OPINION:
This week’s expected announcement from Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis that he is running for president will come as no surprise. While Mr. DeSantis won his reelection by 19 points and his accomplishments with the help of a Republican supermajority in the state Legislature have been impressive, appealing to voters in Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina — the early primary states — is another matter.
Mr. DeSantis must effectively introduce himself in these and other states and overcome former President Donald Trump’s large lead in the polls. The Real Clear Politics average of polls shows GOP voters favoring Mr. Trump 36.1% to just 19.9% for Mr. DeSantis.
Writing in The Washington Post, the conservative columnist Ramesh Ponnuru says: “To convince Republican voters that Trump is a loser would thus require getting them to believe that the same argument everyone made (in 2016 that he was unelectable) and saw blow up in their faces is right this time. For many conservatives, Trump’s 2016 victory reinforced the idea that ‘electability’ is a ploy used by the media and squishy Republicans to discredit candidates who are willing to fight for them.”
If Mr. DeSantis can withstand Mr. Trump’s attacks — pro-Trump PACs are already running ads saying that as a congressman, Mr. DeSantis tried to cut Social Security and Medicare (in fact, he proposed, but didn’t vote for — raising the retirement age to 70 to help preserve Social Security) -— he must convince Trump voters that he can finish the job Mr. Trump started without the chaos that accompanies the former president.
How to do this? One way would be for Mr. DeSantis to follow the example of George W. Bush. After announcing in 1999 he would run for president, Mr. Bush, who was then Texas governor, invited foreign and domestic policy experts to come to Austin and teach him what he believed he needed to know. This conveyed to voters that he was a serious candidate and should not be judged solely as his father’s son.
I doubt any credible advisers would do the same for Mr. Trump, much less work for him, given the chaos surrounding his term in office. Does anyone except his most ardent supporters think Mr. Trump should be left to his own devices without the advice and restraint from experienced advisers?
Second, Mr. DeSantis needs to up his game when it comes to communicating with people. I hate to use myself as an example, but I have tried for two years to get an interview with him and have been ignored by his communications office. They appear to be controlling his access to the media, preferring mostly the friendly atmosphere of Fox News. He needs to change that and face the predictable (for a Republican) hostile and biased questions from the national media to show he is more than a fighter (the reason many voters say they support Mr. Trump regardless of his numerous character flaws). If I am not alone in this complaint, Mr. DeSantis has a problem.
Third, Mr. DeSantis must figure out a way to respond to Mr. Trump‘s name-calling and other attacks without descending to his level. If he gets in the mud with Mr. Trump, he will not come out clean.
Finally, Mr. DeSantis must articulate a vision for the future. While Mr. Trump continues to wrongly obsess about the last election being “stolen” from him, Mr. DeSantis can say we should leave that behind and focus on tomorrow.
While Floridians know him well, the rest of the nation is just being introduced to him. As Will Rogers said, “You never get a second chance to make a first impression.”
• Readers may email Cal Thomas at tcaeditors@tribpub.com. Look for Cal Thomas’ latest book, “A Watchman in the Night: What I’ve Seen Over 50 Years Reporting on America” (HumanixBooks).
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