What Should DeSantis have Done?

I think his money handlers had a motivation to wreck Trump that maybe equaled their support for DeSantis on his own. Once he tried and please that wing, instead of sticking to his own principles he lost sincerity and credibility. And he burned bridges unnecessarily.

EODmom (View Comment):

I think his money handlers had a motivation to wreck Trump

I think this is very true. And I wonder how much of it is just ('just') conventional zero-sum thinking from the usual professional consultant-grifters. Who will move on to the next campaign, untouched by yet another failure, to spend the donors' money on more fruitless theatre...

The things that we, the people, see as negative events or developments are frequently the avenues where we refine, enhance, and strengthen what we believe in and support. Donald Trump mishandled a great number of things as President, exactly what those of us who support him expected. Even how he wound up not in a consecutive second term can be seen as a major experience of learning how the enemy operates. I know so much more now than I did four years ago. DeSantis failed to take the path that was open and most favorable to continue on his established record. Trump has stayed the course, is serving us now and will continue serving us.

The Covid pandemic was a big deal for many followers. Many of those are unhappy with the results. I did not one thing I didn't personally choose and I am happy with my results.

I'll make one more point here on the federal government response to the Covid pandemic. The mistakes made by President Trump were principally from a lack of knowledge details on the actual effects of the virus and his choice to follow what most thought early to be expert opinion of Fauci, NIH, FDA, CDC. and others establishment entities. Much has been learned and most all those so-called experts knew a lot of what we have now leaned about the deviousness of their agenda. Let's move forward.

I think this is the best way to handle it, but he also needs to address J6 head-on and lean into that as well as the political persecution of Trump. Instead of adopting the wait-and-see attitude that most other candidates have adopted, he should tackle it straight on the way Vivek has. He doesn't have to say that Trump did no wrong, but hit hard on the use of the courts to go after political enemies (Trump and Musk are prime examples). Make a major issue of his campaign that cleaning up that corruption, and stress that it IS corruption, will be a major priority of his potential administration.

How do you run on Trumpism while Trump is in the campaign? You have to fully endorse Trump's policy approaches and methods while pointing out that you can be even better at accomplishing those goals. It isn't an easy thing to accomplish by any measure because you are trying to convince people that you can be better than the person still running...however, there is a road to this by pointing out (through fierce support) that all of the legal persecution of Trump will hamstring him in the same way the Russian Collusion stories did and that stopping that dead in its tracks is best accomplished by electing someone who will do what Trump did, the way Trump did it, but who isn't Trump and thus can shut down these spurious prosecutions (as well as the J6 ones) without it looking like Biden protecting his family.