'Huffing, snorting, lunging': Brutal review by former Bush official buries DeSantis debate

David Frum, a former speechwriter for President George W. Bush, has penned a brutal review of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' debate performance for The Atlantic.

Frum started off by describing DeSantis' performance as "an exercise in huffing, snorting, and lunging at an adversary" during his debate with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, and he questioned why he even agreed to go through with it in the first place.

In fact, Frum declared that there was simply no upside to DeSantis agreeing to debate Newsom at all -- and that's even if DeSantis delivered a knockout performance against the California Democrat.

"And, of course, DeSantis did not do well," Frum argued. "He is well informed and well prepared, but he’s just not as mentally nimble as Newsom, not as natural a television performer. He loses his composure easily."

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Frum then speculated that DeSantis' ego, wounded by his perpetual inability to catch former President Donald Trump in the polls, led him to make a major strategic miscalculation.

"He feels a primal need to fight somebody, anybody, while he still can, if only to release some of the disappointment and resentment of his year-long political decline," Frum said. "And there’s Newsom, teasing and vexing him like a horse-mounted picador, in a prequel contest to the matador’s final coup de grâce. Of course, DeSantis shouldn’t lunge at him. But he must lunge at somebody."