The Full Belmonte, 7/16/2023
‘A long slog’: Inside DeSantis’s early struggles and effort to rebound
More than seven weeks in, skepticism about the Florida governor’s 2024 bid has grown.
“Ron DeSantis’s allies were eager to regain momentum on the eve of his presidential campaign launch in May. Supporters gleefully predicted the sheer buzz from a splashy announcement — live on Twitter — would rival Donald Trump’s 2015 ride down a golden escalator. Fundraisers were upbeat as they convened at the Four Seasons Miami, some convinced Trump’s daunting lead would shrink as DeSantis finally got in the race.
That hasn’t happened.
More than seven weeks in, skepticism about the Florida governor’s 2024 bid has grown. Some people who have advised and supported DeSantis have raised private concerns about his message, and the effectiveness and insularity of his campaign operation, according to people familiar with the comments, among the more than 30 people interviewed for this story.
The doubts extend to long-friendly Fox News — where a recent headline asked, ‘Will DeSantis sink and fade out?’ — and its owner, the conservative media magnate Rupert Murdoch, according to another person who speaks regularly with Murdoch about the presidential race. ‘He was excited about him at the beginning, but the more he shows himself, the less appealing he is,’ said this person, who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe private deliberations and talk more freely. Murdoch will ‘come back to Trump if he thinks Trump can win,’ this person added. A representative for Murdoch declined to comment Saturday.
A slew of bad news for DeSantis has underscored the danger of high expectations for a rising GOP star who began the year neck-and-neck with Trump in some polling, fresh off a landslide reelection in November in Florida. Traveling the country for nearly a half a year now to raise his profile, he’s lost ground to Trump and hovers in a distant second, spooking some donors and emboldening his rivals….
DeSantis has expressed confidence in his position and the ground game his allies are building in early states, saying he’s campaigning for the long term. ‘Watch and learn,’ he said in Iowa on Friday when asked how he’d diminish Trump’s lead.
For many of his donors, allies and other Republican observers, DeSantis’s struggle to make headway is a testament to Trump’s grip on the GOP base, apparently invigorated politically by two criminal indictments. Some blame negative media coverage or unrealistic ideas of how the race could shift before the competition kicks into higher gear with debates.
But others see needless stumbles and a campaign that has at times veered too far right, criticizing a risky launch event that went haywire, pointing to a widely ridiculed video on LGBTQ+ issues, and arguing that the campaign must present a more forward-looking vision and venture more frequently outside friendly, conservative echo chambers. Even before his launch, DeSantis drew complaints from some allies about his signing of a six-week abortion ban and his reference to a ‘territorial dispute’ with Russia in Ukraine that was not a vital U.S. interest, while critics pounced on his sometimes stilted interactions with voters on the trail and inexperience in intimate early-state settings….” Read more at Washington Post
Suspect in Gilgo Beach Killings Led a Life of Chaos and Control
Rex Heuermann was painstaking in his Manhattan professional pursuits. At home in Massapequa Park, he left neighbors discomfited.
By Andy Newman and Nate Schweber
July 15, 2023
“At his office near the Empire State Building, Rex Heuermann was a master of the meticulous: a veteran architectural consultant and a self-styled expert at navigating the intricacies of New York City’s building code. He impressed some clients and drove others crazy with his fine-toothed directives.
At home in Massapequa Park on Long Island, while some neighbors saw Mr. Heuermann as just another commuter in a suit, others found him a figure of menace. He glowered at neighbors while swinging an ax in the front yard of a low-slung, dilapidated house that parents cautioned their children to avoid on Halloween. He was kicked out of a Whole Foods for stealing fruit.
‘We would cross the street,’ said Nicholas Ferchaw, 24, a neighbor. ‘He was somebody you don’t want to approach.’
On Friday, Suffolk County prosecutors said that residents of Massapequa Park had a serial killer living in their midst. They accused Mr. Heuermann, 59, of leaving a quarter-mile trail of young women’s bodies on the South Shore of Long Island in what came to be known as the Gilgo Beach Killings. Yet he was so careful in covering his tracks, they said, that it took them nearly 15 years to arrest him….” Read more at New York Times
“The U.S. State Department says it's receiving about 400,000 passport applications a week. The department announced in March it would take about 13 weeks to process new or renewed passports, but many travelers are seeing even longer wait times derail international travel plans.” [NPR]
”ROBERT F. KENNEDY JR. mused this week that Covid-19 might have been ‘ethnically targeted’ to harm white and Black people while sparing Ashkenazi Jewish and Chinese people, the N.Y. Post’s Jon Levine scooped.” [POLITICO]
Marketa Vondrousova: ‘Wimbledon was the most impossible grand slam to win’
Czech reflects on ‘crazy’ triumph after her grass-court struggles
Ons Jabeur speaks of pain of going ‘back to square one’
“Marketa Vondrousova says she started Wimbledon this year thinking it would be the most impossible grand slam tournament to win. She has instead left it with her first major title after closing off a brilliant fortnight with victory.
On Saturday, Vondrousova defeated Ons Jabeur, the sixth seed, 6-4, 6-4 to win her first grand slam title at Wimbledon. The Czech, ranked world No 42, is the first unseeded woman to win Wimbledon in the Open era. She missed the tournament last year after wrist surgery that required a six- month layoff….” Read more at The Guardian
Carlos Alcaraz set for another shot at toppling monumental Novak Djokovic
While the youngster has the talent to beat the seven-time Wimbledon champion, he will have to win the battle of wills
“An hour after one of the biggest occasions of his career had ended in despair, Carlos Alcaraz was still processing how things had gone so badly wrong during his French Open semi-final against Novak Djokovic. With the match level after two intense but hardly overwhelming sets, Alcaraz’s body began to cramp. In the final two sets, he was uncompetitive until the end.
After such a disappointing outcome, many other players might have tried to play down the events on the court, trying not to give away too much information to rivals, or might even have been too distraught to offer any kind of explanation. It was striking how frank and honest Alcaraz was. He admitted he had simply been too tense and those nerves had caused his cramps. While he usually tackles the pressure moments with a smile, nerves had been present in the pit of his stomach throughout the day and, eventually, they consumed him.
Perhaps that honesty, with the world but most important with himself, is why the 20-year-old Spaniard has been able to bounce back so easily. For some players, such a dramatic physical collapse would have lingered for some time and affected them for months.
After a few days of partying with his friends in Ibiza, Alcaraz, the world No 1, returned to practice on a surface still foreign to him, and he has now won 11 matches in a row on grass. At the next possible opportunity, he has forced another meeting with the Australian and French Open champion.
There is no doubt that Alcaraz has the weapons to break down Djokovic’s supreme defences and potentially to defeat him. Over the past 11 matches, he has shown remarkable improvement on grass, gaining far greater comfort with his movement and learning how his offence and variety can thrive on the surface. He has arrived in the final under ideal circumstances, having played the best grass-court match of his life against Daniil Medvedev.
It seems unlikely that Alcaraz will suffer another nervous cramping episode. The circumstances in Paris, with the Spaniard actually going into his first grand slam match against Djokovic widely considered the favourite owing to the Serb’s dire form, were unique. Still, whether Alcaraz can withstand the mental challenge Djokovic presents and perform at his best is another question.
It feels as if the seven-time champion has not really needed to get his game out of third gear at Wimbledon so far. He has played well, but he also has a deep toolbox of shots and contingency plans that he has hardly had to use. This tournament has been yet another reminder of how far ahead Djokovic is. He remains a complete player, but most fall at the first hurdle of being prepared to match him mentally over five sets….” Read more at The Guardian