a mildly interesting idea

Florida governor Ron DeSantis and California governor Gavin Newsom seem to have agreed to hold some sort of debate. Newsom isn't the Dem nominee for president, and DeSantis is increasingly unlikely to be the nominee for the GOP side, so I guess this debate is a cute sideshow to let the nation hear Florida and California make their respective cases. DeSantis has done a bang-up job governing Florida, but California under Newsom is little more than a flaming shithole. Newsom, as detached from reality as he is (he's the one who challenged DeSantis!), seems to think otherwise, but as DeSantis has snidely noted: 

In one respect, the debate between California and Florida has already been had... people have been voting on that. They've been voting on it with their feet. They have fled California in record numbers. Florida's been the number one state for net in-migration. In another sense, this is the debate for the future of our country because you have people like Joe Biden [who] would love to see the Californication of America.

Gavin Newsom has never struck me as much of a debater. He's more of a greasy-looking, shark-faced gasbag—a shill, a reciter of talking points, and the press constantly feeds this moron softball questions. Ron DeSantis, much like Donald Trump, has by contrast had to face a relentlessly hostile press corps with whom he often gleefully jousts in a spirited manner, pointing out reporters' rudeness, their hypocrisy, and their poorly hidden agendas. I can see Newsom worming his way through a debate, but he won't win on actual points or substance. DeSantis has the facts and statistics to back up the notion of Florida as a success story despite some continuing problems, e.g., Disney, the continued presence of woke educators, and an insurance scandal that the press is suddenly focusing on (I'm sure the timing isn't suspicious at all). What exactly does Newsom have? The "success" stories of LA, San Francisco, etc., rife with demoralized police, crime, homeless camps, drug addiction, overregulation, fleeing residents and businesses, etc. What Newsom certainly does not have on his side is the truth.

I see some people saying this debate—assuming it happens—"smacks of desperation" for both parties, but I for one would love to see these two duke it out as one of the more interesting aspects of the ongoing culture war. I expect DeSantis to crush Newsom utterly.

Even if Newsom himself is too stupid to know he's been crushed.