At a town hall in New Hampshire, Ron DeSantis was asked how he will respond when Trump starts belittling him and name-calling in personal attacks on the debate stage. His answer was a glimmer that the Ron DeSantis we’ve been waiting to show up on the campaign trail is still there.

Is he finally waking up? The question now is whether or not it is too late to make a difference. DeSantis pointed out what many Republican voters think – the way Trump speaks is not presidential. Sure, the most ardent Trump supporters love the trash-talking and the crude way Trump speaks of other people. However, this is 2023, not 2015, and the novelty of having a Republican candidate speaking without a filter is no longer refreshing. After four years of Trump in office, then almost four years out of office, people are looking for something else. A majority of voters don’t want a Trump-Biden re-match.

The strongest alternative to Trump remains to be Ron DeSantis. He is in a distant second place in polls and his time may have already come and gone to be able to eventually overcome the gap between his numbers and those of Trump. We don’t know yet. Anyone who says otherwise is blowing smoke. This Republican presidential primary is one like we’ve never seen before and all we can do is wait it out.

Let me remind readers here that of the declared candidates in the Republican primary, DeSantis is my choice. I think it is time for change, time to run a young, proven, successful red state governor against Old Yeller. DeSantis is a policy wonk and can articulate his opinions well. He finally said what we’ve been waiting for him to say – Trump is running on the same things he ran on in 2015. He accomplished few of his promises.

"He's running in 2024 on things that he promised to do in 2016 and didn't do!
…
So let's be better. Let's look higher. And let's set a good standard." –@RonDeSantis https://t.co/rz9CpR3aGc

— Bryan Griffin (@BryanDGriffin) August 5, 2023

Where has this Ron DeSantis been on the campaign trail? He can effectively point out that Trump was good on some things but failed to do some things he said he would do. And, why didn’t he prosecute Hillary Clinton? Now he calls her “beautiful Hillary” instead of “crooked Hillary” because he now uses ‘crooked’ on Biden. Only one person can be crooked at a time, apparently. The truth is that he was never going to prosecute his old friend, Hillary, a fellow New York Democrat, and the whole “lock her up” chanting thing at his rallies was to throw red meat to the crowds. Trump voters despise Hillary Clinton, Trump does not.

DeSantis has an excellent record of success in Florida as a conservative governor. His successes go beyond the woke culture bashing and yet DeSantis is only now beginning to break out his policies and white papers on explaining his policies. He has risen above the attacks Trump makes on him on a daily basis and that’s fine but at some point, he has to find a way to push back. He seems to be willing to do that now. Unless this answer was a one-off and if that is the case, he may as well go home. He won’t gain any traction against Trump by simply focusing on being the candidate who battles woke in Florida. He’s a smart, well-educated guy and he should show that. He’s also the only military veteran running in 2024 and he should use that experience, too, in his speeches. He should talk about Reagan’s idea of peace through strength. He doesn’t have to be a war hawk as some of the candidates are known to be, he just needs to voice the opinion that America is viewed as weak under Biden’s leadership (or lack thereof) and he’ll turn that opinion around. DeSantis can state his desire to rebuild the military after Biden allowed our country to run low on ammunition, for example, because of poor planning due to sending military equipment to Ukraine.

During the “Conversation with the Candidate” town hall with New Hampshire voters, he said he teaches his children to treat others as they would like to be treated. Trump’s behavior is not how a president should conduct himself. He pointed out that Trump didn’t drain the swamp, he left Fauci in place, added trillions of dollars to the national debt, and he also reminded voters he was a Trump supporter.

“These insults are so phony. These insults are juvenile. That is not a way a great nation should be conducting itself,” DeSantis said. “That is not the way the president of the United States should be conducting himself.”

“I’m not going to insult somebody’s looks or somebody’s dress or something like that,” DeSantis added. “I wouldn’t teach my kids to treat people like that.”

DeSantis said he appreciated a lot of the “great things” Trump did as president and said he previously was a big supporter, but he thinks Trump was ineffective during his first term in fulfilling some of his campaign promises.

“He’s running in 2024 on the things that he promised to do in 2016 and didn’t do,” DeSantis said. “He said he was going to drain the swamp. He did not drain the swamp. Not even close.”

“We ended his presidency with Anthony Fauci running the country,” DeSantis said. “He couldn’t even fire Fauci? And so now you’re going to drain the swamp? Give me a break.”

We’ll see if the new and improved DeSantis lasts on the campaign trail. We’ll find out if there is an appetite for a candidate who encourages Republicans to be better. He has devoted the majority of his campaign stump speeches introducing himself to early state voters and talking about his record in Florida – rightly so – since he entered the race in May. Now he has to find the sweet spot in talking about Florida while bringing in what he wants to do for the entire country. I think he can do that. I hope it’s not too late. We can thank Trump for an excellent economy before the pandemic, great judicial nominees, a conservative-majority Supreme Court, and re-figuring America’s place on the world stage. We can also nominate a fresh face, a proven leader and successful conservative, who will usher in the next generation of conservatives. The contrast between Biden and DeSantis on a debate stage will be striking. I’m not ready to count him out yet.