Trump versus DeSantis. By Paul Mirengoff.
Here at Ringside, we have argued that Ron DeSantis would be a far better Republican standard bearer than Donald Trump. DeSantis isn’t the only Republican of whom this is true, but right now he’s the most plausible alternative to Trump, and it’s easy to see why. DeSantis is governing a large state, picking and winning the right fights, and (from the look of things) maintaining his popularity.
When I’ve compared DeSantis and Trump it’s been mostly in terms of results, not intentions or character. DeSantis understands how to counter the woke left, and he provides the attention to detail and follow through necessary to succeed. Trump, not so much. …
It took longer than it should have, but the mainstream has media figured out that DeSantis is more effective, and therefore more dangerous from its perspective, than Trump is. This has become a common theme in the left-leaning press.
In an amusing example, New York Times columnist Jamelle Bouie writes that DeSantis “may be a more competent Trump in terms of his ability to use the levers of state to amass power, but he’s also meaner and more rigid, without the soft edges and eccentricity of the actual Donald Trump.” Bouie goes on to laud Trump, that merry prankster, for being “funny,” and for his ability to “persuade an audience that he’s just kidding — that he doesn’t actually mean it.”
Trump probably meant much of “it.” He just couldn’t make “it” happen, or stick, consistently. DeSantis, I think, can.
Trump is furious that DeSantis dropped off the 50 Venezuelans in Martha’s Vineyard . Reckons it was his idea — as if it wasn’t obvious to many, and widespread on the Internet.
So far, [DeSantis is] making his transporting of illegal immigrants from Florida stick. The left and its media allies, in turn, are trying to stick it to DeSantis for this.
The Washington Post editors serve up a particularly shrill example in this editorial called (in the paper edition) “Made for TV Cruelty.” For those on whom the Post’s subtlety is lost, the subtitle is “Mr. DeSantis uses asylum seekers as props in a despicable stunt.”
For a good laugh, check out the photo the Post used in the internet version of the editorial. It’s downright bucolic. The immigrants pictured look about as happy as they could be.
The picture doesn’t lie. It turns out that the Venezuelan immigrant asylum seekers don’t think DeSantis’ “stunt” is despicable at all. MSNBC reports that “Migrants are actually thanking Gov. Ron Desantis for having brought them to Martha’s Vineyard.”
UPDATE:
