While cattle-call presidential debates rarely produce moments worthy of the descriptives “shining,” “memorable” or “game-changing,” Wednesday’s second Republican stampede did manage to develop a lookie-here subplot … if only for comic relief.
As if each of them had pulled a straw with a topic, the second tier of the second tier went after the candidate most polls identify as the one between them and apparent frontrunner Donald Trump. You know him as Florida’s Ron DeSantis, aka America’s Governor.
The also-rans’ also-rans amusingly went after DeSantis on the one thing the governor’s fans hold most dear: his granite-hard administrative record in the nation’s third-largest state.
Politico took note.
Gov. Ron DeSantis’ main pitch for months has been that his record of conservative governance — what he has called the “Florida Blueprint” — would inspire Republican voters.
Now his GOP rivals are throwing it back in his face.
During Wednesday’s presidential debate, DeSantis frequently defended his record on education, spending, energy policy and access to health insurance — even if some of his opponents’ attacks weren’t completely accurate.
The sustained assault on his performance in Florida marks a new moment in DeSantis’s presidential campaign, as emboldened rivals like Nikki Haley and Chris Christie blast away at one of his last remaining pillars of political strength.
It’s difficult to square the phrases “weren’t completely accurate” and “blast away” that appear in consecutive paragraphs here. Since when does a dishonest claim equal a broadside?
Happily (and not unexpectedly) for supporters of DeSantis, the attackee suffered no homina-homina-homina moments. DeSantis knows what he’s done, and — importantly — knows he’d do it again.
Let’s have a look.
Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley challenged DeSantis on his commitment to U.S. energy sources, asserting that he banned fracking in Florida. While it’s true DeSantis has opposed Sunshine State fracking, no such prohibition exists. Meanwhile, Floridians made clear where they stand by overwhelmingly passing a ban on offshore oil drilling during the same 2018 election that put DeSantis in the governor’s mansion.
Throughout his campaign for the Republican nomination, DeSantis has made plain his support for fracking where fracking makes sense.
DeSantis has said he supports ramping up oil and gas drilling in the U.S., as well as the excavation of other natural resources. Visiting an oil rig in Texas earlier in September, he pledged: “We will green light oil and gas drilling extraction. … I will demand faster approvals than any president in history,” according to multiple reports.
Referring to policy in Florida in a speech in Louisiana, he said: “That is not saying that I think that should apply to Louisiana or Texas and all that—so that will continue. And we want them to be able to do it, and we also want them to be able to use hydraulic fracturing.”
Former Vice President Mike Pence shamelessly tagged DeSantis’ for a convicted mass murderer Nikolas Cruz, of Parkland infamy, getting a life sentence rather than the death penalty.
What Pence failed to note: A single Broward County juror blocked the wishes of 11 others who favored the lethal needle for Cruz, and, in response, DeSantis pushed through legislation that leaves capital punishment decisions in the hands of a supermajority.
Oh, yeah? But what about state spending? Hasn’t Florida’s state budget ballooned under DeSantis, the alleged penny-pincher? Chris Christie, the former New Jersey governor, brought that up early in the week; Pence regurgitated it at the debate.
This appears to suggest that Christie and Pence believe government spending, in and of itself, is a dangerous thing. That’s a fair argument to have. But Florida’s surge in outlays has been far outstripped by record tax revenues gleaned from 14.6% growth in the state’s gross domestic product — including the pandemic downturn — since DeSantis took office five years ago.
Tax cuts (in a state without a personal income tax) and debt repayments (resulting in AAA creditworthiness) also have been features of the DeSantis administration. Under Republican government for most of the 21st century, but especially under DeSantis and the GOP conservative supermajority, Florida has had a growth story that is a sterling example of supply-side Reaganomics.
Christian Ziegler, the chair of the Republican Party of Florida who has not endorsed anyone in the race, called the attacks in the debate a “typical political tactic” to “find a point or two” to use to criticize DeSantis.
“But if you want the full story, all you have to do is look at the domestic migration numbers broken down by state to see that Florida is the #1 state people are moving to,” Ziegler said. “Politics aside, it’s clear that Florida has a strong brand and is the best-governed state in the country.”
The “Florida Blueprint,” then, still has much to recommend it to the rest of America. As Republican voters who watched the debate (No. 1 on cable) affirmed: Despite being limited to the sixth-most talking time, DeSantis was the best performer, and it wasn’t particularly close.
Who else took shots on their record? The Man Who Wasn’t There. Donald Duck. (Are we really going with that?) Said DeSantis:
“Donald Trump is missing in action. He should be on this stage tonight. He owes it to you to defend his record where they added $7.8 trillion to the debt that set the stage for the inflation that we have,” DeSantis said. “As your president, when they send me a bloat[ed] spending bill that’s going to cause your prices to go up, I’m going to take out this veto pen, and I’m going to send it right back to them.”
DeSantis, who was clearly baiting No. 45, followed up in the spin room, challenging Trump to a mano-a-mano showdown moderated by Fox News’ Sean Hannity. Alas, the one-on-one clash Republican primary voters deserve and the nation needs is unlikely as long as rank-and-file GOP bobbleheads — like Ralphie blanking when Higbee’s Santa asks what he wants for Christmas — overwhelmingly rank Trump as their first choice.
Which brings to mind the classic Saturday Night Live skit from 1988, in which Dana Carvey, as Vice President George H.W. Bush, rambles on about “on track,” “stay the course” and “a thousand points of light.” Asked for his rebuttal, Jon Lovitz’s Michael Dukakis shrugs, “I can’t believe I’m losin’ to this guy.”
The clock continues to tick down, and with every day that passes Mr. Truth Social looks more like the lock he presumes to be.
There’s still time, however, for everyday folks on the right to scramble, Ralphie-like, back up the slide and demand, with determination and optimism, their preference for the guy who actually embodies conservative governance.
