What Made DeSantis a Star in the First Place

Invited to give his first impressions of Governor DeSantis’s interview with Jake Tapper yesterday afternoon, Bakari Sellers conceded that DeSantis had “looked decently presidential.” “He started to give the vibe,” Sellers adjudged on CNN, “that he could be president of the United States.”

This was not an endorsement — or anything close to one. Sellers is a pro-choice Democrat who served for eight years in South Carolina’s House of Representatives. He does not like Ron DeSantis or his agenda, and he does not believe that DeSantis is going to win the nomination. As if to make this clear, Sellers waited less than an hour after he had offered his initial verdict to add a bunch of caveats. “Ron DeSantis,” he proposed, “is just not that talented.” “When voters meet him,” he concluded, “they reject him when they meet him.”