DeSantis-Newsom debate: Why no one won
“Why did they do it?” asked David Frum in The Atlantic. TV viewers had to be asking that question after Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis took on California Gov. Gavin Newsom last week in a Fox News debate supposedly comparing whether liberal California or conservative Florida was a better place to live. Newsom, a 56-year-old Democrat with an unflappable, nimble demeanor, sought to position himself “as his party’s heir apparent to the 81-year-old incumbent,” President Biden. DeSantis, 45, is “in the final stages of a faltering presidential run,” and really should be focused on Donald Trump, who’s crushing him in national polls by more than 40 points. Portraying California as a hellhole of crime and homelessness, DeSantis came off like a bull with “a primal need to fight somebody, anybody, while he still can.” Even with not-neutral moderator Sean Hannity throwing him softballs, he couldn’t land a barb as memorable as Newsom’s quip that the governors had something in common: “Neither of us will be the nominee for our party in 2024.”
“In a saner political culture,” said Charles C.W. Cooke in National Review, voters would benefit from a “calm, detailed conversation” about “the two visions of America” the two governors represent. “But ours is not that culture.” Instead, DeSantis displayed a map that allegedly depicted the locations of human feces on San Francisco’s streets and derided Newsom as “a slippery, slick politician.” Newsom told DeSantis he was “nothing but a bully” whose brand is criminalizing free speech, abortion, and personal freedom. Newsom did manage to give Fox viewers some facts they rarely hear, said Eric Bradner in CNN.com. Acting as a surrogate for Biden, he noted that a record 14 million jobs were created during his presidency—far more than “the last three Republican presidents combined”—and that inflation has sunk to 3.2 percent, wages are up 4.4 percent, and the economy is booming.
No one really won, said Frank Bruni in The New York Times. This battle-of-the-governors demonstrated how quickly our national divide descends “into pettiness,” taunting, and personal insults. If anyone benefited, it was former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who’s been rising in the Republican polls. Newsom tartly asked DeSantis when he would drop out “and at least give Haley a shot to take down Trump.” Other than that unexpected endorsement, nothing that happened on that stage was “a good look for America.”