posted August 27, 2013 03:28 PM            

Likable, authentic, and working to expand the Republican Party? Of course Rubio has been overtaken in the polls by Cruz, whose convictions match up perfectly with the GOP base.

This summer, in an act of literary masochism, I read not one but two books about Marco Rubio. I came away from his memoir, An American Son, and Manuel Roig-Franzia’s excellent biography, The Rise of Marco Rubio, with the queasy feeling many Republicans must have had when they began reading Obama books in 2007 or 2008: this isn’t the guy you want to see on the other side of the line.

It’s not that Rubio is as smart and perceptive as Obama. Not even close. But he’s likable and authentic. I expected American Son to be a linear narrative about a child of immigrants who through talent and dedication validates his parents’ sacrifice and realizes the American Dream. But it’s an edgier, more self-critical tale of a somewhat immature and egocentric child of immigrants who torments his parents and alienates the woman he loves until football, Catholicism, and politics give him the direction he needs. It’s also the story of a young man who’s far more interested in politics than ideology. Reading Roig-Franzia, and Rubio himself, you get the impression that Marco Rubio has only one longstanding ideological conviction: hatred of Fidel Castro. What he fell in love with on the streets of Miami’s raucous Cuban ghetto was the political game. The best analogy might be John F. Kennedy, who also learned the art of politics in a parochial ethnic community but through personal skill and generational change was able to transcend it.

As Roig-Franzia makes clear, Rubio’s early views on immigration were shaped more by immigrant and ethnic kinship than any right-wing slogan about securing borders and enforcing the law. In the Florida legislature, Rubio cosponsored legislation to give migrant farmworkers more rights and supported in-state tuition for illegal immigrants’ kids. He also fancied himself a pragmatic dealmaker, working as speaker of the Florida House to pass a statewide cap-and-trade framework for combating climate change on the grounds that Washington was likely to mandate it and the Sunshine State might as well be ready.

In 2010, Rubio was savvy enough to see an opening with the nascent Tea Party after Florida’s moderate Republican governor, Charlie Crist, made the mistake of hugging Barack Obama. And Rubio skillfully grafted the Tea Party’s anti-government message onto his own hatred of Castro with lines like: “My parents lost their country to a government. I’m not going to lose mine.” But everything about his political career in Florida helps explain why, on entering the U.S. Senate, he opted to quarantine himself in a back room with John McCain and Chuck Schumer and craft a bill that gives immigrants a path to citizenship.

Turns out I should have saved my Barnes & Noble gift card. The Senate immigration bill, at least for now, has crippled Rubio’s presidential hopes. Between April and July, notes the estimable Thomas Edsall, Rubio’s support in New Hampshire dropped by almost two thirds. Of the first seven national polls of Republican voters tallied by Real Clear Politics starting last November, Rubio led in six. But he hasn’t led any of the last four. That’s not surprising given that, according to the Pew Research Center, Republicans are four times more likely to want the GOP to move in a more conservative direction on immigration than to moderate its stance. Sarah Palin has even called on conservatives to challenge Rubio in the 2016 Florida Republican primary.

While I was reading about Rubio, he was being eclipsed by another Dixie Republican senator of Cuban heritage, Ted Cruz. Cruz is undoubtedly smarter than Rubio. He’s far more ideological, having spent his teenage afternoons reading Ludwig von Mises at the Free Enterprise Education Foundation while Rubio was pounding wide receivers at South Miami High. Cruz is more arrogant, having alienated even some Republican senators with his condescending put-downs. He’s more prone to demagoguery, having suggested—based on no evidence whatsoever—that Chuck Hagel might be receiving money from North Korea. Cruz is less interested in passing legislation. Indeed, he’s leading the charge to shut down the government in order to defund Obamacare. And unlike Rubio, Cruz’s convictions just happen to match up perfectly with the animal spirits of the Republican base he’s courting for president. Which is to say, during his time in Washington, he’s never done anything politically brave.

