odanny
Diamond Member
How in the hell did his handlers allow any of this to be exposed?
MIAMI — The first Republican presidential debate next week was already looking like a stern test for Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is battling to overcome sagging national poll numbers, a fundraising crunch and an overhaul of his top campaign staff.
Now his tall task appears towering.
On Thursday, key details about how he might approach the crucial debate were revealed in a report from The New York Times about a trove of documents posted online by a political consulting firm associated with Never Back Down, the super political action committee that has in many ways taken over his campaign.
The advice on display, which included potential attack lines and debate tactics, could be somewhat condescending — reminding DeSantis, for example, that he should be “showing emotion” when discussing his wife and children. Other parts were perhaps too revealing: suggesting that the governor attack entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who has been gaining on him in the polls but had otherwise not been widely seen as a candidate on DeSantis’ level.
The disclosure of the documents seemed to leave DeSantis in something of a no-win situation. Follow the advice too closely, and he risks walking into a political buzz saw, with his rivals painting him as overly rehearsed, inauthentic or beholden to political consultants. Ignoring it may be the likelier route — but could also leave DeSantis open to criticisms that he failed to meet expectations, for instance, by not taking down Ramaswamy.
“I don’t think anybody is going to have a harder job at the debate than Ron DeSantis,” said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist who worked on the 2016 presidential campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. “He’s fighting a lot of skepticism and a lot of hungry challengers.”
As for the documents, Conant described their exposure as an unforced error: “The less you say about your strategy ahead of a debate, the better off you’re going to be.”
www.yahoo.com
MIAMI — The first Republican presidential debate next week was already looking like a stern test for Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is battling to overcome sagging national poll numbers, a fundraising crunch and an overhaul of his top campaign staff.
Now his tall task appears towering.
On Thursday, key details about how he might approach the crucial debate were revealed in a report from The New York Times about a trove of documents posted online by a political consulting firm associated with Never Back Down, the super political action committee that has in many ways taken over his campaign.
The advice on display, which included potential attack lines and debate tactics, could be somewhat condescending — reminding DeSantis, for example, that he should be “showing emotion” when discussing his wife and children. Other parts were perhaps too revealing: suggesting that the governor attack entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who has been gaining on him in the polls but had otherwise not been widely seen as a candidate on DeSantis’ level.
The disclosure of the documents seemed to leave DeSantis in something of a no-win situation. Follow the advice too closely, and he risks walking into a political buzz saw, with his rivals painting him as overly rehearsed, inauthentic or beholden to political consultants. Ignoring it may be the likelier route — but could also leave DeSantis open to criticisms that he failed to meet expectations, for instance, by not taking down Ramaswamy.
“I don’t think anybody is going to have a harder job at the debate than Ron DeSantis,” said Alex Conant, a Republican strategist who worked on the 2016 presidential campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla. “He’s fighting a lot of skepticism and a lot of hungry challengers.”
As for the documents, Conant described their exposure as an unforced error: “The less you say about your strategy ahead of a debate, the better off you’re going to be.”
For DeSantis, an Unforced Error Amplifies a Daunting Debate Challenge
MIAMI — The first Republican presidential debate next week was already looking like a stern test for Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida, who is battling to overcome sagging national poll numbers, a fundraising crunch and an overhaul of his top campaign staff. Now his tall task appears towering. On...
