Anybody who’s paying attention knows Joe Biden won’t be running for re-election. Heck, even Joe Biden, on the days he’s more compos mentis than others, probably has figured it out. One and done.
Regardless, the White House sure does love ripping on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, apparently perceiving him as Democrats’ biggest threat in 2024.
Having spent a little time living in Florida, it’s clear that the politics in the Sunshine State is, mmmm, unique. Consider the case of DeSantis’s Democratic opponent in the last gubernatorial race, who ultimately ended up being caught in a hotel room with crystal meth and purported male escort, and yet I’m sure his political career isn’t quite over. He’ll be back.
But back to DeSantis. If he has no skeletons in his closet; if COVID doesn’t overwhelm his state; if he wins re-election … then he’s a guy Democrats really need to worry about. Because if he ends up with the Republican presidential nomination in 2024, it seems clear he could – not necessarily would, but could – clobber anybody the Democrats might nominate. He has the pugnaciousness of Trump but is far more focused and, let’s just say it, grounded in reality than the Don-Don could ever hope to be.
So we’ll see. Many twists and turns to come. But every time you hear President Biden or his acolytes go after DeSantis, they’re doing it out of abject fear of what might be around the corner.
JUST LIKE HOW THE SOVIETS USED TO SHOP: There’s a supermarket in the local area whose location I won’t mention, in order to be charitable, but I know it as the “Decrepit Safeway.”
Not because there’s anything wrong with the store – lordy, I do love the store-made jalapeno bagels there – but because of the clientele.
Even before COVID, it seemed like the average customer at this particular outlet was either extremely aged, infirm or projected a truly dour demeanor. Except for the fact that the shelves are fully stocked, walking through the aisles is an experience akin to being transported back in time to 1970s Moscow, with all joy forcibly removed from the populace.
It’s even worse now that we’ve gone back to masking, and the crowd at this store is probably masked morning, noon and night because CNN tells them to be. (I play along with the public-health theater while in the store, although I draw the line and sometimes yank my mask down below my nose. If our doctor-governor believed masking up truly made a difference, he’d be requiring us to do it. Right, governor? Just asking …)
It’s all so, to sum up in a single word, sad to wander through. Then again, there is the siren song of those bagels that bring me back maybe once a month to check things out . . .
THANK YOU, LIBRARY SYSTEM: It took three attempts online to rectify the situation, but the Arlington library system finally believes that I really did return two books in early June that had remained on my account through the start of August.
Earlier this week, they disappeared from my account, and the books are listed as now available on the library system Website. So, yep, I really was telling the truth when I said I dropped them into the return slot at Shirlington Library 😊.
- Scott McCaffrey