Posted on 04/10/2024 3:39:18 PM PDT by conservative98
RON DESANTIS IS BACK TO RUNNING Florida’s government. But he hasn’t really stopped running for president.
Next month, DeSantis hosts a two-day presidential-donor gathering at the Hard Rock Hotel in South Florida that’s billed as—don’t call it a “fundraiser”—an “Investor Appreciation Retreat.” It’s the latest phase of an image makeover DeSantis started after he officially dropped out of the 2024 race on January 21 and endorsed Donald Trump.
For the past month, DeSantis has hosted one-on-one thank-you calls with donors, small meetings with more of these “investors” in Naples and in Miami, and conference calls with former volunteers.
In a rarity for DeSantis, he’s expressing some regrets, notably about the way his star-crossed campaign and super PAC stiff-armed the national media.
“I should’ve done as much media as I could because the election was directly a reflection of how much earned media each candidate got,” DeSantis told one group, according to a participant who heard the remarks and relayed them on condition of anonymity. (Another source confirmed the substance of the remarks.)
Coming from a politician who isn’t known for introspection or personal accountability, this admission of error was the clearest sign yet that DeSantis is already laying the groundwork for 2028.
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DeSantis also seems to think that he might have had a chance if only Trump hadn’t been indicted. “After the indictments, Trump dominated the news cycle,” DeSantis has said to others. “We couldn’t get any oxygen.”
DeSantis also begrudgingly told them he entered the presidential race too late. He waited until late May 2023 even though Trump announced a week after the November 2022 elections and Haley joined the race in February 2023.
Those who understand DeSantis’s style of thinking say they wouldn’t be surprised if DeSantis learns this particular lesson so well that he announces his next presidential campaign before his term as governor ends in January 2027.
[CUT]
A MONTH AFTER DROPPING OUT, DeSantis began his thank you tour and promptly ran afoul of Trump due to a leaked recording of a 30-minute teleconference with Republican supporters who had backed his presidential campaign. Trump’s team took special umbrage with the way DeSantis gratuitously side-swiped Trump co-campaign manager Susie Wiles, a former DeSantis adviser he came to resent and purged in 2019.
“We were often asked if we would ever stop hitting Ron,” tweeted Taylor Budowich, executive director of the pro-Trump MAGA Inc. super PAC, last month. “The standard response became: it stops when he’s fat again. Now that the time has come, I think we’ll reconsider.”
A week later, at a private “investor” meeting in Naples, DeSantis was more circumspect in discussing Trump, according to an insider familiar with the discussion.
“Everyone knows it’s better for DeSantis if Trump loses. DeSantis knows it. Trump knows it. So there’s no point in Ron talking about it,” the source said.
He was still governor of Florida even when in Iowa; he could and did act.
When a hurricane hit a little Florida town last year, the Sheriff said DeSantis was in the community five different times.
Some locals thought DeSantis visited three times but the Sheriff said no, the Governor was there a couple of times not everyone knew about.
ain’t nobody carin’ or votin’ for him
You’re correct. After being out of the news for the months following his withdraw from the primary campaign, we’re suddenly seeing a push of glowing articles about him, coincidentally around the time of his “Thank You” weekend retreat with his donors. The signing ceremonies and frequent PR events are just one of many indicators that DeSantis never left campaign mode.
I rightly took some heat on an earlier thread for claiming that Florida’s recent “squatters” law offered no new legal protections for landlords. I was mistaken. But the fact remains that DeSantis is an over-rated governor who’s PR team has been hyping every positive legislation he’s ever signed while hiding or lying about his failures, for the past 6 years.
And a certain number of people buy into the narrative - even cling to it - to use as a foil against Trump. Comparing the accomplishments of a governor who inherited a mostly well-run state and has had the benefit of a Republican controlled legislature and a conservative judiciary, his entire governorship, to the only president to wage battle with the deep state and remain standing, is foolish.
The governorship of Florida and the presidency of the United States are fundamentally different endeavors, and comparing the governor of Florida with the president of the United States is like comparing a high school quarterback with a professional one. Throwing five touch downs passes and defeating Podunk High does not make one better than a Tom Brady simply because he had a bad game.
Lower loomer’s election was stolen right in front of your face. I was watching that election night. Ron did nothing about it.
DeSantis doesn’t have a shadow campaign.(He’s endorsed Trump)
He has 9 delegates and won’t be the Republican Nominee in 2024.
The only president in history to go from private citizen to President of the United States...It was Trump who exposed all of these rotten paid off corrupt lawyers turned career politician like never before in American history.
And you want to go right back to where we were before the Trump era. Bull sh*t!
He is a deep state cuck
This is another example of how we conservatives love attacking each other more than attacking lefties or Dems, they close ranks and we go on name calling each other-it is why we lose elections (or at least keep them close enough for the lefties to cheat) and why Dems win and have control and power
Why does Kristol still put out his stupid Weekly Reader newsletter?
Why do you post cringey articles from it here?
>>”DeSantis also begrudgingly told them he entered the presidential race too late. He waited until late May 2023 even though Trump announced a week after the November 2022 elections and Haley joined the race in February 2023.”
Wow. So you mean he really WAS planning on running all along and Trump got it right when he called him out his pretense?
I think that perhaps you have inadvertently pulled the curtain back on why some Trump supporters do not like DeSantis. "...he’s just too conservative..."
Sad for this once great site.
I thought he did in 2020 and look what happened. I don’t count chickens until they hatch.
Agree.
His ignoring issues crucial to GOP voters in numerous nationally televised debates may have something to do with it.
He largely ignored: the rigged election, J6, weaponization of govt, mass censorship, the gulag etc....in nationally televised GOP debates.
Not caring in the slightest about historic lawlessness and disorder is not conservative at all.
The democrat party paid trolls are doing their satanic masters’ bidding again, throwing stupid insults at Gov. DeSantis.
Despite their names, and regardless of their sign-up dates, they are NOT conservatives and they seek to destroy America rather than make America great.
He spent a yr in Iowa. How did Floridians benefit from his absence as governor?
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Ron DeSantis was abesent from Florida? I didn’t notice since the conservtive agenda was still plowing ahead here in Florida and hurricane prep and recovery took place expertly. I guess this shows DeSantis is even more awesome than I realized.
No one cares about DeSantis outside of Florida. And, no one is going to care in 2028, more than a year after he leaves office.
Nixon,, Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Eisenhower, perhaps others,,were elected president even though neither was in elective office at the time.
Its not as if you are required to hold elective office at the time you run for president.
I believe Kazan’s point is that DeSantis’s popularity isn’t and won’t be strong enough to allow him to win the nomination while not holding office, they way Nixon, Reagan and Carter were able to. I tend to agree.
A month old essay posted as “news”
Your obsession continues to grow.
“Why does Ron do cingrey press conferences every single day”
Because he’s a governor of a state?
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