Nearly four decades ago, the then-current Vice President George H.W. Bush made the phrase “vision thing” famous when he was discussing his impending presidential campaign.
In 2024, Ron DeSantis coined a remarkably similar phrase during an interview on Fox News, in which the Republican presidential candidate was pressed repeatedly about why his once-hyped campaign underperformed in key Iowa.
DeSantis said “a lot of voters were resigned” to the former President not being able to be defeated.
“They did kind of buy into the inevitability argument. And I think that’s part of the reason why the turnout was so low because I think that they just said, ‘You know, well, why go out and do it if (Donald) Trump is running away with it?’” the Governor told Neil Cavuto.
During the same interview, DeSantis sounded almost like a Trump surrogate in describing how Nikki Haley had no hope in New Hampshire, where the Governor is campaigning Friday despite being around 5% in recent tracking polls.
“The reality is that she’s not going to be able to be competitive with Donald Trump on the ground here. That’s clear from talking to voters,” DeSantis said, after spending roughly a minute complaining about being outspent and how a “lot of trees are being killed” for mail pieces on her behalf.
“Trump will run away with it in New Hampshire. I think that that’s pretty clear at this point. He’s got the momentum from Iowa and I don’t think anyone thinks that she can beat Trump in her home state of South Carolina.”
It’s unclear, however, who thinks DeSantis can win South Carolina besides his consultants. The two most recent polls of the Palmetto State found the Governor in single digits, with Trump north of 60%.
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