Rubio In The Race Like A Normal Half-Termer
Marco Rubio is running for President.
Marco Rubio has been a rising star within the GOP for over a decade now. Mitt Romney vetted him for Vice President in 2012, but found some “irregular” finances. Rubio has hired many of Romney’s former campaign personnel from his 2012 Presidential bid, and before so there is no doubt that he has a team that is capable of winning the GOP nomination.
The Problem
Marco Rubio, as a Republican Senate candidate in Florida, promised to oppose amnesty. Once elected, by joining the Gang of 8, he seemingly catered on this very contentious issue which got him elected, to big donors while lining up funding for a potential presidential campaign which is now a real presidential campaign.
Since failure to pass the legislation, Rubio has performed his mea culpa for siding against the base constituency which got him elected, yet his pro-amnesty donors are still ready to fund his presidential campaign. Obviously, Marco thinks the conservative base can be overcome similar to Jeb Bush.
Strategy
In the general election, Rubio could wind up carrying Latino and moderate voters en masse to win the nomination. These are the voters that Romney failed to carry, and gave Obama the narrow edge. The Republican party, less than two years ago, claimed they must win a much larger share of the Latino vote in 2016. Electorally, it makes sense to go for a candidate who can swing more states, like Florida or the midwestern candidates, which screams Rubio. The country, like the world, is becoming less regional.
Ted Cruz will never win independent voters in a general election, and although Latino, does not resonate with those voters according to polling.
Where’s The Beef
Rubio joins the arena for president mimicking Ted Cruz and Rand Paul on virtually all issues sans a few foreign policy differences. His support network is Bush and Romney. He is also not running for Senate in 2016. What gives?
I believe Rubio gets to act as a stalking horse for Jeb peeling votes away from other candidates while collecting a war chest. I believe he bows out after placing middle ground in Iowa, NH and SC. He has a great base then to followup Rick Scott as governor of Florida.
