A botched campaign rollout. A horribly misguided decision to chase committed Trump voters instead of undecideds. Another horribly misguided decision to emulate the failed Cruz campaign by running to Trump’s right. A refusal to take positions that are popular with the electorate as a whole. A foolish passive-aggressive approach to the campaign. Sagging polls. Lost influence with Fox News. By any account, the DeSantis campaign to date has been a DeSaster.
Can he turn it around? He still has some time, plenty of money, the debates, and some lingering connections with Fox News on his side. In order to do it, however, he’s going to have to make his case forcefully and unequivocally against Trump from this point forward regardless of the sensitivities of a portion of the base. That case is that Trump, in spite of what the right would say were good intentions, was a complete failure as president due to his innumerable personal shortcomings, and an irresponsible loser afterwards. He will inevitably lead the party to yet another loss if he is the nominee as a result of his unpopularity among independents. Hence, the need to try something new.
Will this work? Probably not at this stage, but the alternatives are worse. Parroting Trump’s views, refusing to launch meaningful attacks on him, and hoping that someone else (Jack Smith? Chris Christie?) will destroy the man on golf cart for him has been an abject failure thus far. There is no reason to believe that will change between now and the middle of 2024.