2016 Postmortem
Related: About this forumHow the GOP Sabotaged Marco Rubio, the Man Who Was Once Its Savior - By Jonathan Chait
It was a mere two days after the 2012 election, and the shock of defeat had barely worn off when the Republican Partys answer suddenly became clear, and it was Marco Rubio. The announcement came in a column, portentously titled The Way Forward, by Charles Krauthammer, the operative-pundit, Fox News panelist, and columnist whom a National Review cover story had deemed the leader of the opposition to President Obama. The partys predicament could be solved, Krauthammer announced, with a single policy change: border fence plus amnesty. Then, having softened on immigration and thus endeared itself to Latinos, the party need only elevate the handsome, right-wing young senator to the top of its ticket. Imagine Marco Rubio advancing such a policy on the road to 2016, rhapsodized Krauthammer. It would transform the landscape.
The Rubio Plan sounded awfully appealing to Republicans, not least of them Rubio himself, who set about constructing the fund-raising and advisory apparatus of a top-tier presidential contender. For a few months, the plan proceeded to near perfection. Then everything started falling apart, and it has kept falling apart ever since.
The Rubio Plan required the senator, heretofore a reliable conservative soldier on every issue including immigration reform, which he ran against in 2010, to reverse himself and persuade a large chunk of the party to follow along. This Rubio did with astonishing speed. Working with Senate Democrats to forge a compromise, he undertook a listening-and-persuasion tour among the party figures who had revolted against the last immigration-reform compromise, under George W. Bush. Rubio explained that his immigrant mother had left him a voice-mail, in Spanish, pleading for him to look out for immigrants. Theyre human beings just like us, and they came for the same reasons we came, said Mrs. Rubio, via her son, in impressively polished, stump-friendly phrasing. To work. To improve their lives. So please, dont mess with them.
Once-fervent restrictionists like Sean Hannity and even Rush Limbaugh showered Rubio with praise. In February of last year, Time displayed Rubio on its cover, anointing him The Republican Savior. (There is only one savior, and it is not me. #Jesus, Rubio tweeted, deftly averting a John Lennonesque controversy while reflecting the general political reality that if youre in a position to deny comparisons between yourself and the Messiah, youre winning.) Brendan Buck, spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner, gushed that Rubio was so hot right now.
We can now, in hindsight, identify last February as the apex of the Rubio bubble. Over the next few months, conservatives shook off Rubios charm offensive and whipped themselves into a familiar frenzy against his immigration-reform plan. They picked apart details just as they had every major legislative proposal of the Obama erait was long; it was complicated; it gave power to bureaucrats; it would hand Obama a victory. A May National Review cover depicted Rubio, smiling between no-longer-tolerated deal-maker John McCain and loathed liberal Democrat Charles Schumer, under the headline Rubios Folly. By June, Hannity and Limbaugh had turned unreservedly against Rubios plan. By October, the Rubio compromise had grown so radioactive on the right Rubio had to, humiliatingly, renounce his own legislation.
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http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2014/02/how-the-gop-sabotaged-marco-rubio.html
lame54
(35,345 posts)trublu992
(489 posts)flamingdem
(39,336 posts)but having grown up in the Cuban community he seems a bit exotic, well very little but more than Ted Cruz.
BlueStater
(7,596 posts)He's my senator and, for the life of me, I've never understood his appeal. He's a lightweight empty suit with limited political experience and zero accomplishments so why is he treated like he's presidential material? Because he's young and not white? Is that it?
stevenleser
(32,886 posts)Samantha
(9,314 posts)And when asked a question, Jeb would whisper the answer in Rubio's ear. But then Jeb Bush got pretty busy trying to take over the educational system in this Country, and Rubio suddenly developed a very bad case of dry mouth. Happens sometimes.
Sam
jenmito
(37,326 posts)he has dry mouth.
mgcgulfcoast
(1,127 posts)he is a piece of crap and the real threat we need to look out for.
demwing
(16,916 posts)Because there's no love for Rubio here.
Or are you asking the GOP? If so, I'm confused, because the article was all about how the GOP fell out of love with Rubio.
mgcgulfcoast
(1,127 posts)flamingdem
(39,336 posts)is a bit more caucasian looking they are both white dudes, still one is more Cuban, Rubio, somehow
demwing
(16,916 posts)THIRD BASE