Lulz:
Three Rubio-friendly conservative writers — Jen Rubin of the Washington Post, Dan McLaughlin of Red State, and Guy Benson of Townhall.com — contend it’s time for Rubio to quit the race and endorse Ted Cruz.
I never could figure out why the right would pick a guy who was everything they hated about Obama. He was an ethnic minority who had some state legislative experience and was serving in his first term in the U.S. Senate. Four years ago, it was bizarre that the Republicans reacted to the passage of Obamacare by nominating Mitt Romney, who basically invented Obamacare. People seriously expected the Republicans to follow that up by nominating a Latino who led the fight to pass comprehensive immigration reform in the Senate?
The guy is good-looking, I’ll give him that. And he’s capable with the right preparation of giving a good speech. But he’s not charismatic. He doesn’t have the special attraction of a Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, or Barack Obama.
He was clearly out of his league on the big debate stage even before Chris Christie exposed him as a crib note candidate.
I don’t know. I never took him seriously.
He’s a classic case of a person who looks good on paper.
I’ve always thought a big part of his appeal to the media was he allowed them to continue to delude themselves that what was happening to the GOP, was in fact, not happening. See also, Paul Ryan.
See also Scott Walker. They have no bench. Years of demonizing government will do that to you. They have no one qualified to lead this country – if they did, the establishment would have closed ranks behind him/her by now. They have nothing, nada, zip, zilch, zero…
Endorse Cruz? Eft-That. Endorse Kasich, at this point they need 3 candidates.
See also Mitt Romney. The best of the Republicans look way better on paper than IRL. The exceptions, guys like Huntsman, can’t buy a ticket to the convention.
I don’t get it. Maybe it’s just desperation? At this point Ted Cruz might actually be worse for the Republican Party than Donald Trump.
The other thing that’s stupid about it is that Rubio withdrawing now guarantees Trump wins Florida, because about 10% of votes have already been early voted for Rubio and much fewer for Cruz. He’s even well ahead of Trump in early voters. After the 15th it might help, but not now.
I think the thought is that Cruz and Rubio would team up. Erickson even suggested Cruz name Rubio as his running mate. The early votes would be lost but the idea is the votes of the two together on election day would be enough. I think it’s B.S. because I think it takes a special kind of voter to choose Cruz. Someone perversely cynical and crude. My guess is much of his support goes to Kasich and Trump cruises.
The problem with a Cruz/Rubio ticket is two fold;
Yea – this just makes zero sense.
As of this morning 850,901 votes have been cast in the Florida Primary. Turnout will likely between 2.2 and 3.2 million. Even at the high-end, about one third of all votes will be cast by weekend. Given the polling, Cruz would need at least an 8-10 point margin on election day to makeup the deficit that he already has.
Basically a Rubio exit hands 99 delegates to Trump. They are probably already gone anyway.
Stopping Trump depends on winning Ohio, and then either Illinois or Missouri. If the lose both Fla and Ohio, Trump will be very hard but still not impossible to stop. 589 of the 1003 remaining delegates are Winner after 3/15 are winner take all, and if a candidate were to run the table they could still stop him.
It is desperation.
If Rubio had any juice, they’d stick with him.
I still say Kasich will be the last man standing. Cruz is suicide.
Disagree. Maybe if it goes to the convention…but I had Cruz winning this thing since last summer.
Or until the last rat is f*cked, whichever comes first.
If Hillary is smart, she’ll have her super PAC funnel money to Cruz, he’ll bomb in November.
The rest of your NRO reference is just shocking:
Dam burst? Seems more like the Titanic took a spread of torpedoes. Sonar operator’s log notes: “Breaking-up noises.”
More breaking-up noises:
So now “ideologically haphazard and substance-free demagoguery” is a problem? In case you’re wondering, Jonah, that sulphur-tainted smell signifies your Faustian bargain coming due for settlement.
Frankly, I really didn’t understand ANY of the KKKlown KKKar occupants this season. Amazingly, they all seemed miles worse than the last go-round. It’s pretty astounding at how piss-poor these alleged KKKandidates are, even given that they’re from the now totally nutbar Repulikkkan party. Sad.
As for Rubio? Yeah, I dunno either. I guess he’s kinda sorta good looking in a Cubano emulating a white frat boy kind of way. What little I saw of him on the debate stage was utterly cringe worthy. He seemed way out of his league, which is even sadder given the field of contestants there.
And his record in Congress, absent the immigration reform bill, isn’t stellar either. And the immigration thing, admirable as it is, knocks out of the running with the racist, bigoted, hateful, fearful base.
