(CNN) The past few months have not been particularly good for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

His utter lack of decisiveness and his misstatements in dealing with the state's ongoing fight against coronavirus has drawn him lots and lots of attention -- none of it good.

In each episode of his weekly YouTube show, Chris Cillizza will delve a little deeper into the surreal world of politics. Click to subscribe!

"You know what Florida really needs right now?

"A governor.

"But in Ron DeSantis, Florida, at this most challenging time of the coronavirus, has a hesitant leader who continues to split the baby; a man who we would like to think is acting against his better judgment, perhaps, for political favor, but to the detriment of the rest of us."

Woof.

Add to that a few things that happened just yesterday :

* DeSantis declared WWE -- yes, professional wresting -- an "essential" business in the state , meaning that the organization could run live shows from its facility in Orlando. (Sidebar: I am a GIANT pro wrestling fan. But did we need a live "Monday Night Raw" on, uh, Monday night?)

And that error came after weeks of criticism of DeSantis for resisting the issuance of a stay-at-home order in the state -- particularly given its considerable senior population and the virus' demonstrated deadliness for those 65 years and older.

When DeSantis did finally put out a stay-at-home order, his reasoning for doing so was, uh, questionable. "When you see the President up there and his demeanor the last couple of days, that's not necessarily how he always is," DeSantis explained. So, Trump's more somber "demeanor" at one press conference was the key to DeSantis' decision? Righto!

DeSantis' defenders note that while Florida is the third most populated state in the country, it is barely in the top 10 of states with the most coronavirus cases and its numbers of deaths (499) are nothing close to New York (10,000+), New Jersey (2,400+) and Michigan (1,600+).

To that argument I would point people to a tweet on Monday night from Yahoo News' Alexander Nazaryan

"Florida now has twice as many coronavirus cases (20,601) as South Korea (10,537).

"About 30 million more people live in South Korea than in Florida."

The simple truth about DeSantis that has been exposed over the past month is this: He simply wasn't (and isn't) ready for the challenge that coronavirus poses to his state. He spent three terms representing Florida in the US House before launching what was, at the start, considered a long-shot bid for the state's open governorship in 2018 (DeSantis had served as a Judge Advocate General in the Navy.) DeSantis was plucked from obscurity by Trump, who endorsed his primary bid -- catapulting him from forgotten to frontrunner. Trump was also by DeSantis' side during the general election, campaigning for him on the day before the 2018 vote.

While DeSantis' fealty to Trump -- he ran ads during the campaign showing him chanting "build that wall" at his toddler daughter -- served him well in getting to the governor's office, it has been a less effective strategy to deal with the coronavirus pandemic in Florida.

A much less effective strategy.

Source: CNN

Powered by NewsAPI.org