Ron DeSantis Tries Something New

 When Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis officially declared himself a republican presidential candidate last night he tried something new. Instead of the traditional pep rally style format he decided to do it on Elon Musk's Twitter Spaces platform. Why was anyone's guess and more than a few have attempted to answer that question.

The kindest theory has been that Mr. DeSantis wanted to show how innovative he is. Others, knowing how much DeSantis personally dislikes his fellow citizens, felt he wanted as few people there in person as possible.   Finally, some have speculated he is so far down in the polls he had to do something which would attract the maximum amount of attention in the national media. 

Well, he did manage to get a lot of attention, if not last night, then today. Unfortunately for his campaign it was for all the wrong reasons. 

Today the technical disaster (21 minutes of static, beeps, clicks and dead air spiced with the occasional disembodied voice asking, "Are we on?") is the talk of the nation. The humiliating snafu added to the mystery of why he was appearing with Musk, a South African bazillionaire and David Sacks, a venture capitalist estimated to be worth $200 million in the first place. Let's face it, they both reflect a fairly limited demographic--one not well represented in places like Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina. 

The DeSantis people immediately blamed the series of crashes on the sheer number of people trying to witness the event. "You broke the internet," one told the governor. 

Or not. The Morning Joe crew pointed out earlier today, there were more people online to view Alice the Giraffe giving birth than attempted to watch Ron DeSantis last night.

After the technical melt down the governor finally was able to read his statement. His delivery was utterly without emotion, or enthusiasm. The statement itself was so canned you could almost hear the electric opener grinding in the background. Trump immediately pounced as only he can, without a hint of common decency, or mercy. DeSantis, so far, has failed to hit back. This continued lack of response leads one to wonder if Ron DeSantis is too frightened of Don Trump to really compete with him.     

Polls show Trump leading the governor by 30 points. That is putting him close to what is known as a marginal candidate. It's so bad that, at the moment anyway, it looks like Ron DeSantis' best chance to get nominated is for Trump to get locked away in a federal prison sometime in the very near future.

While it is a possibility it isn't something you can count on. 

There is, as many like to note, a long way to go in this race. That doesn't mean you can waste your time and other people's money with embarrassing fuck ups like last night though. At some point you have to at least look like a viable candidate. 

For Ron DeSantis that certainly didn't happen last night. The question now is, will it ever?

5-25-23