President Ron DeSantis? A girl can dream — especially after a recent exchange between the Florida governor and President Joe Biden.
Although DeSantis has dismissed hopeful rumblings about a 2024 presidential bid, a meeting Wednesday between Biden and the governor provided a glimpse into what it could mean for the nation if the Republican firebrand occupied the Oval Office.
The pair met in southwest Florida on Wednesday to survey the damage left in the wake of Hurricane Ian, the Washington Post reported.
Biden pledged billions of dollars to rebuild areas of the storm-ravaged state and, in the process, heaped high praise on DeSantis.
“I think he’s done a good job,” Biden told reporters when speaking about how DeSantis had handled the catastrophe.
“We have very different political philosophies, but we’ve worked hand in glove. … In dealing with this crisis, we’ve been in complete lockstep,” he continued.
The clip with that refreshingly honest statement from the Democratic president was shared by the Daily Wire and others.
Biden on DeSantis: “I think he’s done a good job…We have a very different political philosophy…but we’ve worked hand-in-glove.”pic.twitter.com/Lyw1IdInBv
— Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) October 5, 2022
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For his part, DeSantis returned warm words about the response from Biden and the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
“I want to thank President Biden,” DeSantis said, dispensing with his usual, well-deserved adversarial treatment of Biden.
“We were very fortunate to have good coordination with the White House and with FEMA.”
The media have been grappling to find fault with DeSantis’s storm response, but only came up with the evacuation of Lee County that came a little too late.
They’ve been hoping for something like the shortcomings they pinned on President George W. Bush in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, which he wore like an albatross around his neck thereafter.
Instead, this crisis and the ensuing meeting with Biden have raised DeSantis’s profile as a competent, caring leader able to protect the people of his state and work with whoever he must to get things done.
It can’t be overlooked that this was also a good moment for Biden as he continues to crumble under the weight of his incompetency that has led to inflation, war, military defeat, and soaring energy prices.
“They both need each other at this moment,” Davis Houck, a professor of political communication at Florida State University, said ahead of the meeting, Fox News reported.
“The president is appearing with a popular Republican governor and critic, which will make him look bipartisan.”
DeSantis also walked away looking like a politician ready to cross the aisle when it mattered most without any giving in to awful concessions, a feat seldom pulled off by anyone in the GOP establishment.
But even more wonderful than all of that, this appearance also (accidentally?) provided one of the greatest photo-ops for the throngs of eager Republicans hoping against hope that DeSantis will face off with Biden in the 2024 presidential election.
“It’s moments like this when many in the national press should realize their preconceived notions about Ron DeSantis and his leadership style are way off base,” Jesse Hunt, communications director for the Republican Governor’s Association, captioned a photo of DeSantis speaking from behind a lectern emblazoned with the presidential seal.
It’s moments like this when many in the national press should realize their preconceived notions about Ron DeSantis and his leadership style are way off base pic.twitter.com/oL8H1xywc3
— Jesse Hunt (@JJHunt10) October 5, 2022
That visual of the old, frail, slack-jawed president behind and to the side of DeSantis juxtaposed with the chiseled-jawed governor in his prime taking his place behind the presidential seal was nothing less than glorious.
The hope for a President Ron DeSantis may be a pipe dream right now as the governor trains his attention on the Sunshine State and his bid for re-election.
But it’s hard to shake the image of that young, vital, pro-life, Catholic, Republican leader up there and not envision him gracing the White House in two short years.
And every now and then, dreams do come true.
