One View: Everyone Is Overreacting to DeSantis' Launch

Jim Geraghty of 'National Review' suggests people calm down over what will be seen as a minor blip
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted May 25, 2023 2:08 PM CDT
One View: Everyone Is Overreacting to DeSantis' Launch
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaks during convocation at Liberty University, in Lynchburg, Va., Friday, April 14, 2023.   (Paige Dingler/The News & Advance via AP)

Ron DeSantis launched his 2024 campaign Wednesday night and, as you may have heard, it did not go exceedingly well. "DeSaster" was trending as a hashtag after the glitchy announcement event on Twitter. Calling attention to the many, many headlines describing it "horrendous" or words to that effect, Elon Musk himself put a different spin on things: "I call it 'massive attention,'" he tweeted. "Top story on Earth today." So which is it: An embarrassing failure, or did Twitter essentially crash because of legit interest in the Florida governor's campaign? "As usual, the truth is somewhere in the middle," writes Jim Geraghty at the National Review.

Geraghty finds the sentiment that this was an unprecedented political gaffe to be "spectacularly inaccurate," one that "reflects an ignorance of recent American political history that is best explained by severe amnesia." He argues that the rollout will be remembered as a minor blip as DeSantis' campaign advances. "I still believe that the key moment in the 2024 GOP presidential primary will be the first time DeSantis and Donald Trump are on the same debate stage, and the first time DeSantis challenges Trump to his face, and how that exchange plays for the two men." Until then, nobody should get too worked up. (Read the full op-ed.)

In the New York Times, Rich Lowry also pushes back against the DeSantis-is-done narrative in an essay that came out Wednesday. One bit of Lowry advice: He suggests DeSantis follow the model of Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia when fending off Donald Trump. Kemp has maintained that "Trump had a beef with him, not the other way around" and has responded to Trump's digs "dispassionately and factually." It's proven to be effective. Republican voters may ultimately decide they want Trump's unique "show" one more time, but it's premature to make that call now. DeSantis, he writes, is "not dead yet." (Read the full piece.)

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