A Time to Shine

Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis are now getting second looks. Vivek Ramaswamy is getting his first look.

I, unfortunately, found my way down a MAGA rabbit hole last night on Twitter, wherein the hardest of the hardcore MAGA fans are deeply suspicious of Vivek for getting a Soros-funded scholarship in school. They are more perturbed about that than that he paid someone to delete the reference from Wikipedia.

Someone noted that we should all be skeptical of anyone who comes out of nowhere to tell you exactly what you want to hear. There’s wisdom in that. But the MAGA Soros scholarship stuff takes this to Manchurian candidate levels of suspicion. Now they’re all circulating this clip of Vivek from 2004 on MSNBC. Ramaswamy’s change of positions over the last two or three months is more newsworthy than a twenty-year-old clip, except in MAGA land.

Haley’s crowds are growing. Her debate performance inspired more people to check out her campaign — a campaign that seemed rather quiet until she exploded into the limelight on that debate stage last week. Sure, she was in South Carolina yesterday, but the crowd was noticeably larger. They’ve been noticeably larger in Iowa and New Hampshire, too.

DeSantis is now getting another look, too. His campaign, having had some serious ups and downs since he entered and a prolonged shake-up and shake-out, now has time to shine by doing nothing more than his day job — governing a state that just saw a shooting and is about to see a hurricane sweep through.

DeSantis can complete his reset and get a second look by doing nothing campaign-oriented and just letting his governance speak for itself. The hurricane is gaining strength, and he’s been through this rodeo repeatedly. If his campaign lets DeSantis be Governor DeSantis, he can spend the next week showing statesmanship and leadership.

To be sure, the press undoubtedly already has stories written assailing him for seeking federal disaster relief — something that might happen due to the hurricane. But he can dodge the noise and focus on the job and that will matter to people just as they’re giving him a second look.

I suspect, though we do not really have enough data yet, that we’re going to find it was a mistake for Trump to skip the debates. The debates have allowed the other candidates to get in the spotlight. Trump’s interview with Tucker Carlson generated no buzz, no conversation, and no lasting impression. His counter-programming, for the first time in forever, failed. And his fourth arrest did not meaningfully shake up the polling.

Trump is at his ceiling. DeSantis could be at his floor. That might be why Trump is spreading the “roomer” that DeSantis intends to drop out of the race. The Trump team, by their fixation on DeSantis, signals they know the primaries are not over.

And moving up, slowly and quietly, is the former Governor of South Carolina. Iowa is still a long way off.

By the way, can I note how great it is to see the Party of Lincoln with three strong candidates, one of whom is a descendant of slaves and two of whom are from Indian immigrant families? We are an awesome country.