Smell the desperation

Created
Sun, 20/08/2023 - 05:00
Updated
Sun, 20/08/2023 - 05:00
Waiting for a man in a red fleece vest Ed Kilgore on the yearning for Youngkin: One of the best signs that Ron DeSantis’s 2024 presidential candidacy is circling the drain is the renewed enthusiasm some Republicans have for a late entry in the 2024 race who can save them from the Donald Trump and his unsatisfying rivals. This recent valentine to Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin from the New York Post’s Miranda Devine is a good example of the longing for Mr. Right on the right: You get the sense that Devine still imagines that once Youngkin has saved his state for good this fall, he can turn his magnificent visage and towering figure toward the needs of his nation. It’s probably not coincidental that Devine’s boss is News Corporation’s Rupert Murdoch, who in July was reported to have been shifting his affections to Youngkin from the disappointing DeSantis. Indeed, as Media Matters noted at about the same time, Fox News had taken up the banner of promoting Youngkin as a dark horse candidate for president: The narrative seems to be emerging on Fox News that if Youngkin can flip control of the Virginia Senate to his party in November, he could roll right into a late presidential bid on the wings of this fresh demonstration of his blue state viability. But how feasible is that sort of timetable? Not very. Sure, in the years before the universal adoption of primaries and state party caucuses to choose presidential nominees in the early 1970s, late entries able to command support from favorite-son…