# Marco Rubio presidential campaign discussion thread. **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [April 14, 2015, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685 "2015-04-14T21:41:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 16
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/301 "2016-02-22T21:17:14Z")
The establishment is suddenly coming out in droves to support young Mario. Orrin Hatch and Bob Dole have announced their endorsements today. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/302 "2016-02-22T21:19:54Z")
Utterly predictable. The establishment hates Cruz and they’re terrified of Trump. Expect a lot of money and endorsements of Rubio to follow. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/303 "2016-02-22T21:24:54Z")
i wonder if Jeb! is going to endorse him. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/304 "2016-02-22T22:42:20Z")
Makes me wonder how powerful the Bush clan is behind the scenes that nobody dared endorse anyone while Jeb! was still playing. But now that Jeb? is out suddenly the flood gates opened. Who gave permission for all those politicos to suddenly change their minds? When the \*capo \*speaks, the made men listen. Or maybe not. Maybe I’ve seen too many TV movies. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/305 "2016-02-22T22:47:15Z")
It was probably Cheney holding them hostage. ---
**Author:** ![Lance\_Turbo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lance_turbo/32/6156_2.png) [@Lance\_Turbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lance_Turbo)\ **Post date:** [February 22, 2016, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/306 "2016-02-22T23:01:49Z")
> [@LSLGuy](#): > > Makes me wonder how powerful the Bush clan is behind the scenes that nobody dared endorse anyone while Jeb! was still playing. It’s not that they were afraid to endorse someone in all cases. These people who have endorsed Rubio previously endorsed Jeb: Carlos Curbelo Dean Heller Gus M. Bilirakis Ileana Ros-Lehtinen Jeff Miller Mario Diaz-Balart Mark Amodei Orrin G. Hatch ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/307 "2016-02-23T01:03:24Z")
More generally, will endorsements from establishment figures actually help Rubio, or will it simply allow Trump and Cruz to create a “Rubio is the establishment” narrative to club him with? Normally, endorsements are probably weakly favorable, but given the anti-establishment vigor on the Republican side, it might not be true this year. Note that it’s possible for the Haley endorsement to have helped Rubio in SC, while still having the generally piling on of establishment figures be negative. ---
**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 1:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/308 "2016-02-23T01:04:50Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > It was probably Cheney holding them hostage. He’s a devil with that hunting rifle. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/309 "2016-02-23T02:19:32Z")
> [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](#): > > More generally, will endorsements from establishment figures actually help Rubio, or will it simply allow Trump and Cruz to create a “Rubio is the establishment” narrative to club him with? Normally, endorsements are probably weakly favorable, but given the anti-establishment vigor on the Republican side, it might not be true this year. Endorsements are usually strongly favourable but yeah it’s a weird season. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 3:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/310 "2016-02-23T15:35:51Z")
I just watched Rubio’s SC election night speech. I had seen the various others already, but managed to miss that one. I kept hearing it was something sensational, so I dug it up. Once again, I find myself like the wag on Twitter who said he “doesn’t have the gene for ‘impressed by Marco Rubio’”. He stumbles over his words a lot, and seems nervous. Plus, I seriously think–as I’ve said before–that he has some actual condition. Either a physiological, medical condition, or some kind of psychosomatic nervous condition. He obviously had to have learned from that SOTU response fiasco that he needs to hydrate before speeches. But he still talks like he’s got constant cottonmouth, and repeatedly swirls his tongue around his mouth in between phonemes in what looks like a desperate quest for moisture. Oh, and his daughter appears to be developing into a looker. I wonder though if she’s not exactly keen on his politics? She seemed to be sort of rolling her eyes at some of his Reagan talk. ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/311 "2016-02-23T15:50:49Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > He obviously had to have learned from that SOTU response fiasco that he needs to hydrate before speeches. But he still talks like he’s got constant cottonmouth, and repeatedly swirls his tongue around his mouth in between phonemes in what looks like a desperate quest for moisture. That is my observation as well, I think that is his major problem. He seems desperate for his water bottle, but can’t risk the blow back that would cause. He is left to suck on his tongue and smack his lips while dreaming of waterfalls and mountain springs. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/312 "2016-02-23T15:52:12Z")
It definitely looks that way. But it seems like that _right from the start_ of his speeches. Isn’t he taking a good chug beforehand at least? I don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/313 "2016-02-23T15:52:51Z")
I don’t think anyone including Rubio really believes he is really ready for the presidency . . . but now he’s saddled himself with the Last Hope of GOP Sanity role . . . what a burden . . . what he must be going through . . . ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/314 "2016-02-23T16:10:08Z")
Although he has taken the establishment mantle, he is by no means a moderate. Any other year, he’d be the whacky righty. He thinks there is no foreign issue that can’t be solved with bullets, he wants to eliminate capital gains tax, and he backs the balanced budget amendment despite adopting a budget-busting tax plan. Now some think he’s the frontrunner. Why? He couldn’t win a single state among the first three, despite the endorsement of a popular governor in SC and despite his imperialistic foreign policy in the most military fetishist state in the country. He isn’t going to win a single Super Tuesday state. Correct me if I’m wrong, but most nominees generally win a primary along the way, I don’t see it happening for him. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/315 "2016-02-23T16:21:16Z")
