People are still overestimating Ron DeSantis

[Person Man]

He is vastly overrated. I don't know what appeal he has to the Rust Belt or independents.

Don't these people make up the bulk of people who live in the suburbs and beaches of Florida?

[Person Man]

People here, for basically an entire year at this point, keep thinking it’s Trump or DeSantis. While that may be true, plenty of other GOP candidates have a solid shot at the nomination. I’m also not entirely sure what truly sets apart DeSantis from the likes of Scott Walker, or Rick Santorum.

What sets DeSantis apart is that he is current and hasn't lost an election.  It's what set apart George Bush from Harold Stassen in 1980.

I think he means in the year they ran for president?  I think this is a valid point.  Recently, there have been a lot of "popular middle-aged conservative governor" candidates who looked very promising but flopped in the primary. 

Walker was the popular incumbent governor when his campaign flamed out in 2016.  He didn't lose the
 governorship until 2018.

Perry ran as a locally popular big state incumbent in 2012 and flopped.  You could say he was old news in 2016, but not in 2012.

Christie was also a locally popular incumbent governor with a winning record in 2016.   He had a scandal on his record, but it seems pretty tame in retrospect.  He also struggled and never broke out in the primary.   

Larry Sabato predicted in 2015 that Scott Walker would be the GOP nominee.  I was happy to see him proved wrong.

So there you go. It would have been great to see the morning line for the 2012 primary though but I know people didn't see him happening until after Iowa, NH, and SC.

[Person Man]

We trust DeSantis to make reasonable policy decisions without fracturing the varying Republican coalitions of Trump voters, moderate Republicans and that huge group of Independents.  The man has smacked down all the BS fake news that have been thrown at him, and has come away looking like a boss on his handling of Covid-19 in comparison his former peer in NY and President Hopeful turned laughing stock, Murderer Cuomo.  The man turned Disney into a social pariah defending his parental rights bill despite the totally fabricated stories.  They were accusing him of fabricating Covid Statistics while two Democrat Governors were doing exactly that.  The fact that many Republicans think could possible take down Trump should amaze you.  I don't why Democrats aren't taking notes.

And he's done all of this in the face of naysayers.  That's what I like about DeSantis the best; his courage here.

By the time it is time to run for President, the COVID-19 Lockdown/Maskaholic coalition will be seen for what they are; manipulators and cowards.  DeSantis's policies were realism in the face of manufactured hysteria, and the approval of this is manifested by the number of people voting with their feet.

There were no BLM and Antifa riots in Florida cities in 2020 because Ron DeSantis made it known that he would allow Law Enforcement to respond accordingly, with the expectation that BLM and Antifa and any other protesting group would obey the law and actually protest peacefully (within the law) or be arrested and face charges.  He did not allow a campaign of guilt-tripping manipulation and intimidation to allow the rule of law to be suspended in Florida, and, as a result, people protested, but businesses were not looted on the scale of other places, and those who did commit crimes were prosecuted.  This is important because 2020 represented the largest assault on property rights in the history or America; it wasn't the Japanese Internment (which was a shameful land and property grab among other things), but it was a refusal to enforce laws against theft and vandalism on a massive scale.

DeSantis let it be known that this would not be tolerated, while many others (including many elected Republicans) surrendered to the mob.  And he did this without name-calling, but with resolve and firmness.  He simply stated that he would ensure that laws were enforcd.  (And a Florida Governor has that power; if a Woke Prosecutor were seeking to not prosecute rioters, or grossly reduce charges, the Governor has the power to assign those cases to a Prosecutor who would not do that.)  This is what sound people expect from their government.  Likewise with Disney; indeed, many people who had viewed Disney was still "family-friendly" were shocked at the revelation of what Disney had become and approve of DeSantis not rewarding them.  (And while I recognize that the issue there is complicated, I don't believe a corporation like Disney should ever have the kind of GOVERNMENTAL power it had been granted.)

DeSantis stood up to all comers.  He's got courage and competence.  He stood up where few did. 

There is a case for him being the next W, who was also an effective Governor who swung his swing start to the hard-right and was able to sell himself as a pragmatic moderate, a solid right-winger, and generally a "compassionate conservative" who has crossover appeal to minorities, women, and even a couple of liberals.

I don't think that he is for Republicans what Obama was between 2007 and 2008 or what Reagan was, but I think for a time he could be a big deal who probably get re-elected and is remembered as either as an average president like Obama or Clinton or a bad one like W.