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Ron DeInSantis
This is not a post I wanted to write. Ron DeSantis came in a poor second in Iowa and barely beat out Nikki Haley . Haley somehow announced it was now a “two person” race (between her and Trump) even though she came in third, probably projecting forward to the New Hampshire balloting. Nevertheless DeSantis said —
“Because of your support, in spite of all of that they threw at us, everyone against us — we’ve got our ticket punched out of Iowa,” he said.
Yes, but your ticket is punched for Florida, not New Hampshire. Was there an implied Howard Dean “Yee Haw!” in that statement?!
Michael Knowles posted on X the question of whether he was the last person to like both Trump and DeSantis?
I responded by saying I like both but in different roles. And, sadly, the “temptation of Ron DeSantis” means that that role, if any, will be less significant in the future than it might have been. Delusions die hard.
Sad.
Published in Election 2024
I saw Michael’s tweet – I, too, like both Trump and DeSantis.
I’m convinced that the only hope for the US lies in the states. If we are to survive, it will take strong governors who take back states’ rights.
For that reason, my desire is for DeSantis to remain an outstanding governor.
by the end of 2024, we’ll be talking about 2028 and DeSantis will be the front-runner.
Yes.
While never discounting ego, she’s got establishment backers that DeSantis hasn’t got, so it’s a distinct possibility that she knows it’s now between her and Trump. She’ll have the entire establishment of both parties behind her candidacy.
I am not predicting that DeSantis will drop out soon, but it seems to be an unbreakable rule in nomination contests that you must proclaim how great you are doing until the minute you “suspend” your campaign.
The man associated with the (unfair, but sticky) “Don’t Say Gay” meme went full Nancy Sinatra here.
A worse calculation: running against Trump. Which anti-Trump GOP faction was his muse?
Worst mistake: surmising that signing one of the nation’s harshest abortion bans wouldn’t taint his ambitions. It ranks him among the most socially conservative White House aspirants, a bad place to be now, and worse in 2028, 2032 …
Rick Santorum Au Go-Go. Going, going, gone.
I guess, for voters too stupid to tell the difference between state laws and federal laws.
Ron DeSantis has done too much right a governor of Florida, arguably the best governor in the republic over an insanely chaotic period with brutal, corrupt, and powerful opposition (the Disney Groomer Fiefdom for starters) for me to discount him entirely over a bad election season. (And full demerits to Trump’s idiotic defense of the special governance privileges DeSantis withdrew from Disney, which gave Disney freer reign in tax and police matters than they would have otherwise.)
I haven’t done a detailed assessment of merits and demerits of DeSantis or Halley because neither is relevant to this race barring absolute catastrophe (including outright assassination, may RFK is safer without Secret Service protection than Trump is with it).
Gross comment. You’re making it hard to rally behind Trump. I don’t really want to be associated with people who A) take a cheap shot over shoes in an emergency. It’s lizard thinking on the level of mocking Trump’s small hands- only small minds stoop to such nonsense. B) mock a candidate by referencing the pro-trans argument “don’t say gay” and making fun of the candidate like he’s dressing as a woman. C) accuse DeSantis of being some NeverTrump supported pawn. Maybe DeSantis supporters just like the guy and know he’s (obviously) the best person to be president? D) makes the cowardly argument that being too anti-abortion is a bad thing. DeSantis won re-election with a massive majority. Obviously good governance matters, and it doesn’t seem that his pro-life stance hurt him any, did it? He turned a purple state deep red both in spite of his abortion stance and because of his excellence as a governor.
Trump is going to lose in 2024. We’ve done nothing but lose since 2016, and you apparently are okay with that, which is why you want to run it back again. That’s fine- I’ll support the nominee, even on this sinking ship. But do me a favor and drop out of politics (or at least the party) when Trump loses again. It will be easier to get a real candidate to the general when there’s less dead weight in the primary. We’ll show you how it’s done in 2028. Don’t worry, you’ll thank me later.
Hopefully he hasn’t done himself serious damage in that role.
Only has 3 years left in that position. Unfortunately.
Which is why I wanted him to stay there to finish out his second term, and then run for President in 2028. I don’t know who talked him into running this year, but it appears to have been bad advice.
While I’m not impressed by predictions about the future, I’m even less impressed when the person making the prediction can’t even remember the past.
It was about 14 months ago when the Republicans took back the House. That’s not a loss.
Personally, I have no idea who is going to win the Presidency this year. I think that a Trump-Biden rematch is highly probable.
Running was a good idea in Feb of 2023, but not so much on May 24th of 2023, when he officially announced. Hopefully he learned a bunch of things not to do when running for president. More podcasts and less donor lunches. Learn to be charming and ruthless.
I think the luster would come off him by 2028. I don’t think it was ever in the cards for him anyway. Some candidates just don’t translate. He’s probably one of them. I had the same hopes for Scott Walker back in the day.
Yeah, being a good governor doesn’t guarantee a presidential win, but it’s a great jumping-off point.
