I sat through the debate between Ron DeSantis and Gavin Newsom that was hosted by Fox News.  It was “moderated” by Sean Hannity.

At the beginning of the debate, Hannity pointed out (about himself) that he is a conservative, but that it was his job to be fair and moderate the debate.  Immediately after that, he pulled up a chart and asked why so many people are leaving California and migrating into Florida.

It seemed like every question asked by Hannity started with some kind of a chart or graphic showing why California is bad and Florida is good.  This included education, crime, the price of gas, and several other things.  Maybe it’s just because most everything is worse in California these days, but you would think Hannity would have at least thrown in a question about something in Florida not doing well.

As a Floridian, I can say that things are far from perfect.  As Newsom pointed out, there is a problem with violent crime in the cities in Florida.  The government school system is mostly a disaster, although I’m guessing it is worse in California.  With all of the new money coming into Florida (higher property tax base and more people), you would think the state of Florida would build new roads and expand existing ones.  Maybe this has happened to some degree, but traffic keeps getting worse and worse, even with more people working at home.

I say all of this only to point out that Florida has its problems like everywhere else.  I thought Hannity might challenge DeSantis with something.  Instead, Hannity was quite obviously on team DeSantis and didn’t even try to hide it with the questioning.

I’m not sure if this helped or hurt DeSantis.  It helped by directing the questions that were tough for Newsom to answer.  The only problem is that it seemed that Hannity was only trying to help DeSantis with the questions, which could perhaps weaken DeSantis.  Some might think that DeSantis can only win the debate because he is being assisted by the person asking the questions.

Winners and Losers

Fox News was a winner just for hosting the debate.  That was probably Hannity’s most watched show ever.  He isn’t exactly popular these days, especially since Fox fired Tucker Carlson, who’s show used to be right before Hannity.

Unfortunately for Fox News, this was a one-time event.  They got high ratings for an hour or two.  Now they can go back to having mostly establishment Republicans watch the channel, and there aren’t even that many of those watching.  Since Tucker was fired, Gutfeld is the only mildly interesting and entertaining show, and even that has seemed to go downhill fast since the October 7^th attacks in Israel.

The end of the debate was kind of awkward where Hannity said they would just keep going for another hour or so.  When they came back from commercial, the debate was declared done because of prior commitments.  I’m not sure what commitments they had at 10:30 at night.  Either way, when you say a debate will be a certain length, you should try to stick to that timeframe, at least somewhat.

I thought Donald Trump would be a winner, just as he has been with the Republican debates.  But I can’t really say that’s the case here.  Trump is still the big favorite to be the Republican nominee, but it wouldn’t surprise me if DeSantis gains a few percentage points in the polls after this.

The one-on-one format was much better for DeSantis, and it is much better in general.  These debates with many people talking over each other and hurling insults is not a good look.  When it is just two people doing the same thing, it is more controllable.

I know how slick Gavin Newsom is.  He reminds me of Bill Clinton (back in the day) in many ways.  Yet, I thought Newsom didn’t do that great.  He tried to sell us some narratives that just fell flat to me.  If anyone thought he was really effective, I’m sorry to say that they just aren’t that bright.  Anyone believing the drivel coming out of Newsom is just not that intelligent or is completely blinded by politics.

For DeSantis, I would give him a “B” for performance.  If there hadn’t been foreign policy questions at the end, maybe I would give him an “A-“.  He was mostly effective on the domestic issues that were discussed (helped by Hannity’s questions), although there were some times where he could have been even stronger.

The Issues

On the question of people leaving California and going to Florida, there isn’t much to say.  The numbers speak for themselves.  Newsom tried to say that more people moved from Florida to California than moved from California to Florida.  I have no idea if that’s true, but it is mostly irrelevant.  What matters is the overall net numbers.  People leaving Michigan and New York are more likely to move to Florida than California (just as an example).  That is the point.

On the question of taxes, Newsom defended the high taxes by saying that we need progressive taxation and that millionaires and billionaires pay more in his state.

