That's really his biggest strength. He did best in the debate when he was pointing to the record of what he had accomplished rather than just saying what he would do.
So on the issue of education, he was able to point to banning the teaching of critical race theory and gender studies from Florida classrooms. On the issue of crime, while everybody else just talked about Soros' prosecutors, he pointed out that he had fired two of them who were refusing to enforce the law in Florida.
To me, that is the real difference between him and the rest of the candidates. We're all used to politicians talking about the things that they would do differently, but it is rare that they can point so specifically to actual examples of how they have done that.
This is also an area where DeSantis is miles above Trump - He has proved his willingness to take strong actions despite massive condemnation from the left. The left and MSM went after him hard for getting CRT and gender studies out of classrooms, but he stuck with it anyway. They did the same thing when he fired the prosecutors, filing lawsuits against him, etc.. But he's stuck to his guns.
The most obvious difference though, is on COVID. RiV's revisionism aside, most of us remember actually reading at the time how much flack does Santa's was taking for defying government recommendations. I remember reading all the articles from the Washington Post, from the New York times, and fousey's own comments, saying how DeSantis was essentially murdering older people in Florida. He took all that flak but stuck to his decisions anyway. In contrast, the excuse we have been offered on this very site for Trump's actions regarding Fauci and those recommendations is that he would have taken too much political flack if he had rejected Fauci's recommendations or removed him from that position. Trump shied away from that kind of political flag, and DeSantis didn't. That is the difference to me.
We've been through this before and RIV knows this -- I live in FL. DeSantis shut us down for a very short while and QUICKLY opened us up in steps. We were opened up fully in a very short time. Yes he defied the recommendations by the gov't and was heavily criticized. He took us forward anyways. We are known now for being a 'free' state and hundreds of thousands have moved here during the past few years. I have posted numerous links backing up my claims as well.
@Right_in_Virginia stop spewing your darn bogus talking points.
IMHO I think DeSantis was the clear winner last night; his record speaks volumes. However, I think Haley did very well, calling out Ramsy and I believe that she was a winner last night as well.
Scott was weak and I was disappointed.
Pence seemed to try to ride on the Trump administration's coattails; but
failures aren't a good thing to run on.
I liked the fact that Christie had a jab to Ramsy likening him to Obama. But that was about his only highlight of the evening.
Ramsy came across to me as about as phony and plastic as they come and I kept thinking he'd be great for a chewing gum commercial.
Hutchison - lackluster and really never got off the ground, Brugman surprised me and did a little better than Asa.