Except for all the mountains and Mormons
What a ridiculous thing to say:
After a recent poll put him 13 points behind Donald Trump for the GOP presidential nomination, Ron DeSantis decided to lick his wounds and head to Utah, a state where he might actually be more popular than the former president. On Saturday, the Florida governor spoke at the state’s GOP convention, where, amongst pleasantries, promises, and his trademark attacks on wokeness, he declared, “Florida is the Utah of the Southeast.” (We’re still awaiting word, however, on whether Utah is the Florida of the Mountain West.)
DeSantis, who has not officially announced his bid for the presidency, was met with cheers and applause by Utah’s GOP delegates during his speech, in which he once again slammed Disney and said Florida would “eliminate DEI at all our public universities,” “kneecap ESG” (as he called it, “woke banking”),— and “prohibit for minors, gender surgeries and puberty blockers.”
DeSantis’ stop in Utah was a predictable one: Last November, 86 Utah elected officials, including Republican lawmakers, signed a letter begging for DeSantis to run for president in 2024. While they didn’t mention Donald Trump by name, KSL News reported that the letter appeared to rebuke Trump and the far-right wing of the Republican Party.
DeSantis seems to have an identity problem. He said that he’s really a midwesterner because his parents were born there. And just this weekend put out this ad:
The grandiosity of his ads never fails to amaze me. It’s obvious that he has an epic Napoleon complex. But he also seems to believe that being from Florida makes him some kind of exotic who needs to explain to Real Americans that he’s one of them. He doesn’t need to do that. They know he’s one of them. They just don’t like him all that much.
Still, it’s a long campaign and a year from now he could be on top. I would never write anyone off this early. Why, for all we know, Mike Pence could catch fire and … oh never mind. Some scenarios really are just too ridiculous.