Afraid To Take On Trump Mana A Mano -- Friday, December 2, 2022

This was the analysis of the mid-term elections (2022) by Governor DeSantis (R-Florida):

 "We assumed we were going to end up with like 245 House members, we're at 222 it looks like, which is a huge underperformance," DeSantis said.

"The question is, you know, why did that happen?" 

He observed that historic trends favored Republicans and that President Biden's unpopularity and widespread belief that the country is headed in the wrong direction should have led to big GOP gains in Congress. 

"Usually those voters are going to want to vote for people that are offering an alternative, and yet some of those voters throughout the country, not in Florida, but throughout the country, even though they disapproved of Biden, even though they disapproved of the direction of the country, they still didn't want to vote, you know, for some of our candidates," DeSantis said.

"I don’t think it’s a question of necessarily being divided as a party, I think it’s like, OK, how do you run and win majorities?" he continued. "I think what we’ve done in Florida is we’ve shown that we’ve exercised leadership, we’ve not kowtowed, we’ve been willing to take on big interests … but producing results, and then that ends up attracting more people to want to be on your team," DeSantis said.

"That was not something that was happening throughout the rest of the country." 

Bottom line: DeSantis is afraid to take on Trump mano a mano. 

My analysis in contrast to that of Governor DeSantis:

On the blog from November 9, 2022:

2022 mid-terms, early analysis, based on less than five minutes of social media headlines:

• no "red wave"
• GOP debacle in big scheme of things
• GOP to take US House but with centrist Republicans
• Trump faction "out"
• Texas: closer than many/most folks think
• sure, it was a landslide for Abbott (using the term loosely) but look at the map
• Beto: despite being perceived as supporting "open borders," the border counties supported Beto by huge margin ... a huge margin ... Hispanics did not turn out for GOP as headlined prior to the midterms -- huge implications for GOP in Texas
  
• all five major urban areas in Texas went solidly for Beto 
• exception: Tarrant County (Ft Worth) and even Tarrant County was purple
  
• if the Dems hold the US Senate, the 2022 mid-terms will be seen as a win for Biden, a loss for Trump 
• might the Dems' lead in the US Senate widen?
• how in the world did the GOP let Dr Oz run? 
• my only takeaway, nationally
  
• social issues took precedence over economy, inflation, price of gasoline 
• or voters felt Dems could handle the economy, inflation, price of gasoline better than the GOP;
  
• Pennsylvania: blue
• Florida: solidly red
• Texas: purple
• not a great optic for 2024 presidential election if one is aligned with GOP