I thought a good retort by DeSantis could have been to sarcastically agree with Newsom and say that he’s right.  All of the homeless people in California are spared from paying the progressive income taxes.

There were several times DeSantis referred to Newsom as a lockdown governor and pointed out that his kids were in private school while California public schools were shut down.  He also pointed out Newsom eating at a fancy restaurant while Californians were locked down.  I was surprised that Newsom actually came back at DeSantis one time and said that Florida was locked down, which is true.  But that seems to fall flat, just as when Trump says it, because DeSantis was one of the least bad governors on this issue (unless you have the perspective that the lockdowns were great).

There were a few times that Hannity interrupted the conversations because they were talking over each other, but then Hannity moved on to another question.  I actually wanted to hear them argue it out because it went against Newsom.  Hannity could have simply asked that they speak one at a time.  Instead, he moved on.  It may have been straying too far from Hannity’s range of allowable opinion.

The so-called book banning in Florida came up a few times.  DeSantis did ok with that, but I thought he could have been more effective.  He should have more explicitly pointed out that the only statewide bans are for pornographic material in government-funded institutions.  The more well-known books that some people say are banned are not banned.  If a book is not made available in one school or one school district in Florida, this has nothing to do with DeSantis, and it is false to imply it is a statewide ban.

There was one funny sidebar where Newsom tried to lecture DeSantis on how to pronounce “Kamala” (as in, the vice president).  I can’t imagine this plays well to anyone other than the most diehard leftists.

On abortion, I thought Newsom might get the better of DeSantis.  Surprisingly, I think DeSantis came out on top because of Hannity’s questioning.  Hannity kept asking Newsom if he supports any ban on abortion, even in months 7, 8, and 9.  Newsom couldn’t directly answer the question, and you could tell he was a bit uncomfortable.  Even most people who identify as pro-choice see a problem with aborting a baby that could easily survive outside the womb.

On the subject of gas prices, Newsom just sounded like an idiot.  He is blaming big oil companies for gouging California.  DeSantis rightly pointed out that it is strange that they aren’t gouging Florida and other states.  Why would oil companies only be gouging California?  You would have to be a complete dolt when it comes to economics, or maybe life in general, to believe that oil companies would only gouge California but offer a lower price to everyone else.

Foreign Policy

Ron DeSantis has been terrible on foreign policy.  He hasn’t been Nikki Haley terrible, but still pretty bad.  That is a major reason that I don’t want him as president.

The topic of foreign policy came up briefly near the end of the debate.  They were both bad.  I thought maybe Newsom would be better on this issue from a libertarian perspective, but he is even bad on this.

For this reason, they would both be terrible presidents.  DeSantis showed that he is much better on domestic issues than Newsom.  The problem is that if DeSantis became president, he wouldn’t be a fiscal conservative because he would be too busy funding the U.S. empire overseas.

I will also point out that DeSantis hasn’t exactly been a budget cutter in Florida.  Again, he is just less bad than other governors.

Conclusion

Overall, DeSantis did himself a favor by doing this debate.  It won’t be near enough to overtake Trump, but it does put him in a position to possibly run again in 2027/ 2028.

By doing this debate, DeSantis was not trying to convince independents and undecided voters with regard to Democrats and Republicans.  He was trying to convince the Republican base to support him.  It is easier to go against a leftwinger like Newsom than other Republicans.  It draws a clearer line for DeSantis.  It allows him to rail against leftwing policies.

Newsom did his best to assure everyone that he isn’t running for president next year and that he is all in on the Biden/ Harris ticket.  We all know that’s not true, and DeSantis pointed that out.

As soon as the Democrats (and the establishment in general) decide to dump Biden, Newsom will be more than happy to step in.

I knew he was a slick politician going into the debate, and he played the part well.  But I was surprised at how weak some of his arguments were.  He was not nearly as impressive as I thought he might be.  For that, I am happy.  If Newsom ends up on the Democratic Party ticket in 2024 (or 2028), his fakeness will show through to many people.  I would now give him lower odds of winning the presidency than what I thought going into the debate.