Cruz is eclipsing Rubio, it’s worth recalling, at a time when the American people’s biggest complaints about the GOP are that it’s “too unwilling to compromise” and “too extreme.” (PDF) Were the Republican Party’s shrinking cohort of right-wing activists not sheltered from the rest of America by the informational cocoon Fox News has built for them, they would see in Rubio’s immigration work a politician struggling, not always coherently but with a degree of humility and good will, to show younger, poorer, newer, less white Americans that the GOP gives a damn about them. They might also realize that this kind of inclusive gesture, combined with Rubio’s natural charisma, offers the chance to partially undo the GOP’s reputation as a party beholden to blue bloods and bigots. Instead, they’ve discarded Rubio in favor of Cruz, a man who combines Sarah Palin’s worldview, Richard Nixon’s commitment to fair play, and Al Gore’s folksy charm.

Somewhere, a woman in a pantsuit is laughing. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/08/26/marco-rubio-the-real-threat-in-2016-has-been-eclipsed-by-ted-cruz.html

posted August 27, 2013 05:43 PM            

I recently read an article about him in Time as well. Seems like he, too (like Ron Paul), has some impractical ideas of what he'd try to do away with if he held the Presidency. He wants to abolish the IRS, TSA, and Departments of Commerce, Education, and Energy. On top of that he wants to privatize Social Security.

Cruz notes with a mix of pride and frustration that the media seems to have invented a third label for his brand of conservatism: not stupid or evil but potentially "crazy."

posted August 27, 2013 05:58 PM            

Ahh, life will be so *sweet* when Cap rules the world!!!

posted August 30, 2013 03:48 PM            

Entire cast of clowns in a three ring circus.

posted August 30, 2013 03:59 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by jwhop:
Marco Rubio is toast. Posing as a conservative while supporting O'Bomber's amnesty for illegal aliens makes Rubio indigestible for conservatives.

So hey, let the leftist loons vote for Rubio...over the totally corrupt Hillary Clinton.

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Yep, toast.

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Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted August 30, 2013 11:52 PM            

Drop it. You're not intellectually qualified to assess Palin's intellectual brilliance.

posted August 31, 2013 07:46 AM            

quote:

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Originally posted by jwhop:
It continues to amaze me that those with intellectual abilities several orders of magnitude below that of Sarah Palin comment on Palin's intellectual capacity.

Drop it. You're not intellectually qualified to assess Palin's intellectual brilliance.

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Totally. I think I was meant to be a cheerleader.

I need someone who knows his stuff to bother coming in here

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Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted August 31, 2013 11:48 AM            

quote:

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Drop it. You're not intellectually qualified to assess Palin's intellectual brilliance.

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posted September 01, 2013 11:08 PM            

The US House of Representative should defund O'BomberCare. Further, there should be no Continuing Resolutions to fund the government. Let them pass a budget using regular order. If demoscats want to shut down the government over defunding one program among the thousands...then let them say so, let them do so...and let them take the heat.

Edit!

Catalina/katatonic:

Try reading with comprehension and you won't continue to be confused about what's been said here.

Ted Cruz, a potentially smarter Sarah Palin,...I wonder what will come of this....acoustic

Palin proves an empty intellect once again...acoustic
http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum26/HTML/000128.html

Again I have to agree with you, anyone who wants to discuss her intellect would have to like wasting time. That's why no one mentioned it I guess...Catalina/katatonic

posted September 02, 2013 12:43 PM            

quote:

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Originally posted by AcousticGod:
I think the record shows quite the opposite.

Further, you know as well as anyone here that any defunding or government shut down will reflect poorly on conservatives primarily.

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ONLY to non thinking people

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Passion, Lust, Desire. Check out my journal

posted September 02, 2013 02:00 PM            

Understanding that's not going to happen with demoscats in control of the Senate and the bird brained moron O'Bomber in the White House; defunding O'BomberCare is the obvious choice.