Since the GOP has clearly permitted the Koch Brothers to screw the pooch with the squillions to purchase dumber than hammer nutbar fringe Tea Party candidates, who’ll do f*ck all to get anything done… well this is the end result.
I’m guessing it’s the Kochs who’ve got their billionaire panties inna giant was over Trump, who’s horning in on their con. Them and their buddy Shelly Adelson.
But stick a fork in Rubio cuz he’s well and truly DONE.
Especially now that LieCarly Fiorina has endorsed Cruz! Yikes.
Amazingly, they all seemed miles worse than the last go-round.
Only because you have forgotten how bad they were last time. Michelle Bachmann, Rick Santorum, Newt, Ron Paul Herman Cain, and oops (who did last longer last time than this time).
My thinking is that they figured if Obama can fool everyone by being an unknown quantity in 2008, why not Rubio?
That they thought of Obama as an empty suit was their undoing because Rubio actually is.
I agree. But I’d add that they’re obsessed with inoculating themselves against charges of racism by trotting out their Cuban or black or Mexican friends.
Yeah, like black voters can’t see that Carson and Keyes are nuts.
The few smart enough to realize that they have to improve their image among minorities and youth must’ve thought Rubio looked amazing. On paper.
But other than a short-lived fling with immigration reform he’s adopted positions as hard-line as those of Cruz while cultivating the schmooze of the Beltway; a cuter, more palatable mullah of conservatism but with a fat Rolodex full of donors.
He’s been way too far out over his skis since he started.
I’ve seen Rubio and person. I don’t agree with BooMan: he IS pretty charismatic. He is certainly better than Cruz (I also saw him).
Basically this nomination was there for Rubio’s taking.
And he blew it. So badly that Ted Cruz will likely be the establishment candidate in this race.
Doesn’t really even look that good on paper. The Right got mesmerised again by their own spin; they watched Bush collapse and failed to get it that it was the message, not the messenger.
They still don’t get it; the market for endlessly repackaged supply-side, trickle-down, pro-business “lift-all-boats” bafflegab has collapsed and they are stuck with a million units sitting on their shelves. The dollars set alight by their donors this cycle is a bonfire probably visible from space.
The question for Rubio is not how badly he has been squashed (hint: like a bug) but whether this second public humiliation of an ‘establishment lane’ candidacy indelibly links him with the old party and scars his career forever.
Nice analysis.
Booman says that Democrats are buying the bafflegab.
Well, it should be heavily discounted.
The Republicans have been operating like Stringer Bell, writ large, for some time now. I never thought they’d end the same way, too.
nice writing!!
I believe that the Cruz campaign already decided that for Rubio.
And yet another example of his merciless indifference to the discipline and hierarchies of influence which once pervaded Republican congressional politics.
Cruz, to use the notorious metaphor, is “pissing inside the tent.”
Couldn’t have happened to a buggier OS.
The repubs should have run
this guy
A well-written political obituary. He just doesn’t have the charisma and all his policies have been tried in real life, debunked and vehemently voted down in the last two presidential elections.
This may make my 90 year-old mom in Florida a little sad.
We too easily dismiss Marco Rubio. He’s a youngster, younger than Nixon was when he lost the election in 1960. After that, Nixon lost the gubernatorial election in California in ’62 and promised that we wouldn’t have Dick Nixon to kick around anymore.
Rubio will go off and lick his wounds, make LOTS of money on speaking tours, and then spend half a decade doing what Nixon did, namely raising money for lots of Republican candidates, making Republicans indebted to him.
He’ll be back. Even this awful campaign won’t amount to the well earned stake to the heart that this vampire should experience.
At least this year is the last of Trump. He’s old. It’s Hillary’s last shot, it’s Bernie’s, and it’s probably Kasich’s. But it ain’t Rubio’s.
Maybe he’ll learn to speak and drink water at the same time.
Except, unlike Nixon, Rubio is lazy and not devilishly clever.
Cruz seems to me the more likely torch-bearer of Nixonian humbuggery. He is rapidly assuming the shifty-eyed squint of the loathed and ruthless power-monger.
Cruz appears to have been a loathed and ruthless power-monger since at least his freshman year in college. His fundie religious worldview makes it difficult for me to liken him to Nixon. Perhaps closer to Joe McCarthy.
Cruz has been getting something of a free ride the past couple of months as Trump focused on taking down Rubio and the MSM and GOP focused on taking down Trump, So, Cruz just floats along bolstered by religious nutcases that have lost their other options. When the field gets further reduced, Cruz with his whiny little voice and extreme positions will be more attention and people will begin to realize that he makes their skin crawl. It’s a visceral response to Cruz’s persona and not one that he can do much about.
