Real political junkies would be advised to listen to today’s Commentary podcast. It features Mark Halperin as a guest. And he rates Donald Trump’s chances of winning the nomination and the presidency again rather highly compared to most analysts.
Halperin seems to share a view I’ve heard in some Republican circles, that Ron DeSantis just doesn’t have the charisma to command a national political stage. And so he advances a theory that DeSantis is, from one angle, doing the most to help Trump at this point. DeSantis’s position as the top non-Trump choice is freezing donors and candidates, who are waiting for him to make his move. Meanwhile, DeSantis is hanging back and giving Trump a monthslong head start. In this time, Trump is assembling his most professional campaign team yet and is busy collecting endorsements.