He might win Georgia -I haven’t really investigated all of the Super Tuesday states. And of course he’s not the front runner but we have to see how the polling starts to shift as he becomes last man standing in the “establishment lane”. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/316 "2016-02-23T16:34:52Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Although he has taken the establishment mantle, he is by no means a moderate. Any other year, he’d be the whacky righty. He thinks there is no foreign issue that can’t be solved with bullets, he wants to eliminate capital gains tax, and he backs the balanced budget amendment despite adopting a budget-busting tax plan. [Jonathan Chait sums up Rubio as Bushism without Bush.](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/02/why-jebs-campaign-died-while-hillarys-lived.html) > [@](#): > > Now some think he’s the frontrunner. Why? He couldn’t win a single state among the first three, despite the endorsement of a popular governor in SC and despite his imperialistic foreign policy in the most military fetishist state in the country. He isn’t going to win a single Super Tuesday state. Correct me if I’m wrong, but most nominees generally win a primary along the way, I don’t see it happening for him. He’s crossing everybody up, by frontrunning from behind! 😃 I think the logic is that Trump’s appeal has a ceiling somewhere under 50%, and once it’s down to Trump v. Rubio, Rubio wins. I guess we’re gonna find out soon enough. [Kilgore says he has an outside chance to win in Nevada tonight because the LDS folks are mobilizing for him](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/02/national-nevada-establishments-unite-for-rubio.html) in a big way. Why? Because Rubio _used to be_ a Mormon. No, I can’t figure that one out either. Not to mention, Rubio’s religious affiliations practically cover the waterfront. He’s a Roman Catholic, but worships a lot with evangelical Protestants, and he used to be a Mormon. A God-botherer for all seasons. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/317 "2016-02-23T17:07:34Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > …the most military fetishist state in the country. Wait, which one is that? Iowa? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Lowry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Sam\_Lowry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Lowry)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 5:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/318 "2016-02-23T17:23:43Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I just watched Rubio’s SC election night speech. I had seen the various others already, but managed to miss that one. I kept hearing it was something sensational, so I dug it up. Once again, I find myself like the wag on Twitter who said he “doesn’t have the gene for ‘impressed by Marco Rubio’”. He stumbles over his words a lot, and seems nervous. > > Plus, I seriously think–as I’ve said before–that he has some actual condition. Either a physiological, medical condition, or some kind of psychosomatic nervous condition. He obviously had to have learned from that SOTU response fiasco that he needs to hydrate before speeches. But he still talks like he’s got constant cottonmouth, and repeatedly swirls his tongue around his mouth in between phonemes in what looks like a desperate quest for moisture. [He does apparently suffer from anxiety](http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/the-anxiety-of-marco-rubio): > [@](#): > > To rivals, Rubio’s reflexive retreat to the same snippet of well-rehearsed rhetoric — over and over, and over, and over again — was proof of the freshman senator’s status as a lightweight. To supporters, the wobbly display was a forgivable fluke, one bad moment blown wildly out of proportion by a bloodthirsty press corps. > > But to those who have known him longest, Rubio’s flustered performance Saturday night fit perfectly with an all-too-familiar strain of his personality, one that his handlers and image-makers have labored for years to keep out of public view. Though generally seen as cool-headed and quick on his feet, Rubio is known to friends, allies, and advisers for a kind of incurable anxiousness — and an occasional propensity to panic in moments of crisis, both real and imagined. > > This jittery restlessness has manifested itself throughout Rubio’s life, from high school football games in Miami to high-profile policy fights in Washington — and in some ways, it’s been the driving force in his rapid political rise. > > \ > > For all Rubio’s efforts at image control, he sometimes allows involuntary glimpses at his inner anxieties. For example, Rubio’s 2012 memoir, American Son, is — when read a certain way — less an inspiring tale of his unlikely rise to power, and more a harrowing chronicle of self-doubt and misery in the political arena. Indeed, for a politician defined by his sunny message and soaring rhetoric, Rubio’s 2010 Senate bid sounds, in his telling, like a merciless assault on his psyche: the race a gut-twisting roller coaster ride on which he was constantly convinced the next track-rattling twist, turn, or plummet would throw him from the cart and send him plunging to his death. The account is peppered with words like “inevitable humiliation,” “destined for failure,” and “despair.” ---
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/319 "2016-02-23T17:28:53Z")
> [@RTFirefly](#): > > [URL=“[Why Jeb Bush’s Campaign Died While Hillary Clinton’s Lived](http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/02/why-jebs-campaign-died-while-hillarys-lived.html)”] > > Why? Because Rubio _used to be_ a Mormon. > > No, I can’t figure that one out either. > > Not to mention, Rubio’s religious affiliations practically cover the waterfront. He’s a Roman Catholic, but worships a lot with evangelical Protestants, and he used to be a Mormon. A God-botherer for all seasons. I’m not sure how big of an issue which particular variety of Christian he is would matter a lot there. I’d be inclined to think that Mormons would consider him a lost sheep and they would pray for his return to the flock, not sure if they would be more or less likely to vote for him than anyone else. Perhaps it would be much more significant in Utah, but even then I’m not sure if leaving the LDS would be a plus or minus there. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [February 23, 2016, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/320 "2016-02-23T17:30:32Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > but now he’s saddled himself with the Last Hope of GOP Sanity role . . . what a burden . . . what he must be going through . . . What must _the GOP_ be going through … [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685.md?page=15) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685.md?page=17)