled, the hackneyed and the cliched.
And that makes perfect sense. Ron DeSantis is not running for president because he has a vision for America. He is running for president because he is a petty tyrant, a bully who wants power. Power is his aphrodisiac.
Casey is with Ron at Joni Ernst’s Roast and Ride, where Mike Pence has also been seen straddling a Harley — albeit for 1/8 of a mile, if he repeats his 2017 performance at that event.
The real question is if Casey DeSantis is also wearing her Disney princess-like long white gloves with her biker jacket. She kind of reminds me of Ivanka. pic.twitter.com/UF8iizOmNW
— Russell Drew (@RussOnPolitics) June 3, 2023
Yes, the Ivanka vibes are there.
Fixed it… pic.twitter.com/STX8erkO08
— Ross Smith 🟧 (@rossqsmith) June 3, 2023
For some time now she’s been seen mostly and by many as an absolute superstar of a political spouse, a not so “secret weapon,” even something like his saving grace — an antidote for her sometimes awkward husband, social in a way that he is not, charismatic in a way that he is not, generally and seemingly at ease in the spotlight in a way that he so often and so evidently is not. A telegenic former television personality, a breast cancer survivor and a mother of three young kids, Casey, 42, has a sort of policy portfolio of her own that ranges from hurricane recovery to issues of mental health.
In the DeSantis political project, she is unusually important and uncommonly involved, according to hundreds of interviews over the last few years and more than 60 more over the last few weeks — an array of former staffers, current supporters and donors, state and federal lawmakers and Florida lobbyists and political professionals. “She is every bit as involved in Ron’s rise as Ron is himself,” David Jolly, the ex-GOP Florida congressperson who’s now an MSNBC analyst, told me. “In shaping him, in driving him … it’s different,” said a veteran Republican lobbyist. “Unlike any first lady in my extended memory,” added Tallahassee fixture Mac Stipanovich. […]
In the tragic drama, of course, Lady Macbeth prods her husband to kill the king so she can be the queen. At this juncture, the literary analogy goes only so far. Ron DeSantis has trouble even criticizing Trump by name, but with the head-to-head battle about to begin, the role of his wife is of paramount concern to many in and around the world of DeSantis, as well as those considering whether to back him. The more complicated but also more instructive reality is that she is neither the fawning caricature she’s made out to be in conservative and even at times mainstream media nor a Shakespearean villain. She might well be a bit of both, say even some DeSantis proponents, and somewhere in this tension sits the central dynamic of the pending DeSantis campaign. She can ameliorate some of the effects of his idiosyncrasies. She can also accentuate, even exacerbate, his hubris, and his paranoia, and his vaulting ambition — because those are all traits that they share. He wouldn’t be where he is without her. He might not get to where he wants to go because of her.
“He’s a leader who makes political decisions with the assistance of his wife, who was elected by nobody, who’s blindly ambitious,” said a former DeSantis administration staffer. “And she sees ghosts in every corner.”
“She’s more paranoid than he is,” said a second staffer.
“He’s a vindictive motherfucker. She’s twice that,” said a higher-up on one of his campaigns. “She’s the scorekeeper.”
Given some of her bad advice her hubby has followed I’d say rather than political secret weapon she’s more of a political suicide by implosion weapon. As for David Jolley’s comment about not being able to think of someone so instrumental in her husband’s political work I think he’s forgetting some who he damn well remembers. Her name is Hillary Clinton. Long before he decided to run for the WH she had developed true policy chops of her own, from work on the national level such as with The Children’s Defense Fund to bread and butter state level stuff down there in Arkansas – helping to craft and push through real and meaningful legislation! Casey DeSantis isn’t fit to carry Hillary Clinton’s coat.
Absolutely. Hillary is brilliant. It’s a tragedy that the right-wing disinformation apparatus got to Hillary and trashed her. People didn’t know who she was and so they went along with the Roger Stone version of who she was, the Alex Jones version. It truly is tragic. And to have Trump elected when we had a choice like that. My God.
They were trashing her from the start. Remember the cookie-baking thing?
i live in Florida and the horrible actions of desantass have truly made it, as was changed to read on the back of Casey’s jacket Where Democracy comes to Die. His vengeful idiotic war with Disney was beyond stupid and his campaign slogan, Make America Florida is beyond comprehension. He is a petty, wannabe dictator.
I was literally speechless for about five minutes the first time I read “Make America Florida.” I thought it was satire and I went looking for the source. I couldn’t believe it was real.
My bet is seawater will.lose. I read Disney’s filing. The first 20-30 pages are nothing but his boasts,about he brought Disney to.its knees (actually, he didn’t because the old board pulled a legal.fast one;he has his BoD fascists but their hands are pretty much tied). It is clearly retaliation and Citizens U cited gave corporations the same right to.free speech without retaliation as human beings.
If DeDumba$$ had kept his big mouth shut,he might have had a fighting chance, but bullies like to brag. He is Florida’s version of Gaston from from.Beauty and the Beast, only nowhere as attractive and charismatic (which is saying a lot since the character is a loudmouthed bully with the charm of a pygmy rattler).
SCOTUS is gonna have to tap dance like crazy to make this case mesh with Citizens United to give the jerk a win. I am.laying in supplies of popcorn in anticipation.
DeSaster, not seawater
IMO, there are many “things” that go there to die! Try Common sense, honor & integrity!
All of those. And more.
Storm season is just starting with a tropical storm brushing through the Keys this weekend. Somehow I think some big ones later this summer will demonstrate to Floridians just how much their jet-setting governor and first lady care about them. The folks in Tampa already know.
Where woke goes to die huh? Along with a large portion of the elderly population in this country. Hmm, and apparently high schoolers when they’re gunned down by crazies who should be nowhere near firearms but who will get them easily in this sh*t hole of a state. Sh*t I wish these f**ked up a$$hole factories would just leave the U.S. Our nation would be so much better than it is at present: the laughing stock of the planet. I am very much in favor of any and all these f**ked up states seceding.
The people who don’t support the bigots and can’t afford to leave would appreciate it if their states DIDN’T secede.