Yesterday's ballyhooed campaign kick off for Florida's fascistic, book banning - Mickey Mouse battling Gov. Ron "Bootsie" DeSantis was a disaster by anyone's definition. Teaming up with egomaniacal right-wing mogul Elon Musk on a glitchy, crashing Twitter Spaces platform, Musk couldn't have done a better job of humiliating Bootsie if he had tried. Some typical commentary:
"The keystone of DeSantis’s launch was intended to be the Twitter Spaces event.
Praised beforehand as innovative, it turned out to be disastrous.
It was beset with technical difficulties from the start. Many users reported being unable to log onto the event, and those who did had to struggle with audio that was interrupted, garbled, or dropped out entirely. [snip]
On one hand, even an embarrassment on the scale that DeSantis suffered on Wednesday night isn’t politically fatal.
But it’s worth remembering that the governor’s central case is that he is a more competent and effective rival to the purportedly more chaotic Trump.
The Wednesday night debacle administer a deep, self-inflicted wound to that case." (our emphasis)
"On Tuesday, news broke that Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would be officially announcing his presidential candidacy in a 'Twitter Spaces' conversation with Elon Musk. Observers at Slate and elsewhere debated whether this was a good idea; implicit in the discussion, though, was the premise that the announcement would actually take place.
For several minutes Wednesday night, that premise was called into question. The event was scheduled for 6 p.m. ET; around 6:10 p.m., Silicon Valley figure and co-host David Sacks spoke briefly before the feed cut out. After several more minutes, the Space, which was hosted on Musk’s Twitter page, went gray. At one point electronic hold music was playing." (our emphasis)
"The problems then persisted, with hosts, including Musk, assuring listeners that this was just because there was so much interest and they were breaking ground. Ultimately, Musk relinquished his initial role, explaining, 'I had to switch over to David hosting it because my account was actually ... breaking the system.'
On top of that, there were no images of DeSantis speaking and looking presidential. It was basically like listening to talk radio, except the hosts weren’t experienced broadcasters who could keep the conversation moving and focused, and they spent an inordinate amount of time playing up how historic the format was, shifting attention from the candidate himself." (our emphasis)
"You only get one chance to make a first impression. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis’ was a glitch.
The Florida governor announced his presidential campaign on Twitter Spaces, in an appearance meant to be a veritable launch hosted by an actual rocket man.
But within seconds, it was clear that Tallahassee had a problem.
The feed broke, connections got cut off, the hosts seemed confused. It was inauspicious. It also was a black mark on the candidate’s supposed trademarks — expert organization and a comfort with the vanguard of modern media." (our emphasis)
It was a disaster for DeSantis on his big day, but it also showed Musk to be unprepared and incompetent, something that's becoming a brand for him since he bought Twitter. Getting "help" like this from Musk is not something DeSantis will likely try again.
(gif: Yes, we found your announcement disaster hilarious, too)