Is there a method to Trump’s madness that he would want Cruz as the last man standing between himself and the nomination? Does he have a trick up his sleeve?
He sees the two-man phase coming and is just doing the pre-show warm-up. I reckon Cruz’s whole strategy miscarried on SEC Super Tuesday. It was he that was supposed to have torpedoed Bush and then rolled on inexorably to Cleveland. Trump’s unexpectedly strong candidacy thwarted this carefully laid plan. Cruz stopped hugging Trump when he realised the risk but too late. He remained formidable but Trump outperformed.
Now he’s basically running interference for Trump against any other comers. So Cruz seems a wild card. Witness his threatened move (head-fake?) into Florida to further intimidate Rubio; a state Cruz wouldn’t, apparently, win anyhow. Not sure he even has a plan at this point but he’s certainly got a tiger by the ears.
I reckon Trump, however, is playing this like a cagey reality TV finalist, which is to say for the exposure. It seems to be working terribly well. He also seems already trying to pivot to Hillary and the general election. The media, on the other hand, probably needs to go home and rethink their lives before they shame themselves further.
All Trump has to do to dispel Cruz is point out that Ted spent the first several months of the campaign kissing his ass and shining his shoes.
Booman, I think I’ve now actually won a prediction contest against you. I’m the one who has been crying loudest for years about Ted Cruz as a serious threat for the Presidency. I think now that Fred Hiatt’s minions have thrown their support to that cretinous lunatic, my prediction can now be considered fulfilled.
Which means I can check one off my bucket list (“Be smarter about Booman on something before you die”), but damn, I wish I had been wrong. I’m am seriously worried now what might happen if the economy shits its pants between now and November.
Cruz is about as electable, at the national level, as a sack of horseshit. In the unlikely event he’s the Republican nominee, we’ll take the Senate and probably the House too.
We’ll see if Ted Cruz can beat Trump, but I’ll give you credit for identifying Cruz as a player in the eleventy-billion person field.
How many told you, like me, that Kasich would be the last “establishment” candidate standing?
You’re the only reason I didn’t discount Kasich completely. The first debate I was like, “Why is he even up there?”
So yes, credit to you 😉
Once Jeb showed he couldn’t be an alpha male, Kasich was their only choice.
And I mean that not in the sense that he’s a great fit for the modern GOP.
He’s the only one who can even come close to filling the shoes of an Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan or Poppy Bush.
He’s conversant on policy, knows how DC works, basically understands the world stage and has some idea how to use the State Department, and he hasn’t disqualified himself in the general by how he’s run in the primary.
It doesn’t hurt that he’s hosting the convention in what is a must-win state for the party.
Why anyone in the ‘establishment’ flirted with Rubio while Kasich was available is a mystery.
I guess the idea was that you can’t win the nomination by sounding reasonable, which may prove to be the case. But there are a lot of people who will flock to Kasich precisely because he looks and sounds like he’s up to the job and could do it with a little dignity.
In the end, the GOP base is probably too detached from reality to give it to Kasich, but his plan to win at the convention isn’t crazy. It’s the sanest thing left for the Republicans to do if they want to have any real hope of both winning and winning something worth having.
I believed you about Kasich. You’re the best at this, so if I’m needling you about it, it’s with the utmost respect.
U.S. Hedge fund fund managers pour money into Cruz and Clinton campaigns
Wow! I’m really glad that those hedge fund managers are so public spirited! And I’m glad I’m a Beta.
OT, but I just want to make this observation.
I believe that Trump, in running for president, literally doesn’t know what he’s doing. He’s a megalomaniac whose phenomenal effectiveness with a certain element of the population has unmoored him from whatever grounding he might have ever had to reality. And by “reality” I don’t mean “reality television”.
Trump’s success is due to the fact that he’s absolutely not a politician — but that fact will also be his downfall. He’s neither in control of himself nor his followers. No doubt he’s enjoying every minute of it, but he literally doesn’t know what he’s doing.
That does not by any means absolve him. He is responsible for subjecting the body politic to reckless endangerment, criminal negligence, etc.
I believe that Trump, in running for president, literally doesn’t know what he’s doing.
Of course he doesn’t. But that never stopped anyone from running for POTUS and occasionally they won.
Maybe so, but you’ve gotta admit Trump is something special.
LOL — yes he is. Higher profile but no less ridiculous than Herman Cain and Ben Carson.
In CA, we had George Murphy, Reagan, SI Hayakawa, Sonny Bono, and Schwarzennegger. MN had Jesse Ventura. And it’s difficult not to notice that some of the professional pols have been as pathetic as the know-nothing novices.