I was in a house full of Republicans on Memorial Day. I was curious what they thought about the numerous GOP Presidential contenders. Not much. Most of them are convinced Donald Trump will be the nominee. That's certainly what the polls say, but he's also under four criminal investigations for (1) inciting a mob on January 6; (2) intentionally concealing confidential documents that included nuclear secrets; (3) pressuring the Georgia Sec'y of State to "find" the 11,000 or so votes he needed to win in that state; and (4) falsification of business records in Manhattan. Regardless how these pan out, it's safe to say he's going to be distracted. The constant media attention, and I agree some of it is very unfair, is bound to lead to Trump fatigue. So I doubt he will be the nominee.
I think it will be DeSantis.
I was surprised this weekend to hear a positive discussion of him on NPR, which is hardly a conservative outlet. It was with a writer for The New Yorker, which is hardly The American Spectator. Unfortunately, I was unable to find the program or the article. I could only find a reference in National Review.
Here's what I learned.
DeSantis grew up in a working class neighborhood, and his gift for baseball got him a scholarship to Yale. Students who attended with him say he was so smart and so outside the box that it was impossible to copy his work because only he thinks that way. He then graduated from Harvard Law. He served in the military, and in Iraq. He has a near photographic memory. During COVID, he read all the literature, not just the abstracts. His decision to care for the elderly, while keeping the state open for business, was in hindsight the right call. California, which had strict lockdowns, had about the same death rates as Florida. He's stubborn, as his current fight with Mickey Mouse proves. He has embraced an anti-woke philosophy. This does have an appeal among Republicans and even some Democrats, absent the book banning and the slurs against those whose sexual orientation are outside the norm. It's unclear to me how much of this is honest conviction and how much is opportunism.
He's quite formidable
Do the Democrats have anybody other than Biden? We really have a weak bench compared to Republicans.
UPDATED 11:30 AM: My thanks to a reader who was able to find the New Yorker article, written by Dexter Filkins.
