Sheldon: What is that you’re eating? Tonight is pizza night.
Leonard: I’d like to refer that to my attorney.
Priya: According to what I see here, Thursday nights are Franconi’s pizza night.
Sheldon: Yes, and when Franconi’s went out of business, we switched to Graziano’s.
Howard: That’s interesting. Can you just switch restaurants like that, Priya?
Priya: A good question, Howard. Turns out you can’t. According to the document you drew up, Sheldon, the selection of a new takeout restaurant requires public hearings and a 60-day comment period. Were those criteria met?
Sheldon: No.
All: Opa!
Sheldon: This is Greek food? Leonard, you hate Greek food.
Leonard: Not as much as you.
The Big Bang Theory: The Agreement Dissection 2011
Following up to my DeSantis endorsement There is one key advantage of Ron DeSantis over Donald Trump that everyone seems to be missing.
I’ve been a political junkie for 47 years and based on what I’ve seen the GOP do since Reagan left the room, Ron DeSantis is the type of candidate that the deep state and the GOP establishment historically hates.
Think for a second about his record: Ron DeSantis has
- Openly taken on big business grooming squad (the same Disney & Budlight that Trump defended)
- Openly taken on the Democrat machines in Broward county (the ones that the deep state has let operate)
- Openly taken on blue states on illegal immigration (that the deep state deferred to) and
- Openly taken on big pharma on COVID (the ones that have grown rich off of COVID)
- Openly taking on big education
In short he is everything the get along go along GOP despises. Any other year the GOP deep state establishment would do all they could to marginalize, and even destroy presidential asperations he might have. Oh they might allow him a guy like him a seat but when it comes to the White House they would strive to sabotage him in the primaries as they have done to every strong conservative willing to fight the culture wars since the day I left the Democrat party last century.
Yet this year as many of the #OnlytrumpTM types have noted both here and at Instapundit in comments there are quite a few of these folks openly for DeSantis.
Why? Two words: Donald Trump
Donald Trump has changed the equation he is so despised by the GOP establishment (although some not as openly as others) that suddenly a guy like DeSantis who any other year they would be fighting tooth and nail is suddenly a viable and even desirable alternative for the GOP nomination.
Make no mistake, in any other year with no Trump on the ballot that same establishment would be pushing one of the squishes and calling DeSantis an extremist and doing all they could to destroy him.
That’s how much the establishment hates President Trump, they hate Trump so much that they’ll support an actual strong conservative to stop him and help him win in November just to spite the Donald.
I know it’s a silly thought on my part but I think actually increasing the potential vote pool, particularly in non-deep red states that aren’t already in the bank for us just might be a good idea even if those votes come from those icky folks not sufficiently Maga.
Finally I think the prospect of these jerks helping us to eight years of winning the culture wars and standing up to those who would soak the taxpayer to enrich their friends and being willing to openly fight the Democrats seems not only a good idea but a better revenge on those guys than anything else actually achievable.
DeSantis 2024!
Da Techguy's (no longer backup) Blog 
He lost the fight with Disney … GopE hates Disney too … DeSantis is not America first he’s not even Florida first …
And DeSantis’ numbers continued to drop over the weekend from 15.2% to 14.8% within the party, whilst Trump has climbed from 54.2% to 54.5%. Support for DeSantis has dropped from over 30% in February/March to under 15% in August. The more the Republican base sees of DeSantis, the less they support him. Numbers matter.
Look, you are free to endorse whomever you want, but with polling numbers like this what you are doing is nothing more than a subversive act that will weaken Trump and, by derivative, other Republicans in the 2024 general election. Trump and DeSantis have split 70%-80% of the votes in the Republican party since polling started, with the remaining 20%-30% being split between the other candidates. If the polling numbers were close (like 35-35 or even 42-32), then it would be completely reasonable to support DeSantis. But at 54-15, this isn’t even close–Trump is the clear choice of the constituents and he deserves the full support of the party. Endorsing DeSantis with numbers like these is simply destructive.
The DC Establishment, including the GOPe, hate Trump (precisely because they can’t control him) and desperately want a different candidate. Before you continue too far down this path, at least consider the possibility that you are falling into the trap that the GOPe have set to try to peel off support from Trump bit-by-bit until it seems reasonable for the RNC to exclude Trump from the candidate pool.
In this regard, it’s important to remember that DeSantis was on a glide path to be the Republican nominee in 2028. All he had to do was keep governing in Florida and support Trump in 2024. He did not enter the 2024 race until big-money Republican donors (the same donors who control the RNC) offered him their financial backing in an effort to defeat Trump in the primary. These facts alone are enough to tell you that DeSantis IS the GOPe candidate and IS controlled by the GOP donor class.
If you are going to continue down this path, you should openly address the question of why you are willing to extend the middle finger to the majority of Republican party constituents?
You’re entitled to your own opinion, but not your own facts
Yeah how are I insult the majority of the GOP by choosing the candidate I think is most likely to win and having their candidate as my 2nd choice.
I seem to recall that the polls said Hillary would win in a walk in 2016 as well so I think I’ll see what happens when real votes come in.
Again, with these polling numbers, if you are going to continue down this path, you should openly address the question of why you are willing to extend the middle finger to the majority of Republican party constituents?
It’s about allocation of finite resources. With polling numbers like this, there is no question who the candidate should be. Rather than spending finite resources on a divisive primary campaign, the Republican party should be putting all its resources behind Trump and organizing ballot harvesting operations in the swing states. They won’t because the GOPe would prefer to lose the election if Trump is the candidate.
These Trump voters believe firmly that the 2020 election was stolen, and they are most likely correct. If the GOPe steals the nomination from Trump, which is their intent, these Trump voters are not going to swallow hard and vote for DeSantis. They are going to stay home, as they well should, and DeSantis is going to lose in a landslide.
By virtue of maintaining this blog you are an influencer. It’s perfectly within your right to endorse DeSantis, but if it plays out this way you need to own your part in the debacle after the election loss. The same goes for Ace, Schlicter, et al.
If you are so sure of your polling numbers then you should not be afraid of the voters having choices to vote.
You’ll note for example that I didn’t call on Trump or any GOP candidate to leave the field, if the voters decide to go with Trump so be it and I’ll support him though I think the charge will be futile.
The better question is why are you so afraid of facing DeSantis and more importantly why was the Trump campaign hitting him in all kinds of interesting ways even before he had entered the race if he considers him a non-threat.
I think that’s a very good question.