Back when he was running for his second term as governor I was thinking: Why doesn’t he just stay governor instead of running for president in 2024? He would have a good 50/50 chance in 2028?
He was never a shew in, but his chances for future president are much less today. He’d have to do some real great stuff as governor before 2028 to be considered that highly again.
It’s arguably a drawback that some states like Florida have their governor elections out of step with presidential.
I agree with this. Didn’t help that he seemed to dither, and then the indictments against DJT were handed up. That really put paid to all opponent’s hopes.
I also had hopes for Walker in ’16. In general, I think successful governors make good Presidents, certainly better than legislators. The trick, of course, is making that jump.
I still think DeSantis would make, by far, the best President of anyone currently running. Depresses me that it is not going to happen.
If 51% prefer the Marxist Democrats, then it doesn’t matter who we run. The 51% will deserve all the miseries that go along with their open borders humanity, cherished grifting, and baby killing. I’m in no mood to vote to save them.
To get to 51%, one must either accept the US is now half full of Marxists or enough Repubs sold us out to the Dems. They, too, would deserve the Democrats and their Marxist policies.
Some say 2024 is a pivotal election. I say 2020 was the pivotal election and Biden has done great harm, harm from which we can’t recover.
If suburban moms vote Dem again over tweets and the right to kill their own babies, they will soon see their babies killed….by illegal criminals or fetanol.
Hi Jerry, I know you like numbers.
Republican losses since Trump won in 2016:
Senate 54- 49
House 241- 221 (You pointed out that Republicans gained back some losses- but you left out we underperformed polling- the red-wave never happened).
Governorships 33- 27
Party control of state legislature chambers 66 – 56
Not to mention we lost the most important one-the Presidency- to a potted plant.
Trump is the face of the party. He’s the establishment. He’s the defacto-incumbant. Given that these losses happened as he’s been active in politics, it stands to reason that he gets the credit and the blame, and overall he sucks at this.
Let’s consider an alternative- Florida. DeSantis barely won election in 2018. FL had 23/40 Republicans in State Senate, State House 76/120. As of today it looks to be 28/40 in the State Senate, 85/120 in the State House. DeSantis won re-election by nearly 20 points.
That’s a big difference in performance. Two years prior Trump beat Biden there by 3 points.
As I’ve pointed out here: (1) Donald Trump’s Indictments are the Republicans’ Sword of Damocles | Ricochet, Trump is likely going to lose to Biden because he’s likely going to lose a lot of support if he gets any convictions in his ongoing felony trials.
I don’t know about you all, but I’d rather 2024 be about Joe Biden’s failures as a human being and leader than being about Donald Trumps legal woes and drama. We’ve already seen the Trump loses to Biden show- it’s got a bad ending.
I never thought that DeSantis was serious for this round given the way he acted. I suspect that he has been more in order for the next time around being him setting the ground work for 2028
Funny you throw out the 51% figure- that’s what Trump had last night in Iowa. Given that almost half the Republican voters so far would rather have someone else as the nominee, it shows some weakness in your candidate. I guess the 49% should just do as you say and let you have the misery you vote for?
You might be fine with feeling the electoral pain, but I’d prefer to course correct and avoid it. Get on board.
Funny enough, you don’t have to make those baby killing suburban mom’s choose between Trump/Biden. If Trump loses the primary, say to DeSantis, you get to have a strong right-wing conservative in the White House with a consistent track record of winning on policy and sticking it to the dems. Just as he crushed the democrats in FL, I’m confident he’d steamroll Creepy-Joe. I’d like that outcome a lot more than losing to Biden again, and I’m sure you would too. Unless, of course, this whole exercise is performative for you, and your excited to go down with the Trump Titanic or something. If there’s no changing your mind and you’re at peace with your decision, then good luck to you, but I’d have a grievance 10-step plan prepped for November.
Florida’s results are more self-selecting than you can get nationally. It doesn’t necessarily prove that a majority of the whole country would vote for DeSantis. Newsom appears to be popular in the People’s Republic of California. Different self-selection going on there. But since the population of California is nearly double that of Florida, that says something too.
Newsom walked into an electorate dominated by the Democrat party. It’s one party rule in that state. DeSantis almost lost to a loser and then changed politics in Florida for years to come. You are right they aren’t the same electorate- DeSantis gets credit for saving Florida and creating a red-mecca in a purple state.
Also, of course it’s self selecting- it’s the only state that he’s governed and we have data for. Should we ignore the fact that he’s been the best conservative politician in 20 years because he turned Florida into a model state?
Well he was sitting governor in Florida and was waiting for the state legislative session to pass before announcing. He could have jumped right in, but he wanted to get some unfinished business done in FL first.
He’s the obvious front runner for 2028 should he lose this race. Reagan didn’t win his first Presidential run either.
I think a whole lot of people who (supposedly) voted for Biden in 2020 thought they could keep Trump’s economy and national security etc and just get more free stuff. If they haven’t learned by now that it doesn’t work, they probably never will.
We don’t know how many of the 49% were actually Republicans.
I don’t deserve it.