Dan Friedman/Mother Jones:
Maybe Becoming President Takes More Than Just Being a Dick
Did Ron DeSantis draw the wrong lesson from Trump?
The main example in this genre, of course, is Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. DeSantis has been elected in the country’s third biggest state twice, and has won extensive media attention in part by being unprecedentedly obnoxious to the press. No one can accuse him of being nice. DeSantis’ banning of books that address racism, his prohibiting saying “gay,” his use of state funds to fly migrants from Texas to Martha’s Vineyard, and his (losing) fight with Disney are undeniably obnoxious. If American wants another jerk in the White House, here is a champion.
And yet it is not working. DeSantis’ confrontational public persona and his reportedly off-putting interpersonal vibe have damaged his presidential hopes. We have seen reports that he eats pudding with his fingers, that he blows off donors and generally stinks at retail politics. On Saturday came news from DeSantis’ effort to court British business chiefs at a London event Friday. According to Politico, attendees called his performance “horrendous” and “low wattage.” One attendee said that DeSantis “looked bored” and “stared at his feet” during the meeting, part of what was nominally billed as an effort to build Florida’s foreign trade ties. One person defended the performance as “fine.”
Boring some Brits is not that big a deal. But this is the latest indication that DeSantis struggles with the basic political skill of getting people to like him. And that still matters. The Florida governor’s struggle offers a corrective: Yes, Trump showed that assholes can win the presidency. But it takes a little more than that.