Convention, Conventional Wisdom, and the DeSantis Launch Few Heard
Convention and conventional wisdom derive from trial and error over time. Convention calls for candidates to do big onstage launches of their presidential campaigns. It is a tradition.
Conventional wisdom suggests that candidates launching big campaigns should, out of the gate, control all the variables of the launch.
Today, May 24, 2023, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis decided to set convention aside and defy conventional wisdom by placing himself in the hands of Elon Musk with a launch on Twitter’s Spaces, a part of Twitter for audio conversation.
The defiance of convention proved the conventional wisdom right. Twenty-three minutes in, the platform is struggling, crashing, and Governor DeSantis has yet to be heard from.
This won’t matter in two weeks. But it’ll be a major political story for the next few days as DeSantis foes make “failure to launch” jokes and Musk haters ridicule what Twitter has become.
It was bold. It turned out to be a mistake. It is recoverable. But it is a reminder that some things should be under full control of the candidate, particularly the launch day.
This morning, lots of stories circulated about Elon Musk targeting Fox News and DeSantis playing a role in displacing Fox News. Rupert Murdoch can sleep well tonight. Due to Twitter's glitches and crashes, DeSantis will make his unimpeded debut with Trey Gowdy on Fox News. He will join me on talk radio tomorrow at noon and also join others across America. He’ll do radio, television, phone call town halls, and the internet — a multimedia rollout with an initial hiccup.
Most Americans will not hear the Twitter speech anyway — not because they tried and failed but because most Americans are not on Twitter. But they will hear about the Twitter crash. Some will watch Fox News anyway.
On the upside for Ron DeSantis, he can say Donald Trump never caused Twitter to crash.
But convention and conventional wisdom exist for a reason. Through trial, error, and failure, they become conventional and conventional wisdom because they are the tested, the true, and the things that worked best. Next week, a campaign rally in Iowa with a big crowd and a joke about crashing Twitter will move this thing along.
For now, if a campaign launches on Twitter and no one hears it, did it really happen?
Hogwash! Me, the Twitter no nothing, heard the whole thing. I’m the one who called you today to find out how to listen and I succeeded. Then I thought I messed up and finally learned 15 minutes later there were so many people trying to listen on Musks account that it crashed Twitter. 500k I think. Don’t you think those are pretty big numbers? anyway I switched to my computer, musk switched to another host and “bingo” I listened till the end with a couple of missteps along the way. I heard so many great things and enjoyed the questions from several folks whose names I knew. There will be griping of course, but aren’t we all used to dropped calls, shut down computers and glitches in our internet service by now. Desantis came through loud and clear with a strong message and very good policy plans. I am convinced he can win and restore respect to our country and our sense of security through solid. I have a candidate I can throw my complete support behind. And throw the empty Trump in the trash!
I don't really care about any political launch. It's just theater as far as I'm concerned. I care about policies and the ability to get them across the finish line.