'Doubled down on dumb': Rick Wilson explains why DeSantis' campaign is in freefall

Using his experience as a former Republican Party campaign consultant and his knowledge of aviation instrument flight rules (IFR), Rick Wilson made the case that the reported campaign "reboot" by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) is headed for a crash that will doom his first foray into national politics.

In a series of tweets, Wilson claimed that DeSantis, who is collapsing in the polls, doesn't seem to understand why his campaign to be the 2024 GOP presidential nominee is faltering.

As he sees it, DeSantis is "doubling down" on the very things that are hurting his bid for higher office.

He began by writing, "So there's a mistake that covers both instrument flying and politics. It's called 'chasing the needles.' That's what you're seeing now with the DeSantis campaign," before adding, "In instrument flying you use a display that shows you how high or low you are relative to the glideslope and how far left or right of the runway you are. A stable approach means you fly the glideslope down to the airfield. If you get off the glideslope or localizer here's both a temptation and a tendency to 'chase the needles" to make it work and get on track. This is a bad thing."

"DeSantis is recalibrating, trying to reset, rebrand, redo the last disastrous months. His campaign is chasing the needles," he continued before elaborating, "In my IFR training, I thought I could goose the plane on to the needles and save a bad approach. When you're under the hood (a view limiting device that makes you rely on the instruments only) it's not just hard, it's stupid. 'Go missed' and reset for real."

Getting to the point he continued, "But DeSantis can't and won't. He's doubled down and his dumb 'Nevuh Back Down' persona misses a fundamental of human behavior; correcting a mistake is a strength, not a weakness. He's off course, and instead of a real reset (firing the people who get him in trouble) he keeps trying to meme his way into the hearts of the post-alt-right natcons. "

"QED, his defense of the indefensible 'slavery had its good points' argument. He's chasing the needles into the ground," he concluded.