America’s Best Public Servant

Powerline ^ | September 2, 2026 | John Hinderaker

[T Ruth]

Has there ever been a governor, or any public official, with a record as good as Ron DeSantis’s? Not that I know of. What he has accomplished in Florida seems almost incredible; in fact, if he hadn’t done it, a lot of people wouldn’t have thought it possible. Here, he reviews some of his administration’s signal accomplishments while taking a left-wing heckler in stride:

🚨 JUST IN: Gov. Ron DeSantis was heckled mid-speech as he touted Florida cutting its budget four years running, more residents than New York, the nation’s lowest per-capita taxes, 52% of state debt paid off and a smaller government than the day he took office, firing back,… pic.twitter.com/DiuHCvNtHA

— Florida’s Voice (@FLVoiceNews) September 1, 2026

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TOPICS: Government; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Florida
KEYWORDS: desantis; florida; johnhinderaker; powerlineblog; rondesantis

[Skwor]

I do think DeSantis misread the electoral room and got really bad political advice in his presidential bid. Trump was not the one to go head-to-head with and given Desantis is fairly young waiting for the next election made way more sense.

I think he has a good window now, he can even claim a bit of an outsider not being in the current Trump administration.

[Alberta's Child]

He didn't just "misread the electoral room." He did two things that probably destroyed his chances of winning a presidential election:

1. He revealed to the world that he is an awful candidate on the campaign trail.

2. He exposed himself as a paid flack of the GOP establishment and their financial backers.

[dfwgator]

I think that’s all forgotten now, as long as he learned from the mistakes.

I’m all in for DeSantis.

[Carry_Okie]

What a guy like that could do for California...

Of course De Santis has a cooperative and experienced legislature not subject to term limits.

Sigh.

[Skwor]

National he wasn’t a very good campaigner.

And

Yes, he did tote the GOPe line, I am of the personal opinion he did this on advice of his political advisers and the GOPe who were funding him. I do agree this was bad also.

He has a chance to show he is not a part of the establishment; the opportunity is his to put space between them and him, we will see where his allegiance is if he runs.

[Migraine]

Desantis is great. But my vote for ABPS goes to Clarence Thomas — a national treasure and hero for 3 decades.

[aquila48]

What he has done in Florida is nothing short of amazing. Nit picking on stupid thing is like nitpicking on Trump’s tweets, instead of looking at what he’s actually accomplished.

DeSantis is my first choice.

[Rockingham]

DeSantis has a record of alienating or failing to recruit allies, weak political organization, and serious missteps. "Alligator Alcatraz" proved to be dramatic but expensive and ineffective in spurring illegal immigrant removals. DeSantis also suffered serious embarrassment and potential criminal liability in a grand jury investigation for misdirecting a large slice of a Medicaid overbilling settlement into an anti-marijuana PAC controlled by his wife and political allies.

Moreover, DeSantis was not a transformative figure but simply a fortunate GOP governor with a solidly Republican legislature in a solidly Republican state. This political transformation was not due to DeSantis but was the product of decades of hard work by state and local Republican political organizations and operatives.

Like other Florida governors, DeSantis lacks a clear political political career path after he leaves office. Most Florida governors soon end up in a soft retirement of some sort, usually as "of counsel" to a major law firm or in a low demand teaching gig at a state university.

Some years ago, my mother used to see Reuben Askew, a once celebrated former Florida governor on weekday mornings shopping in a Publix in an Orlando suburb -- in spite of his being a professor at the local state university. Once considered a potential president, Askew could be regularly seen slowly pushing a grocery cart, fingering the produce, and checking prices and sell by dates.

Who knows, maybe Trump will rescue DeSantis's political career with a major appointment. Otherwise, he will soon have some decisions to make. Publix or Walmart?

[Alberta's Child]

RDS's lockdown orders during COVID should have permanently disqualified him from serving in any position of public trust.

For that duplicitous @sshole and his supporters to whitewash that whole disgraceful episode and champion him as a "protector of freedom during COVID" was really pathetic.

[cowboyusa]

he ha cut spending and balanced the budget in his State, that’s what we need. There is NO Conservatism without smaller government.

[Alberta's Child]

In terms of hard, factual matters related to DeSantis’ performance as governor, I will always go back and cite this huge item that has gotten buried in all the adulation poured out over DeSantis on this website ...

On April 1st of 2020 -- AFTER the "two weeks to flatten the curve" ended -- Ron DeSantis issued a 30-day stay-at-home lockdown order for Florida residents.

Just read that again and think about it, folks.

Plenty of us on FR at the time were rightly calling this out as Nazi sh!t wherever it was implemented — in Australia, in Israel, in Great Britain, in New York City, in Michigan ... or in Florida.

In my humble opinion, this one action he took as governor of Florida ought to completely disqualify him from ever holding public office.

[Alberta's Child]

P.S. — “Smaller government,” my @ss.

[dfwgator]

I think DeSantis with Sean Duffy as his VP would be unbeatable.

[dfwgator]

No matter what anyone did in 2020, half the country was going to criticize it. And hindsight is 20/20, I won’t hold that against him.

[ek_hornbeck]

I’d vote for him on account of Florida Senate Bill 484 alone - i.e. a regulation banning utility companies from passing on the price increase in electricity due to data centers to customers. That should keep many data centers out of Florida, and I wish other states would do the same.

[ek_hornbeck]

I’d take DeSantis over Gang of Eight Rubio as GOP nominee for President any day.

[cowboyusa]

He balanced the budget. Vance needs to stop praising that asshole Hamilton. We need Jacksonianism in Govenmet: Lrss govrrent, and breaking up monopolies.

[ek_hornbeck]

However, unlike other politicians, DeSantis was willing to admit he was wrong and open Florida up for business when it became clear that the Draconian lockdown policies were counterproductive. Which is more than can be said for most other governors.

I'm not saying he's perfect, but he's not someone I'd be unhappy with as President if Vance fails to get traction. And as I said above, at least with a President DeSantis, we wouldn't get amnesty for illegals as we'd get with Rubio, nor a neocon foreign policy.

[cowboyusa]

We know your Canidate is probably Massie.