If demoscats...Hairy Reid and O'Bomber want to shut down the government over defunding O'Bomber's Socialist health care law then go for it. O'BomberCare is only one (1) government program among thousands. The majority don't want it.

Poll: Voters say repeal ObamaCare, expect new law will cost them

The poll asks people to take an up-or-down vote on ObamaCare: 40 percent say they would vote to keep the law in place, while just over half -- 53 percent -- would repeal it.

Over half of those under age 45 (51 percent) as well as those 45 and over (56 percent) would vote to repeal ObamaCare.

Most Republicans want the law repealed (by 85-13 percent) and so do independents (by 65-25 percent). Most Democrats favor keeping ObamaCare (by 72-21 percent).
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/07/25/fox-news-poll-voters-say-repeal-obamacare-expect-new-law-will-cost-them/

Btw, you have established a record of being wrong on every policy issue. Congrats, that takes rare skill and ability.

posted September 03, 2013 12:37 PM            

quote:

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ONLY to non thinking people

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Nope. To most people. The experiment's been done. We've seen the results.

quote:

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Understanding that's not going to happen with demoscats in control of the Senate and the bird brained moron O'Bomber in the White House; defunding O'BomberCare is the obvious choice.

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No. It's still not the OBVIOUS choice, because it implies that Obamacare will be alright if it's funded. That's not the message smart Republicans want to send. Smart Republicans want to send the message that the program is flawed, and there are better ways of tackling that objective.

quote:

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If demoscats...Hairy Reid and O'Bomber want to shut down the government over defunding O'Bomber's Socialist health care law then go for it.

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No, it's not Harry Reid or Obama who've stated that intention. It's Ted Cruz that wants a government shut down.

quote:

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Btw, you have established a record of being wrong on every policy issue. Congrats, that takes rare skill and ability.

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posted September 06, 2013 11:33 AM            

O'BomberCare cannot be repealed with demoscats in control of the US Senate and White House.

However, this crap sandwich legislation can be nullified by the US House of Representatives refusing to budget money to fund it.

Second memo:

Pushing to defund this abject failure..O'BomberCare in no way whatsoever implies, suggests or supposes O'BomberCare will be a success if it is funded. It's a matter of timing and nothing more. The earliest this crap sandwich could be repealed is January 2017, after the next presidential election and the oath of office is taken by a new president. But, O'BomberCare could be defunded and it's catastrophic effects on US healthcare, jobs and personal liberty stopped now.

Heads up their as$es leftists really shouldn't attempt to think. It's just too painful for compassionate people to watch.

Speaking of another head up his ass leftist, Ted Cruz had this to say about O'Bomber's attempt to round up support to bomb Syria. Ted Cruz makes a lot more sense than O'Bomber, Kerry, McCain and Graham.

On Tuesday, Sen. Ted Cruz distilled the current debate over possible military action in Syria to its essential dilemma. While Syrian President Bashar Assad is certainly a ruthless dictator, the forces aligned against him are dominated by jihadis and elements of terrorist organizations. Cruz noted that Americans didn't enlist in the military to "serve as Al-Qaeda's Air Force."

“We certainly don’t have a dog in the fight,” Cruz said, calling it a civil war in Syria. “We should be focused on defending the United States of America. That’s why young men and women sign up to join the military, not to, as you know, serve as Al Qaeda’s air force.”

Cruz noted that of the nine major rebel groups, seven have ties to Al-Qaeda. Cruz's colleagues, Sens. McCain and Graham, are pushing the Obama Administration to arm rebel forces with heavy weapons. It is unclear how the US would ensure that its weapons would go exclusively to the "right" rebel forces. Even if they were, it is likely that any post-Assad regime would be dominated by elements loyal to Al-Qaeda.

“I’ll give you one of the simplest principles of foreign policy that we ought to be following," Cruz said. "Don’t give weapons to people who hate you. Don’t give weapons to people who want to kill you."
http://www.breitbart.com/Big-Peace/2013/09/04/Ted-Cruz-US-Is-Not-Al-Qaedas-Air-Force