Gov. Ron DeSantis did everything but announce his 2024 presidential campaign during Monday’s debate.
Oh sure, he didn’t release balloons or confetti. But, with apologies to Simon and Garfunkel, DeSantis’ sounds of silence spoke loudly when Charlie Crist asked him directly if he would commit to serving four years as Florida’s Governor if elected.
“I have a question for you,” Crist said. “If you’re running for Governor, why don’t you look in the eyes of the people of the state of Florida and say to them that if you’re re-elected, you will serve a full four-year term as Governor.”
That challenge would never get a spoken answer, but Crist was right to put DeSantis on the spot. The Governor seemed to respond with his trademark smirk. However, I couldn’t say definitively that he directed it toward Crist. It may have been a message to the Mar-a-Lago Menace.
We can only assume that person was annoyed by what he didn’t hear, and it got this salvo in the Palm Beach Post from the ex-Big Guy’s mouthpiece, pardoned felon Roger Stone.
Stone noted that his pal endorsed DeSantis’ once-longshot gubernatorial bid in 2018 and “then dragged him across the finish line in the General Election.”
That was then.
Now, there’s a bad moon rising over Mar-a-Lago, and DeSantis is nothing if not opportunistic. Raise your hand if you believe he would go, “Aw, shucks, sir. I know I could be President two years from now, but you’ve been so good to me. I’ll just wait and pray you don’t ruin the country, get us into a nuclear war, or declare yourself Dear Leader for life.”
So pray we all.
The first year he was in office, DeSantis actually tried to be a Governor for the whole state. He was pretty good at that.
DeSantis had a chance to become that rare Republican with considerable support from across the aisle, but it was a Trojan horse. Instead of continuing to unite, he made Floridians familiar with the term “culture wars,” and it was all over.
So while he won’t say it out loud, yet, Florida will likely spend the next two years serving as a campaign prop and staging area for DeSantis 2024. He will continue to own the libs, vanquish anyone who disagrees and ignore that big mouth down south.
DeSantis has played it perfectly, raising large sums of cash and letting people like me speak with semi-assurance about his plans. No one from his camp told me the Governor plans a presidential run, nor are they likely to.
They also wouldn’t need to do that.
He already has a war chest the size of Fort Knox, and it’ll probably get bigger. DeSantis will let the feds deal with that other guy while ignoring the rants and threats from Mar-a-Lago.
That assumes he wins re-election on Nov. 8, which appears likely.
In that case, the clock starts running on Nov. 9. After that, it’s only a matter of time.
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