I so very much enjoyed Ron DeSantis’ presidential campaign announcement. I mean, I didn’t actually hear it as it was happening because I haven’t used Twitter since 2015 and I canceled my account during the Musk takeover. And also, I have just no idea what Twitter Spaces is and no burning desire to find out. But oh, I heard the announcement later. I mean, sort of:

Okay, the first question I have is who on DeSantis’ team told him that it would be an excellent idea to launch on an audio-only platform with a rapidly dwindling fan base flanked by two billionaires, neither of whom are known for their even-handed temperaments or effective political strategies? 

Who was it? Anyone? I’ve been trying to think about what the possible rationale would be for this. And the only reason I can come up with for allying yourself with Musk and announcing in such a truly bananas setting is — donations, I guess. Now clearly, Musk, who used to position himself as an independent, is allying himself with DeSantis and that corner of the Republican Party. So presumably he’ll be handing over a big check to one of DeSantis’ Super PACs. 

And I imagine the same for David Sachs, who, as an aside, is not a person I have ever thought about or whose opinions I have ever cared about. And I think it’s safe to say that the only reason he was there was that he’s like a crony of Musk’s. So just, weird. That’s just not the point of a campaign announcement. The point of a campaign announcement is to figure out what the party needs and what you can provide — in other words, your best and brightest qualities. And like that’s kind of it. It’s not a fundraising moment. It’s an excitement-generating, confidence-building moment. And on those fronts, this was a less than shining example.

Look, the fact that DeSantis’ announcement was a glitchy disaster isn’t even the point. Glitches happen. The take home here is that the younger, allegedly more savvy, allegedly more middle of the road, potential Republican candidate seems to be specializing and making a laughing stock of himself in really off-brand, tone deaf ways. Like remember, starting the fights with Mickey Mouse? That was another one. 

And sure, history has shown us that the Republican party seems to have a pretty high tolerance for ridiculous despotic candidates who are comfortable saying they’re for the people while visibly allying themselves with the “richiest” of the richier rich white men. But come on. If you’re going to pull a stunt like this, at least do the media solid, and pair that audio with a little video so that we don’t all have to play this garbled mess accompanied by, well, this:

You can do better boys. Reach for those stars.