Why do I keep seeing stuff on the Republican Governor’s lack of personality in the media?
I know his voice sounds lousy…
But the whole personal package also?
The below Politico piece sheds a light on a problem DeSantis seems to have early on with people who are supposed to give the guy money for a campaign and party people he would need for a serious national campaign ….
DeSantis is vying with a ex-President that present’s himself as LARGER THAN LIFE and has a YUGE media presence…
And THAT may work in the Florida Governor’s favor for Republicans tired of Trump…..
“Donors are used to a lot of care and feeding,” deadpanned Francis Rooney, a Florida man who knows of what he speaks. Rooney was himself a major Republican contributor — George W. Bush rewarded him by making him Ambassador to the Vatican — before winning a congressional seat anchored around Naples.
Rooney thinks the party’s financiers are ready to move on from Trump — “I’ve talked to a lot of CEOs down here that were all in for Trump and they’ve all dropped him now — and he is fond of DeSantis. The two Republicans go back to DeSantis’s first congressional race, in 2012, when Rooney hosted a fundraiser in Southwest Florida for him.
Yet Rooney was candid about DeSantis’s persona.
“Ron is a little reserved and dry compared to George W. Bush and Bill Clinton,” Rooney told me. “He is what he is. So what he needs to do is organize his campaign to minimize that characteristic.”
The griping, for now, is coming mostly from Republican donors, some of whom crave contact from politicians nearly as much as lower marginal rates and reliable Gulfstreams. Yet the complaints about his interpersonal skills are symptomatic of a deeper challenge for the governor, of which he and his small inner circle have told people they’re conscious: his capacity for forging connections with people….
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DeSantis’s deficiencies, however, can’t be easily dismissed. They get at the heart of a much larger question, something more consequential than even donor vanity, that will shape his prospects in 2024: how much does retail politics still matter in presidential campaigns?
More to the point, was Trump an exception, a celebrity playing by a different set of rules, or a turning point in presidential primaries? In 2016, he ignored the purported expectations of early nominating states, blowing in and out with large rallies, made little attempt to court Republican lawmakers and, no, wasn’t calling donors and remembering their kids’ names….
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If not as needy as donors, high-level politicians expect to be treated with goodwill and respect by one another. And DeSantis has done little to win over other Republican governors, to leaven the inevitable jealousy that comes from all those Fox News invitations.
In fact, he’s shown next to no interest in building relationships with governors, one of whom described the Floridian’s approach to events as presidential — he comes in through the kitchen, speaks and leaves. For a glimpse at how GOP governors view DeSantis, take in the interview my colleague Ryan Lizza did last month with Chris Sununu, the governor of a consequential state last I checked, who said “there’s a lot of hype and headlines” with DeSantis but “you got to earn it at the end of the day.”….
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Most memorable — and a reminder that all is relative when it comes to DeSantis’s shortcomings — was Jody Fameree.
I came across Fameree, a manufacturing executive who came up from Tampa for the swearing-in, as we both left the old capitol grounds. Less than 30 seconds into our chat, he invoked his preference of DeSantis over “the alternative.”
Why?
“I like his personality,” said Fameree, “he’s not as abrasive.”…..
Note….
I still question if DeSantis policy stances for Florida will world nationwide….
Florida has turned into a VERY RED state and that isn’t America….
Joe Biden excel’s in being a ‘people person’…..
image…The New Yorker