The chances of Florida turning blue any time soon are slight, but with Rep. Val Demings running against the slippery, bootlicking Sen. Marco Rubio and Rep. Charlie Crist running against the odious Gov. Ron "Bootsie" DeSantis, Dems had a fighting chance. That may have all changed with the arrival of Hurricane Ian, which put DeSantis in the daily -- some would say hourly -- national spotlight. This is not to say that any Governor when faced with a natural disaster won't be in the center of recovery efforts, and that a President needs to be nonpartisan. But when you're the Dem President just four weeks away from mid-term elections, you don't need to engage in old time collegial backslapping with the most partisan and demagogic Trumpist Governors out there:
"Charlie Crist, whose career as a Republican ended with a hug from a Democratic president, may have seen his political fate sealed by another Democratic president complimenting his Republican rival.
That’s the sentiment rolling through Democratic circles in Florida after President Joe Biden’s tour of the state’s storm-ravaged Gulf Coast, where he praised Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, Crist’s opponent, for his handling of Hurricane Ian. Biden called DeSantis’ response 'pretty remarkable' after a congenial joint event with his sometime nemesis. [snip]
At the time of Biden’s remarks, Crist, the Democratic nominee for governor, and his allies were ramping up criticism of DeSantis tied to the hurricane – highlighting the former GOP congressman’s past votes against storm aid and climate change legislation and raising questions about the timing of evacuations in Lee County and the lack of urgency to address a crumbling property insurance market. Earlier in the week, Crist and the state Democratic Party promoted a story from a local television station featuring Floridians who said they were blocked from delivering storm supplies so DeSantis could survey the damage.
Biden 'closed the door to that,' one veteran Democratic strategist told CNN, asking not to be named to speak openly about the race.
'The dynamics of the race needed to shift, and this was an opportunity for it to shift,' the strategist said. 'The President complimenting the governor takes that whole issue off the table.'” (our emphasis)
There's a happy medium that Biden could have followed with DeSantis: a promise to aid Floridians in their time of need, and a commitment to work with State officials to make that happen. Biden's effusive comments on DeSantis' "pretty remarkable" work was misplaced, and won't be reciprocated by the calculating DeSantis. Worse, it undercut the legitimate critique of DeSantis' performance that the Dems were preparing and damaged their already narrowing prospects in November.
