DeSantis Gets Torched After Fumbling Blame For His Weak Campaign
Florida Governor and fading Republican presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis has been roundly mocked throughout his campaign by Democrats and Republicans and his swan song — where he contemplates what might have been. Talking to Hugh Hewitt, DeSantis says he made a mistake right “out of the gate” when he should have, in retrospect, “just been blanketing…gone on all the corporate shows…and reach a broader folk.”
DeSantis’s detractors, who range from school librarians to Donald Trump to Mickey Mouse, are laughing at the Governor’s realization, and mocking him for still not recognizing where to place the blame. “The issue,” writes one, “was not taking on your main competition until it was too late.” (DeSantis refused to criticize Trump practically until the ice hit Iowa.)
DeSantis says he regrets early campaign strategy of shunning the media.
— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) January 18, 2024
"I should have just been blanketing. I should have gone on all the corporate shows… we had an opportunity, I think, to come out of the gate and do that and reach a much broader folk," he tells @hughhewitt
Another perplexed, but amused commentator gave DeSantis a classic SMDH response, writing: “Running scared of the media and running scared of your main opponent turned out to not be a winning strategy. Huh.”
“Or maybe say ‘I am just a lousy candidate’? He had name recognition and money and lots of free press,” writes another, while still another filled with DeSantis scorn writes: “the absurd amount of time blathering on about where woke goes to die. Complete waster of time.”
One commenter thought DeSantis’s strategy — bashing Disney and DEI on Newsmax only and not the “corporate shows” (CNN, NBC, et al.) — actually worked in his favor, delaying the hard news that DeSantis isn’t a likeable or winning national presence.
Had he come “out of the gate” more broadly, they write, “The public would have seen sooner how unlikeable and how unprepared DeSantis is. So he lasted longer than he might have doing it his way.”
As for that gate DeSantis didn’t quite burst out of, some remember that the gate was provided by fellow anti-woke warrior Elon Musk — and that the DeSantis campaign launched on Twitter/X, where the big moment was plagued with technical difficulties many viewed as a bad omen later fulfilled. Musk’s X and DeSantis have both lost value in the marketplace since the sketchy launch.
