Forget The ‘Red v. Blue State’ Debate: This Was A Great Debate

Who won – and lost – Thursday night’s primetime clash between mega-Governors Ron DeSantis, Republican of the Free State of Florida, and Gavin Newsom, Democrat of the Golden State?

On this scorecard, the winners were the American people. 

And the losers: one and the same.

Why was America writ large the winner? 

Because though the event was billed as the Great Red State v. Blue State Debate, a nationwide audience was actually privileged to see a just-plain great debate between two attractive and transcendently talented politicians.

America took in more substance, more facts, more clear contrasts, more smart thrusts and parries, and more rhetorical skill, intellectual heft and displays of energy in the first five minutes of this MMA-quality cage match than in the entire series of Republican contests to date. 

The no-holds-barred, mano-a-mano square-off was the Thrilla to those debates’ Vanilla.

Your commentator will leave fact-checking to the “fact-checkers.” Because what mattered much more was the quality and skill of the participants.

Face it, folks. This Newsom guy is good. Surprisingly good, even to this jaded observer.

The Left Coast’s favorite chief executive first adroitly punctured predictable efforts to tie him to the beleaguered president, and charges that he was positioning himself for his own run for the top spot, by asserting that he was in fact there to defend the administration’s record and contrast it with DeSantis’ and the GOP’s.

Then, when Fox host and inveterate GOP-talking-point promulgator Sean Hannity put his thumb heavily on the scale by flashing seemingly case-closed statistics unfavorably comparing the two governors’ states, Newsom let loose with his own fusillade of facts and figures.

The goal: flip the prevailing narrative on his state from precipitous plunge to proud prowess – in economic scale, manufacturing, trade, R&D, innovation, Nobel laureates, higher education, all manner of technology, artificial intelligence, and more. 

Newsom also skillfully zeroed in on factoids that seemingly poked holes in the conventional wisdom regarding Florida’s superiority, and DeSantis’ governing record. On net migration, education, mental health care. On crime, where he repeatedly hammered home the comparative murder rate and gun crime statistics and cleverly invoked the Parkland massacre. 

On taxes, with the charge that Florida’s were among the most regressive in the nation. And even on COVID, an ostensible “weakest link” for which Newsom audaciously claimed across-the-board comparative outperformance and charged DeSantis with causing thousands of deaths. 

Newsom poured salt on wounds previously inflicted by Nikki Haley regarding DeSantis’ inconsistency on fracking and offshore drilling, and alleged flip-flops on immigration.

Whether all that data represented gospel truth – are more Floridians really moving to California than vice versa? – is, again, fact-checker fodder but beside the point. It sounded true and often left DeSantis off-balance.

Perhaps most critical, the Californian established and followed through on a narrative of DeSantis as an intolerant bully in the Donald Trump mold. Newsom effectively painted a word picture of a “difference between daylight and darkness” and “America in reverse:” rolling back rights for gays, women, and minorities and engaging in “a banning binge, a cultural purge, intimidating and humiliating people you disagree with,” and ultimately, “trying to light democracy on fire.”

Moreover, Newsom taunted DeSantis on the troubled state of his struggling presidential campaign – reminding him of his 40-point hole versus Trump and suggesting the Floridian clear a path for Haley and that the combatants had “one thing in common: neither of us will be the nominee in 2024.”

Nevertheless, the night brought a second surprise: Florida’s boss man, considered to be putting his entire campaign at risk by matching his meager oratorical capabilities against that of a world-class spinmeister, more than held his own.

DeSantis forwarded his own dual themes: first, “freedom over failure,” introduced by recalling a California where as a younger man he had discovered so many natural advantages (of course slipping in another mention of his military service) that you’d “almost have to try” to “screw it up.” 

Yet his on-stage foil had done exactly that: overseeing such a population outmigration that the state ran out of U-Hauls. Imposing restrictions on citizens while enjoying his famous dinner at the high-end French Laundry. Bowing to the teachers’ unions to lead the country in school closures while sending his children to private institutions. Producing the highest taxes and $7 gas, the lowest 4th-grade literacy level, and a record of rolling blackouts. 

Story line two: a “slick and slippery” politician who would engage in “a blizzard of lies” to cover for these failures.

More unexpected still, DeSantis reinforced these narratives with at least three “defining moments,” the memorable landed blows politicians pine for that remain top-of-mind when other aspects of a debate fade away.

Guv Ron’s account of an interaction with an economic migrant from California who held forth about the Sunshine State’s advantages ended with an O. Henry (knife) twist: “And oh, by the way, I’m Gavin Newsom’s father-in-law.”

Then he not once but twice produced pictures worth a thousand debate points: Californian classroom material with sections carefully blacked-out but clearly displaying all-but pornographic pictorial content. And the famed San Francisco “poop map,” with most of the center city colored in to represent spots where the homeless had defecated. 

Yes, voters had the opportunity to experience, for a change, a fast, furious, and fun feud. So why were they also the night’s losers?

Because the exchanges between two polished professionals – youthful and vibrant, focused and prepared, articulate and fast on their feet – only served to underscore the contrast, clear choice and candidates voters deserve in November 2024. When instead, the ballot will likely feature two fatally flawed fossils forwarded by a fractured process.

Thursday night demonstrated that America can – and should – do better. But almost certainly won’t.

Bob Maistros is a messaging and communications strategist, crisis specialist, and former political speechwriter. He can be reached at bob@rpmexecutive.com.