With his presidential bid launching, Ron DeSantis gets lectured on how to campaign by those who clearly cannot.

Since last week when the leaked reports of a Ron DeSantis announcement regarding his intention to run for the White House emerged, the press has been in overdrive with the hit pieces. A number of outlets came out with supposedly critical hit jobs that only managed to make him sound pretty great, as well as some off-target critiques involving Disney, and schools. There was even a desperate attempt from Tara Palmeri to claim the governor was running away from her probing questions – while video showed her asking him to name his favorite Disney characters.

As Bonchie detailed earlier today, the news that DeSantis with be on Twitter spaces tonight to officially announce his campaign has been met with more unhinged reactions, and one, in particular, I want to focus on here. The New York Times provides an overview of sorts of the impending DeSantis campaign, with a quartet of writers who assess the announced plan for tonight and manage to find critiques from curious sourcing. 

That Maggie Haberman is one of those scribes should be the only indicator needed as to where the discussion would flow. She and Trump share a dysfunctional enabling relationship, where she needs to rely on the man she detests for perpetual content, and Trump — for reasons only apparent to him — cannot seem to resist spilling information to the woman who constantly berates him in print. Thus, it is with little surprise that we get a criticism of how the DeSantis camp is conducting this launch.

“This is one of the most out-of-touch campaign launches in modern history,” said Karoline Leavitt, a spokeswoman for Make America Great Again, the pro-Trump group. “The only thing less relatable than a niche campaign launch on Twitter, is DeSantis’s after party at the uber-elite Four Seasons resort in Miami.”

Let’s be real, for starters. For anyone to suggest that using the platform of Twitter for the official start of his campaign means this is “niche” and is a sign of being “out of touch” is laughable. Just looking at the tidal wave of media reaction to the announcement is a sign that it was a savvy move. But recent history shows this is a cagey plan. When Tucker Carlson came out with a video on Twitter for the first time after his dismissal from Fox News primetime, he drew 80 million viewers. Later, his revelation that he would move his show to the social media outlet did even better, garnering 100 million views. 

For all of the bleating in the press and the obstinate opinions about Elon Musk since he took over the site, the reality is that using Twitter in the correct fashion generates heat. If DeSantis made a conventional introduction on television, say on Fox News, he might pull, what – about five or six million? Trump’s town hall on CNN weeks ago only drew an audience of just over three million. Even if Ron earns about half of Tucker’s interest, you are still talking about tens of millions, and those are people who will spread the message and images instantly across the platform.

Political journalist Cameron Joseph also lends critiques from others. He states that there are many in the state of Florida who are questioning this strategy from the DeSantis team, and you need to smirk at the supposed wisdom delivered by these voices.

I've heard from lotsa GOP strategists who think DeSantis and his team are way too obsessed with right-wing keyboard warriors at the expense of actual primary voters' concerns. This… won't help. https://t.co/rMxaJ7dSLo

— Cameron Joseph (@cam_joseph) May 23, 2023

We have seen dependably that when the press refers to comments from “GOP strategists,” that generally means one of two sources: Donald Trump operatives, or the downtrodden Lincoln Project types, such as Rick Wilson and his ilk. Politico recently ran a critical piece about the governor’s wife, Casey DeSantis, and it relied on “inside” comments from Roger Stone. It is with convenient alacrity that these voices – Trump, Stone, and others – which had been scorned and said to be inherent threats to the country, are suddenly reputable sources in regards to measuring up DeSantis.

One other reality needs to be injected into these myopic assessments of what DeSantis is doing wrong. The people turned to for measurements of success are those who have not delivered such of late. Trump evaded reelection. Rick Wilson and any others who were backing candidates did not see positive results in the last election. DeSantis meanwhile ran not only a successful reelection bid but he destroyed his competition. Charlie Crist was crushed, losing by just shy of 20 percentage points. He did not just lose, he was humiliated, and the Democrats in the state lost further ground as well.

In choosing a side in this debate of ideas on a campaign rollout, does one listen to the also-rans who did not make an impact in the voting booth, or the team that won soundly, has spent six years turning a state from purple to deep red, and has a clear message that is drawing hordes of vacationers and relocations to Florida? Common sense makes the choice obvious. Common sense is not what is driving the media in its coverage of DeSantis.