Not sure if DeSantis is the more effective candidate, but I expect that he would be much more effective as Chief Executive. He has worked inside the DOJ, and been an effective chief executive in FL. And I don’t think that he would have been scared off by the DOJ claiming that he would be Obstructing Justice by investigating RussiaGate, etc. You just have to turn the tables on them, and indict the LawFare prosecutors, etc, for the same. When the dust settled, they were, indeed, the ones obstructing Justice, and did so by repeatedly lying to Congress and their superiors.

It’s certainly true today that a Democrat Nixon wouldn’t get into trouble today, and the same is most likely true in Nixon’s day. Two big changes, though, since then. There were still some moderate and conservative Democrats that the media hated, and old school reporters weren’t quite as ideological as today’s media. Neither the Democrats nor the media were as much in lockstep as they are today. The average Democrat 50 years ago was still voting against Herbert Hoover and could still listen to reason and consider differing opinions

https://twitter.com/CBS_Herridge/status/1666621374905843712

LBJ was far more corrupt than Nixon. Life magazine had a special issue planned on Johnson’s history of corruption. The last editorial meeting on the special issue was on the day Kennedy was assassinated. It was never published.