Ron DeSantis is weird, part 2

Still weird.

(Ron DeSantis, laughing)

A while back I wrote about the fundamental oddness of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

This was before his campaign was forced to reboot (and then reboot again) and long before it looked like he had missed his moment in the 2024 contest.

But, even as DeSantis slogs his way through places like Iowa and New Hampshire in an attempt to restart his sputtering candidacy, the weirdness has reared its ugly head — again.

In a deep dive on DeSantis as a retail candidate, NBC News reported on two anecdotes that are, um, troubling.

Anecdote #1:

A 15-year-old at the Oskaloosa coffee shop asked about military service restrictions on people with mental health disorders — a topic right in line with the DeSantis campaign’s desire to highlight his military expertise.

“I can’t legally vote,” the teen said, “but I struggle with major depressive disorder.”

DeSantis interrupted the teen with a rejoinder: “It’s never stopped the other party from not letting you vote.”

OOMPH.

Anecdote #2:

Later that evening, in Osceola, an 82-year-old farmer told DeSantis that he tends fewer acres since his wife died of cancer five years ago, and asked about the candidate’s thoughts on ethanol, a corn-based renewable fuel used in cars.

DeSantis passed up an opportunity to offer sympathy, launching into a stump-speech promise to “turn back this rush to electric vehicles.”

DOUBLE OOMPH.

And that’s not even mentioning DeSantis’ response to a little kid with an ice pop: “Oh, what is that? An Icee? That’s probably a lot of sugar, huh?”

@thedemocrats😳 DeSantis to a kid in Iowa: “What is that? An ICEE? That’s probably a lot of sugar, huh?” #dnc #thedemocrats #rondesantis

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TRIPLE OOMPH.

What’s clear from those episodes — as well as myriad others on the campaign trail over the last few months — is that DeSantis lacks the common touch.

Running for president is unlike running for any other office in the country. It’s FAR more about personality than it is about policy. That’s especially true in the primary process where lots of voters get to meet a candidate face to face and gauge how much he or she understands and cares about people like them.

DeSantis looks and sounds like a robot in these interactions. Plain and simple.

When a teenager tells you that he struggles from depression, you, as a human (or as a political candidate), take a minute to acknowledge his struggle and hope he is doing ok. You don’t make a joke out of the fact that Democrats would let him vote even though he is underaged.

When someone shares with you that his wife has passed, you don’t go into a policy-heavy answer about electric vehicles. You empathize first — and then maybe do your riff on the dangers of EVs.

To do anything else is just plain tone deaf — and fundamentally misunderstands what people are looking for in a presidential candidate.

If running for president was simply a contest of policy positions, candidates wouldn’t need to campaign. Just refer people to your website so that they can see how you feel on a variety of issues.

But, it’s so much more than that. It’s about peoples’ hopes and dreams — and how the people running for president can help people achieve them.

People vote for president primarily with their heart, not their head. And the best candidates are able to reach people at an emotional level more than an intellectual one.

Now, candidates CAN get better at this.

I remember well watching Barack Obama in 2007 ignoring peoples’ problems (and hopes) in question and answer sessions — bulldozing right to the relevant policy that he believed could fix things.

But, as Obama spent more time on the campaign trail, he developed much more of a common touch — a sense that what people are really after is someone who will listen to them and empathize with them, not really someone who rushes in with some sort of policy prescription.

To date, DeSantis doesn’t seem to have made similar progress.

Which makes me skeptical that his reboot is destined to succeed. At the heart of every campaign is the candidate. And if the candidate can’t perform — and find ways to make real connections with the average Joe and Jane — then it doesn’t matter how much money you raise or how many times you visit early states.

Unless and until DeSantis finds a demeanor on the campaign trail that is more real and (way less) robotic, he is going to struggle.