DeSantis took credit for Florida’s progress but Iowa may have sniffed out his bravado | Opinion – Yahoo News Canada

Was there anything more absurd than the NFL forcing the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs to compete in a playoff game where the wind-chill temperature was 27 degrees below zero?

Yes! Even more absurd is a GOP nominating process that kicks off with caucuses in Iowa, a state that, by virtually every measure, is extremely unrepresentative of the American electorates demographic diversity and political climate.

Although the winners in Iowa dont necessarily go on to win the nomination, this year may be an exception, given the size of Donald Trumps margin of victory. In most election years, however, Iowas key role is to winnow down the field. By the time the caucuses were held on Monday night, however, the field had been pre-winnowed down to three viable candidates: Trump, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley.

The frigid weather resembled that for the Dolphins game, so the outcome depended to some degree on which candidates supporters were passionate enough to show up under those conditions.

In the end Trumps avid MAGA base showed up enough to give him the largest margin of victory of any Republican candidate in the history of Iowas first-in-the nation caucuses, with 51% of the votes. His decisive victory was a foregone conclusion, but, as the pundits had prophesied, the real race in Iowa was for second place.

That was more of a toss-up than most observers initially expected. DeSantis, who finished nearly 30 points behind Trump, did narrowly edge Haley for second place. Then, with a show of bravado in his post-election speech to supporters, DeSantis referred to himself as the next President of the United States. Dream on.

In fact, the outcome had to be something of a disappointment for DeSantis, given the time and money he invested in a ground game. His goal was to finish first or at least to emerge as the sole surviving alternative to Trump.

Instead, like Lucy snatching away the football from Charley Brown, Haley finished a close third with 19.1%, just behind DeSantiss 21.2%. That was much better than the initial projections for her candidacy. When she entered the race in Iowa, she stood at 2% while DeSantis had much bigger numbers.

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What went wrong for DeSantis, who held events in all 99 of Iowas counties? First, he oversold his record as Floridas governor, where he had assumed the role of field general in a vague war against woke, a battle that led to conflicts with Disney, drag queens, and university leaders.

Moreover, as he did last week during his state-of-the-state address during the opening of the Florida 2024 legislative session, DeSantis boasted of Floridas high rankings in K-12 and higher education as though those had been achieved during his first term.

In reality, Floridas impressive gains in education date back to a foundation of accountability put in place by DeSantis predecessors beginning with Gov. Jeb Bush and including legislative leaders such as U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio. DeSantis tendency to take credit for things he had little to do with while omitting mention of problems, such as high insurance rates and housing costs, reflects his Trump-like all-about-me personality.

DeSantis is a non-factor in New Hampshire, where Haley is mounting a last-ditch challenge to Trump, but instead of dropping out, as he should, hes heading to Haleys home state of South Carolina for a Feb. 24 primary. Meanwhile, the continued presence of multiple candidates helps Trump by delaying any chance of Republicans coalescing behind a single alternative.

That, as Haley pointed out in remarks following the Iowa caucuses, could guarantee another closely contested race between Trump and Joe Biden a sequel that, polls show, most Americans emphatically do not want.

Robert F. Sanchez, of Tallahassee, is a former member of the Miami Herald Editorial Board. He writes for the Heralds conservative opinion newsletter, Right to the Point. Its weekly, and its free. To subscribe, go to miamiherald.com/righttothepoint.

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DeSantis took credit for Florida's progress but Iowa may have sniffed out his bravado | Opinion - Yahoo News Canada