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Mark **** **** MINI ESSAY ON RON DESANTISI’ve watched a lot of the storm briefings the governor of Florida has held in the last few days. It’s clear that he agrees with the Ron Klain School of disaster management: get the basics right in terms of performance, oiling squeaky wheels before they squeak; put out mountains of information to both demonstrate competence and give the media something to focus on; and find the balance between putting the Big Dog before the cameras and deferring to the experts when sensible, including giving camera time to others (including the First Lady). It is impossible not to be impressed with DeSantis’ mind, his capacity to hold in his head and organize a lot of data, to speak fluidly and with confidence. It is also striking how rarely he speaks of the humanity involved as if he is a human, clearly preferring the crisp, cool efficiency of the zeros and ones of the data connected to the storm to lyrical homages to the people of Florida and the intermixing of tragedy and bravery. Sure, he sometimes nods in the direction of passion and inspiration, but it comes off more as rote than revved up. When he calls his constituents “resilient folks,” he means it, but to paraphrase another former big state governor, DeSantis’ performance is all about competence – not inspiration. And another: he is all prose, no poetry. The political press is making much of the “new” (actually, temporary) Ron DeSantis, who has played nice with the Feds for storm purposes, including with the president who not that long ago he was mocking with a maturity level just below that of Greg Gutfeld. But he is still the same guy. Sure thing: The economic rebuild will have a long way to go after we see the pretty imminent return of Battlin’/Super Partisan Ron. Semi-essential reading: a. The Washington Post on the (for now) “apolitical” Sunshine State topper. b. The New York Post on the White House’s unwillingness to return the praise. **** MINI ESSAY ON THE MIDTERM BATTLE FOR HOUSE CONTROLYou can read one Nate (Cohn in the New York Times, who has an essential reading look at the most optimistic data-driven manner in which to imagine the continuation of the Pelosi speakership), the other Nate (with a hi, ho warning that Democratic prospects might be worse than the CW), a veeerrrry long Al Giordano race-by-race look from which almost all of you will learn something), or/and this tweet:   Inhale it all and you will end up in the same place we started: Barring abortion being a far bigger factor than the data currently suggests, we are talking about an R net gain of anywhere from 9 to 29 seats, under any scenario enough to gain the majority. And that forecast is unlikely to change between now and Election Day. Essential reading: Matthew Continetti’s essay balling up all the reasons that newly buoyed Gang of 500 Republicans like their chances of winning back control of both chambers demonstrates why he is one of the featured speakers at Sunday’s Lauriol Plaza brunch. **** MINI ESSAY ON RED AMERICA’S DISDAIN FOR THE DOMINANT MEDIAI mean, there are 48 examples a day that illustrate why about half the country thinks the playing field is tilted against them by a biased press corps. But this one kind of jumps out like a practical joke-loving dad during a hide-and-seek marathon session.   Forget Donald Trump; if Ronald Reagan in office had mistakenly called out to a dead person (who was “top of mind….”), would any leading newspaper suggest it was a sign of his big heart? ***** ESSENTIAL READING1. The Wall Street Journal checks in on the Ohio Senate race, with a pretty good explanation of why Tim Ryan is doing well and a rare J.D. Vance interview. 2. The Washington Post tells us everything we want to know about the status of the Trump legal team, with tidbits galore, color color color, and a reminder that at Mar-a-Lago every day is Groundhog Day. 3. Tom Friedman’s column on Putin is mostly a re-run, but the North Korea metaphor is instructive.   **** BURIED THE LEDE
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