No one laid a glove on DeSantis at last week's debate, but the Washington Post tried to.

When the mainstream media takes an intense interest in a Republican presidential candidate, it’s kind of like Leopold and Loeb taking an intense interest in your teenager. The interest is not benign.

This year, the mainstream media has taken an intense interest in Ron DeSantis. Initially, its interest seemed to be in presenting the Florida governor, who then appeared to be a very strong candidate for the GOP nomination, as another Donald Trump — even worse in some ways.

But as the year progressed and DeSantis faded some, the media’s portrayal of him changed. No longer was he an evil political genius. Now, he was a bumbler — a tone-deaf, cold fish of a politician with virtually no hope of beating Trump for the nomination.