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“We were selling something Republicans don’t want to buy: DeSantis,” the consultant said.

Too bad we didn't get a name here, since this encapsulates the entire futility of DeSantis's run for the presidency. A man with little political experience (which showed immediately on the campaign trail), with almost none of the required personal characteristics a politician needs - what in the world made him, or his backers, or his campaign workers, think he could take on a personality cult leader and win?

A New Yorker piece in August highlighted the inverse (perverse?) dynamics of this campaign:

"Across several months, the source familiar with the campaign said that it consistently struggled to find a message critical of Trump that resonated with rank-and-file Republican voters. Even attaching Trump’s name to an otherwise effective message had a tendency to invert the results, this source said. If a moderator said that the covid lockdowns destroyed small businesses and facilitated the largest upward wealth transfer in modern American history, seventy per cent of the Republicans surveyed would agree. But, if the moderator said that *Trump’s* covid lockdowns destroyed small businesses and facilitated the largest upward wealth transfer in modern American history, the source said, seventy per cent would disagree."

Why didn't he accept the inevitable, and throw in the towel then?

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I've always enjoyed your reporting on MSNBC, your perception of events & ever present sense of humor. The newsletter is excellent.

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Wow. So many "experts" proving that they all narcissistic megalomaniacs. Sounds like so much fun being around these kinds of people. I wonder how the stress will affect their longevity. Guess we could check their biorhythms. Jfc, I thought biorhythms went out of fashion back in the crazy 80s!

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Excellent piece.

Long, but worth the read.

I love Marc's writing style, however the whole story could have been distilled down to nine words:

DiSantis was the worst candidate in presidential campaign history.

No matter how hard one tries, you simply can't make chicken salad out of chicken s'%t.

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Totally believable, and ridiculous on it's own terms. Even more ridiculous: The both DeSantis' and Haley's campaign operations thought the imperative in Iowa was to attack each other, and not the guy who was always going to beat them both. I guess that's so stupid it doesn't even bear remarking upon.

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Great reporting.

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Amazing, crack the door open and it pours out. Great piece Marc.

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Saying your bio rhythms are out of sync has to be the most pretentious way of saying I'm tired or I'm hungry I've ever heard

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Welcome to the fight, Marc!

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Welcome & Thanks, Marc … for formally joining the Democracy Yes Movement - Great detailed piece and makes me wonder (repeatedly) about the relationship between the Trump campaign and the “Defend America {née Defend Drumpf} PAC”. Maybe a future piece??? It’s also based in FL- so you’re right there in the heart of MAGAland anyway?? Again, with feelin’, welcome Marc!

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The entire Republican party acts like a bunch of college sophomores who think they have developed a completely novel plan to bypass all the rules. Execution of the plan is more important than winning. It never occurs to them that real grown-ups might have sound reasons to avoid the plan.

I worried early on about the chances of DeSantis being elected, but I don't think he has a snowball's chance of getting close to the White House.

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To be honest, all these people are such low character and dishonest, I find it hard to believe they cared whether or not they had illegal coordination between the campaign and the PAC

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Damn son, first column by Marc already getting picked up at Axios--and yes, they attributed it to The Bulwark:

https://www.axios.com/2024/02/05/desantis-debate-memo-leaker-tim-scott-super-pac

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Great writing, glad you’re on the Bulwark now. Looking forward to more!

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Great insight into a complete system design failure. That is; putting most of the $$s and logistics responsibility into the PAC and the Campaign and presumably DeSantis expected they would lead without the ability to coordinate. This turkey could have never flown.

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founding

Who knew Tim Scott had it in him?

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