Ron DeSantis needed to be someone else at the Republican debate. Sadly, he was himself.

The main thing Ron DeSantis needed at the first GOP presidential primary debate was to not be Ron DeSantis.

Tragically for him, he was very much himself.

The Florida governor joined seven other Republican candidates on a Milwaukee stage Wednesday night for what can best be described as an elaborate exercise in futility. DeSantis and the rest are being beaten like rugs by the one candidate who didn’t bother to show up, former president and current criminal defendant Donald Trump, who was presumably busy picking out the suit he’ll wear for his arrest in Atlanta on Thursday.

DeSantis needed a moment during the debate – he didn't get one

In Trump’s absence, this was DeSantis’ big moment. A chance to close the nearly 40-point polling chasm between him and the routinely indicted former president. A chance to shake the Awkward Ron image and show all the folks at home he’s a real boy and not some super-PAC-crafted marionette.

It didn’t happen. Despite being center stage thanks to his dismal-but-still-in-second-place poll numbers, DeSantis vanished for large stretches of the debate. He was upstaged by young billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy, who prattled on loudly and incessantly, like an overly caffeinated right-wing-meme generator excited to hock cryptocurrency. 

And when the Florida governor did pipe up, it was the same stump-speech pablum he has been spouting for months as his popularity among GOP voters has waned. 

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Same old DeSantis, different day

To deal with the border, he’ll send troops into Mexico (good luck with that!) and he’ll leave drug smugglers “stone-cold dead.” He should know by now the tough-guy schtick doesn’t work for him. He sounds like a middle-manager at an accounting firm doing a John Wayne impression, poorly. 

When he spoke, he sounded angry and mean, two markets Trump has fully cornered.

When the candidates were asked to raise a hand if they would pardon Trump if the former president is convicted in one of his many criminal cases, DeSantis committed the cardinal MAGA sin of looking around to see whether others were raising their hands. Then he raised his.

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No Republican candidate managed to make a move on Trump during the debate

And when asked the good question of whether former Vice President Mike Pence did his constitutional duty by refusing Trump’s request that he stop the certification of the 2020 presidential election results, DeSantis hemmed and hawed and tried to go in another direction before finally being coaxed into saying: “Mike did his duty, I’ve got no beef with him.”

Ugh, protecting democracy is SO annoying. Can we move on to more of what I’ve done in Florida, please?

Nobody in the debate did a thing to propel themselves out of the way-deep-down second tier in the GOP presidential primary race. Trump owns the Republican Party, and he by and large owns all his competitors, as precious few spoke a negative word about the MAGA king.

But DeSantis, given the lofty expectations that first surrounded him and his steady downward trajectory since, needed this debate more than anyone else on the stage.

Trump is literally getting arrested in Georgia, and DeSantis still couldn't land any blows

Setting aside his cringe-inducing voice and the dark, unpleasant hole where his personality should reside, supposed tough-guy DeSantis needed to take on the guy at the top of the polls. And he had the most unimaginably perfect opportunity to do it, on the eve of Trump turning himself in on racketeering and election interference charges in Georgia.

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The political campaign gods do not concoct a more ideal scenario than, “Your No. 1 opponent is about to get booked FOR THE FOURTH TIME THIS YEAR!”

But no. DeSantis sat there, dumbly. He piped up occasionally saying things most have already heard in a loud and robotic way all but guaranteed to turn off most people.

He was overwhelmed by Ramaswamy, a 38-year-old with a loud patter that signified nothing.

DeSantis' campaign was already heading in the wrong direction

Ron DeSantis, to have any hope of saving his campaign, to end the beatings he has taken from Trump, needed to be someone else Wednesday night.

Instead, he was Ron DeSantis. Or as he should be known for the remainder of the campaign: toast.

Follow Paste BN columnist Rex Huppke on Twitter @RexHuppke and Facebook facebook.com/RexIsAJerk