Noonan does a great job trumpeting DeSantis greatest hits and his impressive accomplishments prior to becoming gov. He is certainly a man of great fortitude and like Trump, someone who can grow into the job of becoming a huge jackass. Absolute power corrupts absolutely?
Slapping Mickey Mouse in the face (the state's largest employer) is one thing; trying to burn him at the stake is another. Stupid, as is his draconian stance on abortion. If he's trying to merchandise himself as the "reasonable" version of Trump, he's DOA.
Tim Scott and Ron DeSantis Enter the Race
One has the most winning personality in politics. The other doesn’t but has a story to tell about policy.
Peggy Noonan, WSJ
May 25, 2023 6:24 pm ET
Two political opposites declared for the presidency this week. Sen. Tim Scott has the most winning personality in American politics but few policy accomplishments. Gov. Ron DeSantis has the least winning personality in the field but a long record of policy victories and a vivid political persona.
Mr. DeSantis is getting beat about the head for a strange and unsuccessful launch. Twitter Spaces audio? How about—a far-out idea, but stay with me—a TV channel where you can just hit the “on” button and see a face? A campaign introduction video narrated by some guy with an English accent? Is that supposed to evoke Winston Churchill?
I don’t know if Mr. DeSantis is baffling, but his campaign is. While Donald Trump rose the past three months, the campaign was like Gen. George McClellan, endlessly training his troops, carefully preparing them for the coming war, not noticing the war was already raging.
I’m not sure normal people care if a campaign launch was a mess. A good launch would surely have been a boon, stopped a bleed or provided a boost. But the battle is won day to day. Kamala Harris had the best launch of the 2020 cycle—a crowd of 20,000 flooding Oakland City Hall in a beautifully advanced event—and she dropped out at the bottom of the polls before a single vote was cast.
Anyway, pile-ons are boring. I would say Mr. DeSantis has two unusual and important virtues as a political figure. He knows it—he understands his policies on a granular level. He means it—as he speaks, you don’t suspect that he’s faking it, that his inner views are different. If he wins the nomination, the argument will be over those views. Right now the argument is about the delivery mechanism, Mr. DeSantis himself.
Man, he’s intense. He reminds me of what was said of young Joe Biden, that his fuse is always lit. He should play up his biography, because it’s interesting. Regular middle-class kid, local baseball, then Yale, Harvard, the U.S. Navy. This is the dream. What did he learn? What does he know from that? It’s not boorish to share your story. Kind of a compliment to the country that a kid with no special connections rose so high so quick.
At some point, I think soon, he’ll have to make a serious, textured and extended case against Donald Trump. Not insults and nicknames, not “Can he take a punch? Can he throw a punch?” No, something aimed at the big beating heart of the GOP that tells those who’ve gone on the Trumpian journey and aligned with him that they can no longer indulge their feelings. At a crucial point in history they’ll lose again, and the damage to the country will be too great. Throwaway lines like “the culture of losing” aren’t enough. That’s just a line that signals. Don’t signal, say. Include the long history of political losses—Congress, the presidency, the opportunity for a red wave in 2022.
Yes, tell those good people that you served your country in a tragedy called Iraq and the other guy claimed bone spurs and ran during a tragedy called Vietnam. You think you don’t have to say it, but you do. People who love Mr. Trump need reasons they can explain to themselves to peel away.
Mr. DeSantis has obscured and hidden his main calling card, which six months ago people were familiar with. His calling card was that in a time of true national crisis—a historic pandemic, the sharp rise of woke ideology—he provided strong leadership under which his state thrived. He had a terrible hurricane and kept the place up and operating. That is his headline. It’s all gotten obscured by other things. People say “Disney,” and I say not only that but yes, Disney. That corporation made a big mistake when it inserted itself into the “don’t say gay” fight—it was overbearing, claimed too much space, presumed, messed with the public. It was a mistake, and Mr. DeSantis beat it back early and won. More is overkill. You can’t just be against corporations—they make jobs, provide services, help communities thrive. Their taxes pay for rebuilding the bridge when the hurricane comes. They are full of moderates themselves fighting internally to keep things sane.
On transgender issues, it is hard to resist a destructive ideology while maintaining, in public ways, respect and affection for those who are wrong. And who don’t necessarily want your respect and affection. But you have to try anyway. Because it’s right and nice, and we’re human beings, and people can see good faith, sometimes in time and often reluctantly. And because it keeps those you’re opposing from arguing, persuasively, that you’re just playing a culture-war card and they’re only road kill on your highway to victory.
Mr. DeSantis should embrace the clichés about his personality—that he is awkward, distant, unfriendly. He shouldn’t run around grinning, laughing and kissing babies. Or rather he should, but also he should make fun of his charmlessness. Name some victory and then say, with a straight face, “It must have been my charm.” Refer to a legislative triumph and say he must have gotten it through the state Senate because of his fabulous warmth. “That was my people skills.”
As people laugh they’ll realize it wasn’t charm and wasn’t warmth but might have been something more valuable and rare: skill. Actual competence.
I am running out of space for Tim Scott, who deserves more. “He is a breath of fresh air,” former Sen. Rob Portman told me by phone. “He is truly a good person willing to look to the brighter angels. He is not a cynical pol.” They sat next to each other on the Senate floor through two impeachments, “one of the few times you’re required to be in your seat.” A lot of notes were passed back and forth. Mr. Portman saw who came to talk. “He is beloved,” Mr. Portman said.
Mr. Scott knew real want and instability as a child, has told his story and will tell it on the trail. His competitors say all he has is bio. But in politics in the current moment, biography is policy. Donald Trump was a rich businessman; he’ll make the economy good. Barack Obama was an intellectual community organizer; he can bring us together. And biography can take you far when it reflects your basic political essence. In Mr. Scott’s case, he rose through basic conservative principles, faced it all as a black man, and still loves America, seeing it for what it is and not as the cartoon others draw. That is powerful. But yes, it will have to be undergirded by broader policy stands.
He’s from South Carolina, a frisky conservative state, and watched his fellow senator, Lindsey Graham, be batted about for independence on various issues and early opposition to Mr. Trump. It left Mr. Scott cautious. But running for president is an incautious act and will demand more.
It’s said he’s really running for vice president. But nobody puts himself through a grueling presidential campaign who doesn’t want the top job. Then again, as Ms. Harris will tell you, the way to become vice president is to run for president. Trump’s Truth Social post welcoming Mr. Scott into the race did sound a lot like, Welcome, future running mate!
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