The poor man’s Ted Cruz
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Looks like the GOP’s funders are beginning to smell a huge stench of loserdom emerging from Tallahassee:
Just a few short months ago, Ron DeSantis was being hailed as the future of the Republican Party and the man who would represent the GOP in next year’s presidential general election after knocking off Donald Trump. Then people got to know him, and realized he’s an unlikable jerk* with no personality, and his prospects of making it to the White House very quickly plummeted. Referring to DeSantis’s extremely bad national polling numbers, a spokesman for a DeSantis-aligned super PAC said earlier this month, “I believe in being really blunt and really honest. It’s an uphill battle.” And it’s not just would-be voters who’ve soured on the candidate—it’s rich billionaires too.
On Wednesday, Rolling Stone published a scathing article reporting that Rupert Murdoch has started to sour on the Florida governor, with one source telling the outlet that the Australian billionaire and his son Lachlan “can smell a loser a mile away.” Notably, this comes after Murdoch’s media empire fanned out following the November midterms to send the message that Trump was GOP roadkill and DeSantis was the new king of the party. And the Murdochs apparently aren’t the only rich guys experiencing buyer’s remorse.
Politico reports that “some wealthy donors who’d hoped [DeSantis] could beat Donald Trump are now giving Tim Scott a serious look.” One of those donors is reportedly Ronald Lauder, the Estée Lauder heir who backed Trump in 2020 and—according to three sources familiar with the matter who spoke to Politico—recently flew down to South Carolina to meet with Scott. Lauder is said to have plans to meet with the junior senator again “as he decides whether to cut him a check.” Billionaire investor Stanley Druckenmiller has reportedly also “expressed interest” in donating to Scott’s White House bid. “A lot of donors that I’ve met are all curious and want to meet Tim and see what he’s about,” Andy Sabin, a Republican contributor who was originally planning to support DeSantis, told Politico. “He’s the one guy running who’s got some personality and charisma. His delivery is terrific.”
Wow, “he’s a less viable nominee than Tim Scott” is really twisting the knife. I am beginning to have some questions about the empirical and theoretical basis for the belief of GOP pundits that any Republican capable of winning a statewide election in Florida must be a transcendent political super-talent.
Meanwhile, in today’s episode of when he’s (inadvertently) right he’s (inadvertently) right:
once again the yelly baseball nails it, but not in the way he thinks https://t.co/c2KHYQv9Ex pic.twitter.com/EjrdRT5gLM— gg 🙊🙈🙉 (@gina_goldberg) July 12, 2023