Don’t write off DeSantis – he’s been rope-a-doping Trump and is about to come out swinging
The greatest victory in sports history came when Muhammad Ali knocked out George Foreman to win back the world heavyweight championship boxing title in 1974.
Foreman was a ferocious bear of a man with an infamous “anywhere punch” that was reputed to break bones wherever it landed.
He demolished both Joe Frazier and Ken Norton, the only men to have beaten Ali, in just two brutal rounds, and few expected anything different when he got in the ring with Ali himself for the “Rumble in the Jungle” in Zaire.
Foreman duly unloaded his relentless bombs on Ali, who spent most of the time leaning on the ropes, soaking up the fearsomely powerful assault.
Nobody could understand this apparently suicidal rope-a-dope strategy other than Ali himself, who had deliberately planned it to exhaust his opponent.
As Foreman himself later recounted: “I thought he was just one more knockout victim until, about the seventh round, I hit him hard to the jaw and he held me and whispered in my ear: ‘That all you got, George?’ I realized that this ain’t what I thought it was.”
It wasn’t.
In the eighth round, Ali suddenly sprang off the ropes and into attack with a fusillade of punches and knocked out the seemingly invincible Foreman.
The Greatest didn’t win because he was the stronger man.
He won because he had the smarter tactics, and the courage to execute them.
Donald Trump is the political equivalent of George Foreman — a giant, bruising brawler who destroys opponents with brute force.
It’s a technique that powered him to the White House in 2016, nearly powered him into staying there in 2020, and is powering him toward the White House again now.
But he’s about to face his own Rumble in the Jungle-style fight with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and DeSantis is showing every sign of being the opponent Trump fears most: one who can soak up his punches and knock him out.
For evidence of this, look at how Trump’s been escalating his attacks on DeSantis — openly mocking him, trash-talking him and knocking his record.
Then look at how DeSantis has responded — sitting back on the ropes and taking the blows, but not really engaging.
Trump’s soaring poll numbers, helped by martyrdom off the back of his legal issues, are the same as they would have been for George Foreman in the first few rounds of that showdown, when everyone assumed he’d win.
But consider this: DeSantis is still by far the second favorite to win the GOP nomination and he hasn’t even said he’s running yet.
And despite all the abuse Trump’s hurling at him, and all the added criticism from the rest of the GOP candidate field, he’s showing no sign of being hurt.
Why not?
Because DeSantis, like Ali, knows exactly what he’s doing.
When I interviewed him several months ago, he said the difference between him and Trump was “No daily drama, focus on the big picture and put points on the board.”
Since then, the more aggressively unhinged Trump has grown, the calmer DeSantis has been, and as someone who’s known Trump well for nearly 20 years, I say this benign response will be as disconcerting to him as Ali’s rope-a-dope was to Foreman.
It’s also proving very troubling to liberals.
When it comes to working out what’s really happening in American politics, I find it educational to watch “The View.”
Not, I hasten to add, because I enjoy it.
The current roster of women on the show’s panel are an insufferably woke and self-righteous bunch of supremely irritating prima donnas.
But as such, they collectively form an accurate barometer of whom the left most fears in a conservative opponent.
And right now, it’s not Donald Trump, it’s Ron DeSantis.
“What scares me about DeSantis is that he offers Trumpism without Trump,” Sunny Hostin said yesterday. “So, those people that are so repelled by Donald Trump won’t be as repelled by him. And those manufactured culture issues seem to be very effective … he’s a lawyer, he’s Harvard- and Yale-educated. So, he’s not a stupid man.”
Then Hostin chose an issue in the news to illustrate what she meant:
“He (DeSantis) actually tweeted out about the young man [Jordan Neely] that was killed on a subway with a chokehold by a former Marine … DeSantis says he’s not a vigilante, he’s this great guy … when in New York, this is a reckless killing … so this tells me how dangerous he is.”
Hmmm.
I wonder what other New Yorkers have to say about that, especially those New Yorkers who travel on the city’s increasingly unsafe, violent subway system and know what real danger looks like.
The ex-Marine, Daniel Penny, stepped in to protect complete strangers when Neely, a mentally ill man who had been arrested 42 times, including four for alleged assault, began yelling menacingly and saying he was ready to die.
There’s a legitimate argument to be made, as it will be in court, over how long Penny should have held Neely in a chokehold given that Neely died.
When does self-defense or a courageous act of citizenship become a criminal act?
But this was no George Floyd situation.
Penny, a man who was decorated for serving his country with valor, was clearly doing what he thought was the right thing in restraining a deranged individual from threatening fellow passengers.
For the likes of Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) to instantly brand it a “public execution” was a reprehensible mischaracterization of what happened.
And I would think many New Yorkers agree with Ron DeSantis when he said: “We must stop the Left’s pro-criminal agenda and take back the streets for law abiding citizens. We stand with Good Samaritans like Daniel Penny. Let’s show this Marine … America’s got his back.’
DeSantis hasn’t just shown a sure-footed instinct for what many Americans think about these kinds of stories.
He’s also been getting on with “putting points on the board” in Florida with a series of legislative wins that reinforce his impressive record as governor.
He’s been tough on crime, illegal immigration, cancel culture, woke educators, and virtue-signaling corporations like Disney.
He’s kept taxes low, fueling rapid economic growth.
And he’s pleased the MAGA base by taking strong positions on abortion limits and gun rights.
Most importantly, he’s shown himself to be a winner, turning a meager 33,000-vote majority into over 1.5 million in last November’s midterms.
All while Trump’s turned into a serial electoral loser.
Over the weekend, DeSantis reminded Republicans: “There’s no substitute for victory. We must reject the culture of losing that has infected our party in recent years. The time for excuses is over. We gotta demonstrate the courage to lead and the strength to win. Governing is not about entertaining. Governing is not about building a brand or talking on social media and virtue signaling. It’s ultimately about winning and producing results.”
He’s right.
There’s a debate raging among Republicans about whether DeSantis should continue to play nice or start punching back at his mentor-turned-tormentor.
But you don’t get to be senior legal counsel to a Navy SEAL commander in the Iraq war, as he did, by always playing nice.
Very soon, I predict Ron DeSantis is going to announce he’s running, spring off the ropes, and start swinging at Donald Trump, probably with the words, “That all you got, Donald?”
It will make the Rumble in the Jungle look like a tea party.
And my money’s on DeSantis knocking him out.
