Thread by @dougblandry

🚨 GOP LAUNCH REVIEW🚨

First images of Ron DeSantis' first event as a candidate are out!

My knee-jerk reaction is: mediocre at very best.

Will link my earlier threads about this weird venue choice below

Follow this thread for ~MORE INSIGHT + WISDOM~

🧵🧵🧵#DeSantisAdvance

first, if you're wondering

"hey, is that a relatively small, low-ceilinged church sanctuary that Ron DeSantis' team picked for his huge launch event, against both the law and basic common sense?"

yes, yes it is. Read more about that in this thread...

And this thread:

Of course, the DNC has shown up with its video truck, as is to be expected

This chartered Gulfstream IV that just landed in DSM about 20 mins ago is almost def the good governor - not a ton of folks flying from TLH > DSM, and it's got a flight plan scheduled to go to SUX tonight (Sioux City, DeSantis' first stop of four tomorrow)

(paging @noahmtweets)

Gulfstream registration # N102BQ is not a bad way to get around, if you ask me

okay back to the event itself

the problem w/ the GIANT AMERICAN FLAG is that your tight shot for TV - inside the yellow box - the image that will be used by the media today and ostensibly be displayed in the Smithsonian after your two terms in office is...

two ginormous stripes

Don't get me wrong, you will find no bigger fan of giant American flags than one Mr. Douglas B. Landry, but used this way makes it look like you're appearing in front of a circus tent on TV

ok so we are working with a maximum capacity crowd that you might see at a moderately contested campaign launch for State Senate, more or less

(i also counted the chairs and got roughly this same # - it's 30 seats wide by about 10-12 rows deep)

you really gotta hand it to these guys - their dedication to absolutely atrocious lectern sign design is unmatched and consistent..there's about 2 nanometers of margin on those top edges

As far as I can tell, they're just using the church's built-in stage lighting with no modifications/augmentation which...is definitely a choice.

I guess if it's good enough for Pastor Jesse (my good friend at @jessthenewman) it's good enough for anyone!!

And we're underway...

Circus stripes: ✅
Mediocre lighting: ✅

(this is a screenshot from their own livestream on Rumble here: rumble.com/v2r0dq3-govern…)

And the circus stripes aren't even close to straight

(but I must admit that 5-12345 is a pretty easy-to-remember text short code, though)

Ron is working off paper - no teleprompter - but he's looking down about 40% of the time

Their own in-house feed they're using for quick clips is on an extreme angle and shaking a ton

(but at least the lighting looks better here)

Just a dynamite setup if you are running for President of the Republic of Poland

here's a decent still image during remarks

what do y'all think?

i have seen enough

no major disasters & there were no protestors, so it wasn't a F

but it was definitely at best a C-

easily the worst launch yet - by any measure a big notch down from Haley / Scott and even Asa Hutchinson

Bad venue choice. Small crowd. Low energy. Not good.

i truly do not understand his team's choices so far

they had 2 things that a lot of campaigns don't: time and money

just take the time to find the right place and build a crowd, and spend the money to make it look good

Asa frickin' Hutchinson figured this out - but you can't?

these are bafflingly bad decisions on optics / staging / advance-y type stuff so far

either they are dumb (always a possible explanation in life)

or alternatively: they don't think it matters / don't care

I guess we'll find out who's right

[spoiler: they're not right]

IN CONCLUSION, they have ten more stops in Iowa / NH / SC over the next 72 hours, so SURELY this well oiled machine has things well in hand and it'll all be even better from here on out...