As our headline paraphrases Al Gore at the 1992 Democratic convention, let's observe that execrable Florida Governor Ron DeSantis should remember what happened to a couple of politicians from around that same time: George H.W. Bush and Michael Dukakis.
Democratic nominee Dukakis torched a 17-point lead in 1988 by, among other things, donning a helmet and riding around in a tank. You've all seen the photo. It invited ridicule — the death knell of all Presidential wannabes. (And yes, Bernard Shaw's rape-death-penalty question in that one debate didn't help. But Shaw is dead now, and Dukakis is still alive and at large.)
Four years later, Hurricane Andrew tore through South Florida, and the administration of then-President Bush Senior didn't, um, perform very well. We don't remember Bush showing up anywhere in white boots, but he seemed inattentive, and FEMA was slow and clunky. (And that was before Bush Junior screwed up Katrina.) Anyway, Bush Senior lost re-election to Bill Clinton a few months later.
So here is Ron DeSantis in 2022, five weeks out from a match-up with former Governor Charlie Crist, and Presidential ambitions galore. And his disastrous post-Ian appearance in Fort Myers Beach strutting in his pristine booties may have just landed him in Dukakis territory.
Funny, you'd think that reports about a bad recovery response, and the fact that DeSantis paused aid from going to hurricane victims so he could get his white-boot photo op, would sink him faster. But whatever. Charlie Crist, the ball's in your court. We cats PURR.
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