Ron DeSantis for President
If we take the time to consider the options, is there another choice?
Last night, Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida appeared in a town hall in Iowa hosted by Jake Tapper of CNN. I highly recommend every one - Biden, Trump, Haley and Ramaswamy supporters and especially any Undecideds - take a bit of time to watch the show. In it, you will see a far different Governor of Florida than the one his opponents and the national media have presented to you. Here is the show in its entirety on YouTube:
In this town hall, Governor DeSantis is personable, well spoken, extremely well read on the issues and ready to fight for the American people if given the opportunity to clean up Washington. His demeanor is more relaxed than we’ve seen on the recent debate stage, and he has an authentic ability to clearly articulate the problems facing America. The Governor has a clear vision as to what he would do to solve these issues in the type of two minute sound bite necessary in today’s media landscape. I don’t agree with every policy position he has (including abortion, and I’d like to hear more detail on healthcare), but I trust that he will try to do the right thing and that he can deliver results, as he has here in Florida.
As far as his record in Florida goes, it is fantastic. Record low unemployment, record low crime rates, increases across the board in education results, record increases in teacher pay, police and firefighters pay, improvements and protection of the fragile ecology of Florida. His state is doing so well that people from blue states continue to move there in record numbers. Most importantly, Governor DeSantis got the state’s COVID response right, outperforming every large state and just about every Governor in America. We should remember that when he decided to end the brief lockdowns, he was the first Governor to do so and took a lot of heat at the time. Same thing with vaccine mandates. He was completely vindicated. He read the science and literature, changed his mind and took bold action when others who would lead (like former President Trump and current President Biden) cowered and hid behind “experts.” These actions alone are reason enough to choose him to lead us in the next crisis. We know it’s coming.
In fact, when you think about it, Ron DeSantis may be the only choice for Americans who believe this country is off track and needs resetting. Let’s briefly review the other choices:
Joe Biden
The incumbent, Joe Biden, is 81 years old and swiftly declining. He has the worst approval rating of any President in history. He is a 50 year creature of Washington, tied closely to lobbyists and special interests at the expense of every day Americans. Yesterday he held a “press conference” with President Zelenskyy of Ukraine in which he read prepared answers to prepared questions, unable to speak intelligently otherwise. I watched live as, in his confusion, the President kept repeating that he was going to ask questions, rather than answer them. I challenge any one planning to vote for Biden to consider one thing: If Biden were your political enemy, would you consider him fit for office or no?
Other than his mental incapability to handle the job, he has presided over massive inflation, a series of avoidable foreign policy catastrophes in Afghanistan, Ukraine, Israel, Iran and China, and is the architect of a series of self-serving, unconstitutional moves including continued lockdowns and vaccine mandates, eviction pauses and student loan delinquencies. Most seriously, he and his family are facing serious charges of bribery, tax evasion and selling influence to foreign adversaries. It is my view he will not make it to the nomination by the Democratic Party.
Donald Trump
His challenger on the Republican side is Donald Trump, the former President who has disgraced himself through his actions and reactions to the 2020 election and January 6th. Even if we generously ignore that, his handling of the early stages of COVID-19 in which he handed the national policy decisions to captured bureaucrats like Drs. Fauci and Birx, allowed lockdowns, pushed experimental therapies that are more dangerous than we were led to believe and still untested. Worse, he still refuses to admit any mistakes, which is his brand - don’t admit, attack. His administration partnered with perennial Washington creatures like Nancy Pelosi, Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer to pass trillions of dollars in spending that Trump signed, helping to cause the inflation crisis. He is incapable of self reflection or improvement, and has been on a downward spiral since 2020. If you are a Trump supporter, ask yourself the same question asked of Biden supporters - if Trump were your political enemy, would you consider him fit for office?
Furthermore, this candidate refuses to debate his opponents; no one should earn your vote who takes it for granted. It is the height of hubristic entitlement. We voted for Donald Trump to bring in an outsider to upset the status quo in Washington; he failed miserably. He didn’t even build the wall, let alone get Mexico to pay for it.
Nikki Haley
Nikki Haley is just another opportunistic politician who is light on accomplishments but heavy on her willingness to say or do anything her donors instruct. She has flip flopped on most issues, wants to document every user in social media to be tracked by the deep state, and will double down on the failed warmongering policies of Joe Biden and George W. Bush. She’s gotten rich over the past four years doing so. She has criticized President Trump for avoiding debates, but is now avoiding a direct debate with Governor DeSantis before the Iowa caucus and New Hampshire primary next month. No one should earn your vote unless they are willing to show up for the job. If you liked 20 years of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, Nikki Haley will deliver 20 more years of war, in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Her ties to the Military Industrial Complex and globalist policies, that leave Americans last, will really impress you. She is the darling of Uniparty big money influence, including Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn, Boeing and other “defense” contractors, and the Koch Brothers.
Chris Christie and Vivek Ramaswamy
Chris Christie has no business in this race. His one reason for running, according to him, was to stop Donald Trump. He has failed miserably.
Vivek Ramaswamy says some bold things with which I agree. However, he has little support and strikes me as a snake oil salesman who has simply mastered the talking points that fed up Trump voters desire, without substance.
RFK, Jr.
I’ve written about RFK and I like and trust his candidacy. He suffers from the same media lockout that DeSantis does, in the sense that he’s been defined by national pundits and special interests before the American people get a chance to hear from him directly. He has been right about Big Pharma’s capture of the FDA, NIH and CDC for much longer than anyone. He has the temperament to be President, but he lacks much experience. If DeSantis is not on the ballot, I will likely vote for RFK, Jr.
Team Reality
That’s it. Those are your choices. Given these choices, can you really pull the lever for any one but Ron DeSantis? Put another way, a year from now when you look back on this election, will you believe any of these choices can lead America out of its many problems better than Ron DeSantis?
A few weeks back, I wrote that I believed that Joe Biden will not be the nominee and that the debate that took place on Hannity between DeSantis and Governor Newsom of California would be the first debate of the 2024 general election. I was wrong. DeSantis destroyed Newsom in that debate so effectively that Newsom’s wife came on stage and ended it, and we haven’t heard Gavin Newsom’s name since. And thank goodness for that, as California is a modern hellscape.
Newsom’s stock in Democratic Party circles has fallen so fast since that Hillary Clinton has returned to the campaign stage and Vice President Harris has quietly been repositioned, both as surrogates for the President’s campaign for now. Presumably both will replace Newsom on the campaign trail as we all know President Biden is not up to the task of campaigning for President. I am sure they both await the call to take up the nomination from the sure-to-lose incumbent. One thing is for sure, Ron DeSantis can defeat any of them. He has earned a shot at it.
Editor’s Note: I am a resident of Florida that voted for Ron DeSantis twice, and I have recently done some canvassing as a volunteer for the Ron DeSantis campaign.