Ron DeSantis is not yet a candidate for president, but that isn’t preventing the obituaries for his candidacy from being written by media outlets desperate for Donald Trump to be the Republican candidate for president in 2024.

You may have noticed that the MSM and the NeverTrumpers are desperate to take DeSantis out, fearing that he would be a stronger candidate in the general election than Trump. There is something amusing about the mental gymnastics that the Never Trump “right” engage in, aligning themselves with the hated Donald Trump and echoing his criticisms of the Florida governor.

Nothing scares the Establishment more than a successful Republican, and nothing scares the NeverTrumpers more than losing their raison d’être–the hated Orange Man.

The level of desperation is remarkable, in a way. They fear DeSantis so much that they are pretending that he is already an announced candidate and totally flubbing his audition. This seems a bit premature, but you have to admire the level of effort.

The Daily Beast has a great example of the “Ron DeSantis is a terrible candidate” genre of reporting. Completely ignoring the fact that he is, in fact, an incredibly successful candidate. Having won an enormous victory last December, the Beast put not one but two political reporters on the story of DeSantis’ incompetence.

New — Ex-DeSantis staffers and those involved in planning his book tour/pre-campaign events describe long standing issues over his soft skills coming to the fore as he hits the road.

Example: A 2019 flight from TLH to DC where he ate pudding w/ 3 fingers.https://t.co/KEwA7F9Pgr

— Jake Lahut (@JakeLahut) March 16, 2023

Ron DeSantis ate pudding. With his fingers, apparently.

Disqualifying. I assume there were no spoons? And he was hungry? (By the way, that photo is photoshopped).

The basic thrust of the article is that DeSantis has no people skills and that this will keep him out of the White House. Nobody likes him or something. Even donors find him off-putting. CNN noted the same thing in one of their stories from last month:

DeSantis only raised about $200 million in his run for governor–did I mention he won by 20 points in purple Florida?–so clearly donors have a significant problem with him.

Still, the Daily Beast worries he is too off-putting to succeed:

At any given fundraiser or VIP room where he’s present, Ron DeSantis is usually easy to find—in the corner, keeping to himself.

…

During his donor retreat in Palm Beach in late February, an attendee stood up and called him “DeSatan,” according to Republicans familiar with the outburst.

At his recent book tour stop in Davenport, Iowa, a volunteer English teacher and seasoned caucus enthusiast posed for a photo alongside the governor with the term “fascist” carved out within her design of a paper snowflake.

Obviously, DeSantis is going to lose. A couple of people dislike him, and when in a room full of donors he gets ignored.

Something tells me that this last point is likely about as false as possible. DeSantis gets swamped by adulation everywhere he goes. Did they really expect this assertion to fly?

I bet they did. Imagine DeSantis alone in a corner, surrounded by people ignoring him.

Didn’t happen.

In the critical early primary states of New Hampshire and Iowa, a panoply of elected and unelected power brokers—not to mention thousands of seasoned voters—are accustomed to interacting with presidential candidates up close.

In their view, that scrutiny helps the rest of the country determine which candidates are legit and which aren’t, though many political observers in both parties believe that the early primary’s emphasis on retail politics is overblown.

But the veteran primary event host compared DeSantis’ insular approach to the way former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ran her campaign in 2016—not exactly a blueprint that the governor would like to follow.

A GOP strategist, who has no horse in the 2024 race, even compared DeSantis’ early approach to that of his potential general election opponent, arguing the governor has embraced a “Tallahassee basement strategy, mirroring that of Biden in 2020, where he hides from press and real voters.”

Yep. The man who isn’t a candidate for president isn’t acting like a candidate for president yet. He is clearly doomed. A new Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden.

Did Laura Loomer write this? Or a NeverTrumper? It’s often hard to tell the difference these days since both the always-Trumpers and NeverTrumpers want Trump to be the nominee.

Enshrined in DeSantis lore is an episode from four years ago: During a private plane trip from Tallahassee to Washington, D.C., in March of 2019, DeSantis enjoyed a chocolate pudding dessert—by eating it with three of his fingers, according to two sources familiar with the incident.

A representative for DeSantis’ political team did not return a request for comment on it.

The scrutiny on his social skills, his past interactions, and his openness to unscripted interactions has been inevitable, a seasoned primary operative pointed out.

“He’s obviously gotta be ready to take what comes at this point,” the senior New Hampshire Republican said, “because that’s how it always is.”

I for one, cannot vote for a man who eats any kind of pudding in any kind of way. Perhaps bread pudding. I like bread pudding. Kinda neutral about raisins in it though. If they are soaked in brandy they are good. Otherwise no raisins.

But no chocolate pudding. Especially from a plastic cup. No wonder it is “enshrined in DeSantis lore.”

This is pathetic. Clearly, they are trying to establish a narrative here about DeSantis lacking the “it” factor, but so far the evidence on the ground is pretty thin. The proof, as they say, is in the pudding. And so far DeSantis’ pudding has been selling like hotcakes. Despite the fact that I am not a pudding guy, even I like this particular flavor.

Early polls show that Trump is handily beating him, but early polls tell you very little. Until DeSantis starts campaigning in earnest, all we have is the narrative building that will matter not much at all. The audience for the Daily Beast doesn’t exactly intersect well with the Republican primary voters, and in deciding who will be the nominee they and the donors are the only ones who matter.

DeSantis could be a flash in the pan–there are other examples aplenty.

But DeSantis’ pudding habits are about as relevant to answering the question of whether he is going to be one of them as a Daily Beast story.