Ron DeSantis hasn’t learned a thing  

After doing A little better than expected Ron DeSantis heads to South Carolina for this week's Iowa caucuses. And oblivion.

The Florida governor, a seemingly intelligent and capable vote-getter, was well prepared to take on 2024 front-runner Donald Trump, but he has failed as both a candidate and a strategist. It turns out that there is something. During his campaign, he showed no ability to learn from his mistakes or from President Trump.

Republicans don't like nominating new people. Since 1944, 12 elections If the Republican candidate was not the incumbent. Eight times, Republicans nominated candidates who had previously run nationally, and the other four included prominent public figures who ran in 1952: Dwight Eisenhower, George W. Bush, They included Donald Trump, all of whom were well-known and experienced in the cauldron of media scrutiny.

The only true outsider the Republicans ever nominated was Barry Goldwater. the most disastrous election defeat Since then Alf Landon And it opened the door to massive government overexpansion. Lyndon Johnson's Great Society.

Experience worked for Republicans, but inexperience led to confusion. DeSantis and others have shown themselves to be the Republican “B” team, and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley was likely a B-plus.

For DeSantis, the door was firmly open as early as 2023, as it was for him. running strong He opposes Trump and is leading in several Republican state primaries. But once the campaign began, Mr. DeSantis showed he had no message or strategy and no understanding of what made the former president so formidable, and what makes him so. .

No message

To be fair, DeSantis had a lot to say, but his message was a toxic mix of melancholy, excess, and detail. DeSantis' message was as follows. “America is in decline!” his boring list continued Policy measures in Florida.

No one wants to hear that.

Republican voters are angry, but just like any other voter, they want to feel angry and uplifted at the same time.Trump's “Make America Great Again” This is one of the greatest political slogans of all time. It is both an offensive line and an uplifting battle cry. MAGA makes people want to push forward. “America in decline” makes people want to sulk in their basements.

As a general rule in campaigning, your list should be no more than three items, but anything more than that will cause people to ignore or forget. DeSantis' endless rants about every bill and proclamation hint at the elementary mistake of trying to be all things to all people, but failing to do much for anyone. There is. Even worse, his description was much better than his LinkedIn video resume.

Mr. Trump, by contrast, understands that his message needs to be focused and memorable. For real estate moguls, it's easy. Just set it up and then add the punchline. There are no two-minute essays on immigration for him. It just follows a sentence or two. “Build a wall.” Are you angry about corruption? “Please drain the swamp.”

DeSantis never came up with a memorable one-liner that summed up what he represented, what he had done, and what he would do.

no strategy

DeSantis made two terrible strategic mistakes. One early on and his one currently in progress.

He first national movement To a former president with 100 percent recognition, to his hardcore followers around the world, and to a network of supporters in conservative media. Not only that, but Donald Trump is the king of all media. Everything Trump-related clicks, giving him the ability to dominate coverage that DeSantis could never hope to match.

But the main process is a series of events, not a national election. Winning Iowa and New Hampshire is much more important than organizing the entire Southeast (minus South Carolina). Voters in both states are nervous and possessive about their role in the process. They like to overturn the apple cart and react to the politics of the retail industry.

DeSantis ultimately Full commitment to Iowa, but he wasted precious resources elsewhere in the summer. Worse, he didn't seem to have a New Hampshire strategy in place at all. granite state not successfully voted It's true for Trump, but it's even worse for DeSantis. Finding a way to partner with the anti-Trump Governor Sununu, especially taking his political advice, should have been a top priority, but it doesn't appear to have been considered.

His current failure is split time Between South Carolina and New Hampshire. Indeed, DeSantis is polling poorly in New Hampshire, where she is far behind Trump and Haley. But DeSantis has no choice. If he was vilified in New Hampshire, South Carolina would not exist. He just has to roll the dice now.

These are the mistakes of campaign teams that are new, inexperienced (at best), or incompetent (at worst). And against a powerful force like Trump, you can't make these mistakes.

steal Trump's page (not)

Every politician knows that when their opponent is doing the right thing, they steal it. Among Mr. DeSantis' mistakes, the worst was not understanding the secret of Mr. Trump's success and copying Mr. Trump's tactics.

Trump's primary characteristic is fearlessness. The former president is not afraid of his opponents, donors, supporters or campaign staff. Since the start of his campaign in 2015, he has relentlessly attacked those he perceives as his greatest threat.he has no respect traditional campaign There is no need to worry about blowbacks or reconciliation in the future.

The second characteristic of Mr. Trump is the big picture. Donald Trump rarely gets into the details of his attacks. He also stayed out of the policy weeds. Trump always emphasizes simple accusations, simple accusations, and simple solutions.No nauseating readings of Hillary Clinton many scandals – just “Crooked Hillary”

The third characteristic is modulation in delivery. Trump is not just a dark fearmonger (like DeSantis) or a sarcastic lecturer (like Vivek Ramaswamy). He is constantly changing the way he speaks. He is often calm and keeps his voice low, which is a good technique for forcing people to listen.He also attracts people by play the victim, just as his audience feels victimized. And he uses a lot of humor. Trump will perform well.

DeSantis missed all of this. He always seemed afraid of alienating Trump's base when he should be running to destroy him. After all, who among Trump's base will vote for Joe Biden? He kept getting pushed back and shrinking back in the fight, but he wasn't left anywhere. Being a punching bag killed Mike Pence — didn't DeSantis realize this? What's more, getting into a heated battle with Trump takes all the oxygen out of everyone else. It was his cowardice that opened the door to Haley.

When Haley had her moment, DeSantis couldn't shake her. He went back and forth through each opponent's tedious research folders, digging into the minutiae of who sold more land to China. Instead of President Trump's humor, mockery, and perhaps compliments that turned into insults, DeSantis delivered a gruff dissent. When DeSantis created a one-liner, it was clearly well-crafted and grouped in focus. Instead of a light, natural sound. And they all failed.

After all, a newbie is a newbie. But this is not the end for DeSantis. He received a baptism of fire. If he learns from his mistakes, he could become the next Ronald Reagan or Richard Nixon. Otherwise, he would be Tom Dewey, John McCain, or Pat Buchanan.

Mr. DeSantis made the right decision to run. It's up to him what he decides to do with his future.

Dr. Keith Naughton is co-founder of Silent Majority Strategies, a public and regulatory affairs consulting firm. Norton is a former Pennsylvania political campaign consultant. Follow him on Twitter @KNaughton711.