What You Should Say on Your Morning Zoom About Ron DeSantis's Launch
....and about the debt ceiling. But mostly about Ron DeSantis.
LAUNCHING
ITEM:
What that loudmouth will say on your morning Zoom: If he can’t launch a presidential campaign competently, how can he run the country?
What you should say on your morning Zoom: Political reporters need to have some humility – they have NO idea how something they mock (or applaud) actually is received by real voters. Unless you’ve surveyed Iowa and New Hampshire citizens about how DeSantis’ Wednesday night went, you can’t really know if the launched worked or not. However….
****
ANNOUNCING
ITEM: The Wall Street Journal is right that “the malfunction is likely to be remembered more than anything DeSantis said” but not because the malfunction was such a big deal – but because he didn’t say anything memorable or exciting.
What that loudmouth will ask on your morning Zoom: Did the Mark Levin interview even happen? [Editor’s note: Yes, it did – and it was equally, uhm, conversational.]
What you should say on your morning Zoom: Ron DeSantis stiffly, rotely, and without manifest emotion read his announcement speech off-camera and without a cheering crowd into the inflamed teeth of a political press corps that had just spent about twenty minutes, ironically on Twitter, absolutely trashing him. The Fox and Mark Levin interviews got nearly no coverage in part because of the media obsession with the Twitter fail and in part because they were equally lackluster.
Check out this section from one of many New York Times’ stories eviscerating the event:
The DeSantis-Musk discussion on Twitter meandered at times into a cul-de-sac of the hyper-online right.
Here’s a taste of the highly ideological and wonky message Mr. DeSantis delivered:
“Some of the problems with the university and the ideological capture — that didn’t happen by accident, you can trace back all the way to the accreditation cartels. Well, guess what? To become an accreditor, how do you do that? You’ve got to get approved by the U.S. Department of Education. So we’re going to be doing alternative accreditation regimes, where instead of saying, ‘You will only get accredited if you do D.E.I.,’ you’ll have an accreditor that will say, ‘We will not accredit you if you do D.E.I. We want a colorblind, merit-based accreditation scheme.’”
DeSantis’ chances of overtaking Trump and becoming president were not destroyed (or even meaningfully set back…) by his launch. But he forfeited his one and only opportunity to have a massive kickoff to generate a moment. That is a lost chance he cannot get back. But boffo announcements (like Clinton ’92 or Obama ’08 or Trump ‘16) are the exception not the rule. Plenty of people have won their party nominations with less-than-stellar opening days.
****
TRUSTING
ITEM:
Team DeSantis put its horse in the hands of a mercurial man and equally mercurial tech platform on a Very Big Day and suffered the consequences, leading to far too much of the press coverage being about Musk, who cares more about Twitter’s reputation than he does about DeSantis.
What that loudmouth will say on your morning Zoom: Musk is so awesome! In tech, failure means success!
What you should say on your morning Zoom: Ben Jacobs is right:
Without any glitches, launching the campaign on a Twitter Space would have been bizarre. It was a medium where DeSantis was able to combine all the cliches of a conventional campaign speech with the visual appeal of a conference call. It attracted a cumulative audience that was smaller than he would have gotten on any single cable network, let alone a rollout that would have been covered live by all three and potential network television stations.
In other words: If the media focus on the day of your one-and-only presidential announcement day is on evaluations of the performance of a tech billionaire, you have lost control of the narrative.
****
GANGING
ITEM: We now know conclusively that the Democrats, Team Trump, and the Dominant Media all want DeSantis to fail. That’s a powerful multi-gang gang up that reflects both the lack of goodwill a candidate (and his high command) have when their operating philosophy is, almost always, “F you!” and the challenge Team DeSantis faces going forward.
What that loudmouth will say on your morning Zoom: This proves that DeSantis is THE MAN who can save America – which is why everyone is afraid of him.
What you should say on your morning Zoom: Having all four limbs and your torso in the barrel on the very day you start your presidential campaign is suboptimal.
****
LIKEABILITING
ITEM: On announcement day, no visuals of the First Lady of Florida or of the kids, and no sign of the amiable, winning, and warm personality of the Governor of the Sunshine State.
What that loudmouth will say on your morning Zoom: We aren’t electing a best friend – we are electing a president!
What you should say on your morning Zoom: Remember the film “Mitt”? Remember how everyone said the “private” Hillary Clinton and the “private” Al Gore and the “private” John Kerry were so much more likeable than their public images? We now have every reason to believe that the public and private Ron DeSantises are exactly the same guy. And $200 million might not be enough to overcome that truth. This apparent reality is what, more than anything else, gives Donald Trump & Co. confidence that they will not lose their lead.
****
POLLING
ITEM: CNN, Quinnipiac, and Fox all came out with polls on the day DeSantis announced showing him down about 30 points nationally to Trump.
What that loudmouth will say on your morning Zoom: It’s over.
What you should say on your morning Zoom: Iowa and New Hampshire are all that matter. But Trump has big leads there as well. But there’s plenty of time left for things to change, especially if Trump’s legal peril builds. But those national poll numbers control the narrative more than anything else. For DeSantis (and Haley and Pence and all the other hopefuls), headlines like this from Bloomberg are gobsmacking and perilous:
****
NEGOTIATING
ITEM: The debt ceiling talks are either imploding or on the precipice of a major breakthrough. More likely the latter.
What that loudmouth will say on your morning Zoom: I can’t believe Biden and McCarthy are just going to let this happen!
What you should say on your morning Zoom: Note these two paragraphs from the Associated Press, suggesting actual movement:
In one potential development, Republicans may be easing their demand to boost defense spending, instead offering to keep it at levels the Biden administration proposed, according to one person familiar with the talks and granted anonymity to discuss them.
The Republicans may achieve their goal of of rolling back bolstered funding for the Internal Revenue Service if they agree to instead allow the White House to push that money into other domestic accounts, the person said.
Here’s what to watch:
1. How the markets and credit agencies act and react today.
2. The impact on the president’s public posture, driven by stories in the Washington Post and the AP pointing out that congressional Democrats are freaked out that McCarthy seems to be winning the PR wars.
3. The White House and McCarthy finally, secretly agreeing on what kind of deal loses the far left and the far right in the House – and/but can win a majority. McCarthy is positioning to get a majority of the majority (while losing a lot of R votes); can Team Biden/Jeffries fill in the rest?
4. More signs that Mitch McConnell is getting ready to save the day, if needed.
Remember: A Biden-McCarthy deal will be hailed by the media but it might not pass! It will almost certainly have to be brought to the floor without passage assured, with a game of chicken over which party provides the necessary final votes to put it over the top.
****
Please express your voluntary financial support for my work.
You can subscribe at fixed monthly or annual rates – or become a Founding Member:
Want to leave a tip in the amount of your choice instead of subscribing?
Here are the many ways to do that:
* PayPal. markhalperinnyc@gmail.com
* Venmo. Mark-Halperin-4 (telephone number ends in x3226)
* Zelle. markhalperinnyc@gmail.com
* Buy me a cocktail (at rock legend prices….), tax and server tip included, by clicking here.
* Buy me a cup of coffee (or a week’s worth) by clicking here.
* Check: Send a simple email to markhalperintalk@gmail.com and ask where you can send the paper.
Thank you for your generosity and encouragement.
Mark