If it weren't for the fact that he has been in politics for more than 10 years, you might think that Ron DeSantis is a candidate created by Artificial Intelligence. His smile when posing is the most forced on the national public scene; so artificial that he wouldn't even work in a casting to advertise toothpaste. The lack of charisma and sense of humor of the governor of Florida and Donald Trump's main rival with a view to the Republican presidential primaries is beginning to seriously worry the ultra but not Trumpist fringe of the party.
The Wall Street Journal editorial board, in favor of a 2024 Republican nominee other than Trump, devoted its opinion space ten days ago to praising DeSantis' credentials... with a few buts: the White House hopeful "Would benefit from a bit of Ronald Reagan's self-deprecating humor," the council wrote, adding that "the best presidential candidates campaign with some poetry and optimism," not just "political determination and personal toughness."
The publication of Rupert Murdoch's diary coincided with DeSantis' disastrous election launch via a Twitter colloquium with network owner Elon Musk. Technical failures turned the experiment into a resounding failure that its main victim did not know how to relativize through those useful resources that are grace, irony or the ability to laugh at oneself to turn around an embarrassing situation. Agility zero.
The conservative magazine National Review , headline reading for the former prosecutor and Navy veteran, published an article the same day in which columnist Jeffrey Blehar thus affected the handicap of the grim 44-year-old politician: "DeSantis is a good debater, but he still I haven't detected the slightest hint of a sense of humor in him. I don't know if he knows how to tell a joke or improvise a quick sentence, and I confess that I am afraid to see how he tries it.
In the same post, analyst Michael Brendan Dougherty commented: "He just doesn't have the charisma to command a national political stage."
A lack of humor and a lack of charisma are just two of the manifestations of DeSantis' problem relating to others. A known problem since his time in Congress (2013-2018), when he became famous for his habit of putting on headphones when he wanted to avoid interacting with other human beings, that is, whenever he was forced to. .
But you don't have to go back that far. On his recent tour of the UK, Israel, South Korea and Japan to expand Florida's economic relations, DeSantis left an unexpected mark. Especially in London, the final destination of the tour. In a meeting there with British industry leaders, one of the businessmen commented that DeSantis "seemed bored" and "was looking at his feet," according to a Politico account. Another stated: “Your message from him was not presidential. It was horrible!". Other descriptions alluded to the "low voltage" of the visitor. And an attendee concluded: "Nobody in the room was left thinking something like 'this man has a world'."
Back home, and already as a candidate, DeSantis made clear his abilities and his limitations as a presidential candidate in his first rallies and meetings. In one held in New Hampshire, he exhibited his mastery in the ideological combat of the Woke culture, heir to the "awakening" movement against racism and inequality of the thirties and translatable as progressive. But he sidestepped almost every other burning issue and scolded a reporter who asked him why he didn't answer questions from voters. "People come up to me and talk to me. What are you talking about? Are you blind?", He scolded her.
The aspirant's failures in his expressiveness and his relationship with others did not prevent him from being elected to Congress or winning the Florida gubernatorial elections twice, the second time last November and with a difference of almost 20 points over Democrat Michael Crist . The question is whether the hook that he, despite everything, demonstrated in those elections, will be enough to compensate for his charismatic deficiencies in the fight against a Trump perhaps already worn out and cornered in the courts but who continues to prove a powerful connection with the most conservative electorate. from the country. And that he continues to gain a 30-point advantage in the vote intention polls for the primaries.
When DeSantis talks about Trump, usually without naming him, he often says that "politics is not going to entertain." He betrays the subconscious. And you need to understand that politics can't always be fun, but it shouldn't always be boring.
