Bottom line up front, from the memo sent to GOP donors obtained by Axios:

It is clear that voters feel they have lots more to learn about Ron DeSantis compared to either Presidents Trump or Biden. When that information vacuum is filled with his positions on Social Security, Medicare, Book “Bans,” and National Sales Tax – not to mention the 6-week Abortion Ban or his fight with Disney – the myth about DeSantis’ superior electability gets punctured real fast and deflates even faster.

Swing state voters swoon when advised about “certain DeSantis positions,” the memo says. “And, contrary to conventional wisdom, the 6 Week Abortion Ban and his fight with Disney, while still electorally fatal, aren’t the worst of the bunch.” Instead, the memo says, DeSantis’ favorability “craters” when voters learn about his “past support for altering Medicare and Social Security and a national sales tax, along with a bill DeSantis signed that gave school districts and parents more power to limit certain books.”

Team DeSantis, ever alert and nimble, fired back:

After Trump's pollster did a poll for the Wall Street Journal showing Trump losing to Biden, and DeSantis beating Biden, Trump attacked him on Truth Social and kicked him off the campaign.

Now Fabrizio admits in this memo that Trump is running Democrat attack ads on Social… https://t.co/tWnXohl0Up pic.twitter.com/jfCsW9awd2

— Never Back Down (@NvrBackDown24) June 2, 2023

Which is all well and good, but it may be too cheeky by half. If Trump is disposed to attack DeSantis with Democrat talking points, so what? Better not only to reveal Trump’s shamelessly chameleonesque transactionalism, but also to deal with them now, one suspects, when there is the luxury of time to make the proper educational arguments to persuadable voters.

Get all of it on the record: why incremental entitlement reform makes sense and is necessary; what’s stunningly rational and economically beneficial about replacing the entire tax code with a simple consumption tax; and what’s true (and what’s flagrantly false) about the so-called book bans in Florida schools.

Then, if DeSantis does prevail in the GOP primary, all of that can go into the estimable category of Asked and Answered. DeSantis could even quote Ronald Reagan: “There you go again.”

This, politics fans and DeSantis persuadables, is not a problem. Certainly, it’s not the problem portrayed by Team Trump. Instead, it’s an opportunity for the energetic leader of an absurdly dynamic state that is also the nation’s third largest to do much of what he has a track record of doing quite well: defend his positions.

What consistently struck me, during the eight-odd months in 2020 I shouldered the Governor’s-Daily-Updates beat in my last job before “retirement,” is how exquisitely capable DeSantis is in the role of explainer-in-chief.

The primary topic then, of course, was the pandemic. As the months wore on, regular followers of the DeSantis briefings were able to witness, in real time, the governor’s evolving evaluation of COVID’s threat to Floridians and the state’s greatest resource, Sunshine State tourism.

We needn’t rehearse all of that here, except to note the DeSantis administration took extraordinary pains, from start to expiration of the emergency, to defend the most vulnerable from infection, while also protecting the state’s economy from shutdown ruin.

Assorted usual suspects called it a gamble, which you can see for yourself here, here, here, and — since, dear VIP subscriber, you clearly have an appetite for paywalls — most tellingly here. 

If I have this right, the argument being raised by the Team Trump push-poll is this: Their guy is less of a risk because voters know all about him.

This is like saying it’s better to keep banging away on a typewriter than switching to a laptop, because you know what you’re getting with ink on paper.

We will leave it to the fully capable DeSantis rapid-response folks to dissect the shortcomings of the poll.

So, was this message testing memo written for the DNC or Biden's re-election campaign?

What it actually shows is that Team Trump is more comfortable running as a Democrat, than running against Joe Biden.

Let's take a closer look…🧵 https://t.co/Ds3s6CfxKw

— Chris Wilson (@WilsonWPA) June 2, 2023

What is says here, however, is that DeSantis will, sooner or later, have some explaining to do. As a former skeptic who was won over by studying the governor’s detailed command of the facts as they emerged, and how those facts guided his leadership and evolving public policy, I’m eager for others to experience the DeSantis epiphany.