The polls are back: The prospect of an actual election between Biden and Trump or Biden and DeSantis looks fairly even, with it basically at a tie. But in the Republican primary, it’s not so even. . . .
This is why CNN is still melting down over their Trump town hall, in which the audience laughed and cheered for The Donald. Christiane Amanpour this week is talking about how she hopes the audience’s trust in CNN is “shaken, but not shattered,” and CNN media writer Oliver Darcy was scolded by his boss for his overly emotional post–town hall display, yet he continues to tweet about what has become #townhallgate.
They’re panicked with good reason: Trump is well and truly back, baby. But if you remember CNN’s ratings during the Trump presidency, then you know that quivering you see among the talking heads now might not be rage so much as thrill. More like the quivering you hear about in romance novels. There’s an unholy but unstoppable union, a love hidden but never extinguished kind of shake—yes yes yes!—it’s the story of Donald J. Trump and cable news.
I’m hoping for Trump/DeSantis winning in 2024, followed by 8 years of DeSantis in the White House. DeSantis would be a good VP for Trump because he has the government-managerial skills that Trump didn’t display last time around, with a strong corps of trusted underlings, which Trump also didn’t have. That’s also a good argument for making DeSantis the nominee, but the polls show that Republican primary voters aren’t sold on it, at least not yet. Then again, at this point in 2007, I believe Rudy Giuliani and Hillary Clinton were neck-and-neck in the polls.
UPDATE: People in the comments note that Trump and DeSantis are both from Florida, and the Constitution requires the President and VP to be from different states. I’ll just note that George W. Bush and Dick Cheney were both from Texas, until they weren’t.