The Smallness of Ron DeSantis

Last week Pres. Joe Biden did what presidents do. He took a trip down to Florida to survey the hurricane damage, to say reassuring things and to promise help.

The usual thing is for a state’s governor, Republican or Democrat, to show up to join the president if for no other reason than to show that the tragedy transcended politics as usual. Credit Republican Sen. Rick Scott for joining Biden.

But where was Gov. Ron DeSantis? He made some transparent excuse about the President’s visit being a distraction. Of course, if Biden hadn’t shown up he would have called him out for being callous and checked out.

Maybe DeSantis was worried about the blow back then New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie got for embracing Pres. Barack Obama when Obama showed up to tour the damage from Super Storm Sandy. But that’s no excuse. DeSantis’s absence and his weaselly excuse revealed how unfit this guy is to be president. He won’t even do the simplest thing to show that he cares more about the people of his state than his own ambitions.

It follows hard on the heals of his weak performance at the first Republican debate. It was like the guy wasn’t even there. It’s telling this his opponents didn’t bother to attack him or, for that matter, even engage with him. Meanwhile, Vivek Ramaswamy came off as aggressive, articulate and just bat-shit crazy while Nikki Haley presented herself as reasoned, competent and capable of being the leader of the free world. Haley is too conservative for me, but I wouldn’t worry about the future of American democracy if she were the Republican nominee… which she won’t be.

In contrast to the serious Haley, DeSantis has built his brand around being the enemy of woke. I have plenty of concerns about the cultural and political obsession with identity and with the view that classical liberal values can be set aside in the service of “equity,” but I hardly think that this stuff deserves to be at the center of a serious presidential campaign. And, in fact, it doesn’t seem to be panning out for DeSantis. I was surprised at how little any of these issues came up during the debate, even from him.

I know. I know. Republican primary voters don’t care that DeSantis snubbed Biden and put politics above coming together to help his own state in a crisis. He may even gain a little ground for acting like a jerk, jerkiness being a trait core Republican voters seem to value these days.

But it doesn’t play well with moderates and independents. If lightening strikes (I’ll take bets that DeSantis is gone after New Hampshire) and DeSantis is his party’s nominee, enough of this kind of thing could hurt him in a general election. As well it should.