Monica Crowley's Trump worship is unhinged, unhealthy

Apparently, Monica Crowley thinks that Donald Trump is the only person qualified to be president of the United States. After reading this op-ed, I'm not certain she's tethered to reality. Crowley's opinions are borderline cult-like. She started her op-ed off by saying "In American politics, there's Donald Trump—and then there's everyone else."

After that, Crowley says "The GOP primary battle has now been joined by Governor Ron DeSantis, who followed Senator Tim Scott, former Governor Nikki Haley, and star investor Vivek Ramaswamy. All are highly accomplished, talented leaders. But there is a big difference between being a successful governor, legislator, or entrepreneur, and running for President. And it's something else entirely to run for President against Donald Trump. In the political ring, he is unlike any other combatant, as the graveyard of his previous GOP opponents attests."

I question Crowley's statement that there's "a big difference between being a successful governor, legislator, or entrepreneur, and running for President." Trump is the first president who wasn't a politician or military general first. The first 3 years of the Trump administration were pretty good. After that, things weren't that good, mostly because Trump got into the habit of stuffing his foot into his mouth up to his knee 3 times a day. Notice that Ms. Crowley didn't mention all of the great policies Gov. DeSantis implemented as governor. That history shows that Gov. DeSantis knows how to get things done.

At this point, it's laughable saying that Gov. DeSantis is just a "successful governor." Based on Mr. Trump's attacks, Mr. Trump knows that Gov. DeSantis is the most successful governor in the last half century.

Gov. DeSantis didn't just implement good conservative policies in his first term. Gov. DeSantis grew the Republican Party of Florida in that term. When he took office as governor, there were 350,000 more registered Democrats than registered Republicans. Today, there's 400,000 more registered Republicans than registered Democrats. That's a swing of 750,000 (three-fourths of a million) in 4 short years. Show me another governor that's done that. I won't hold my breath waiting.

To try to beat him, the current candidates will argue two main points: First, they will argue that unlike Trump, they could win a general election. Second, they will claim that if elected, they could advance his America First policies without being weighed down by his distracting baggage.

But neither of those claims holds water. When it comes to electability, a big portion of Republican voters believe there were significant enough shenanigans in the 2020 election to render its outcome problematic at best; we now know for example that former acting CIA Director Mike Morell was prompted by then-candidate Joe Biden's presidential campaign to rally 50 colleagues to sign a letter they knew was false alleging that Hunter Biden's actual laptop was Russian disinformation. In light of this and other emerging facts about how Trump was targeted, many voters are gratified to see him leading everyone in current polls—including Biden, in some cases by significant margins.

Actually, if Trump was as good as Ms. Crowley says he is, Trump shouldn't have come close to losing to Joe Biden. Trump shouldn't have needed to worry about the Morell Letter. The truth is that Trump won Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin by narrow margins in 2016. In 2020, he lost those states, then lost Arizona and Georgia, too. Then there's this:

As for the general election, Biden's job approval is at all-time lows, as growing numbers of Democrats and Independents reject his catastrophic presidency. His re-election is far from certain, and if Biden ends up stepping aside, the GOP is going to need a bona fide warrior to take on whomever the Democrats ultimately nominate.

The Trump cult faction apparently hasn't noticed that Trump's lost 3 straight elections. He lost 40 House seats in 2018. Trump lost his re-election bid and the Senate majority in 2020. Then Trump lost seats in the Senate in 2022 when Republicans were supposed to ride a red wave into power. It's obvious that Trump isn't wearing well with the American people.

Finally, anyone that thinks that Gov. DeSantis isn't as tough as Trump and isn't a smarter fighter than Trump needs a new prescription for their glasses. Donald Trump's policies were pretty good but his personality has turned people off. In 2016, Trump defeated Hillary, who wasn't/isn't likable. In 2020, he lost to Joe Biden, who isn't that bright but is semi-likable. In 2022, he endorsed Senate candidates who didn't make it across the finish line. Finally, this isn't just a statistic. It's a life-changing event:

Florida has 1,300,000 students who are using choice options this school year. That's an astonishing figure. Perhaps that's why Floridians re-elected Gov. DeSantis, giving him his re-election victory by 1,500,000+ votes, the largest in Florida's history. Finally, let's discuss this:

When the pandemic hit, Trump mobilized a whole-of-government effort to get Americans through it, and then presided over the fastest economic recovery from any crisis ever.

That's omitting this important thing: Trump didn't fire Fauci but Gov. DeSantis was the first or second governor to re-open their state. I think Brian Kemp might've re-opened Georgia first but I'm not certain. Policywise, Trump is more than qualified. Getting elected is a challenge, as is building the GOP. We need someone who's a winner, a fighter and a builder. Trump is a fighter but he's lacking after that.