# 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:** 24
**Author:** ![Morgenstern](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/461 "2016-03-16T00:26:06Z")
Rubio is out of the race. 3/15/2016. He tried. ---
**Author:** ![Hank\_Beecher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hank_beecher/32/7275_2.png) [@Hank\_Beecher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hank_Beecher)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/462 "2016-03-16T00:27:36Z")
Oh God, he’s preaching. Passing the plate, his new career, i’m calling it. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/463 "2016-03-16T00:30:50Z")
Maybe if he had bowed to the inevitable two months ago, Trump would not be rolling in delegates now. I liked you, Marco, but you mishandled this. ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/464 "2016-03-16T00:31:07Z")
Goodbye, you vapid little troll. Here’s hoping you get indicted for something soon. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/465 "2016-03-16T01:24:31Z")
Just wondering. I did not follow the “Debates”, and didn’t really get into Rubio. But: At some point, he “wrapped up” his appearance by iterating what the GOP was to be: "The Party which holds: Anti-abortion Anti-Gay marriage He may have even slipped in “2nd Amendment” to his little list of Right Wing Hot Buttons. Were these positions he had actually held up to that Debate, or was this a last-ditch effort to “Prove” his “Conservative” Bona Fides? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/466 "2016-03-16T01:42:19Z")
Time for the fork. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/467 "2016-03-16T02:20:02Z")
Marco, the tribe has spoken. ---
**Author:** ![FlikTheBlue](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fliktheblue/32/10972_2.png) [@FlikTheBlue](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FlikTheBlue)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 2:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/468 "2016-03-16T02:27:13Z")
> [@adaher](#): > > Marco, the tribe has spoken. Lol :D. I can picture Jeff Propst snuffing his torch while Rubio stands there with a shocked face. ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/469 "2016-03-16T02:38:47Z")
I’m not at all sad to see the back of him, but really, what kind of idiot heckles a concession speech? ---
**Author:** ![Derleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 3:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/470 "2016-03-16T03:42:23Z")
> [@FlikTheBlue](#): > > Lol :D. I can picture Jeff Propst snuffing his torch while Rubio stands there with a shocked face. I picture Jeff Propst, too, because I don’t actually know what Jeff Probst looks like. Jeff Propst looks like Cesar Chavez. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 10:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/471 "2016-03-16T10:58:43Z")
Personally I’m enjoying the Twitterati digging up Ross Douthat’s prediction back in September that Rubio was going to “sweep every primary”. How’s that working out for you, Ross? ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/472 "2016-03-16T11:01:56Z")
It wasn’t unreasonable. If Rubio had won Iowa, the race probably would have been over right there. Nate Silver said the same thing. But he did not win Iowa and he had that bad debate in New Hampshire. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/473 "2016-03-16T11:03:14Z")
Yes, if he had just avoided all the not winning, he would have won. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 11:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/474 "2016-03-16T11:06:54Z")
Point taken, but Rubio was uniquely positioned to benefit from momentum out of Iowa. We knew that if Trump won Iowa and NH, that he’d still struggle to get a majority of delegates due to the perceived ceiling on his support. That analysis has been damaged a little, but isn’t broken, as Trump still doesn’t have a majority of the delegates so far. Cruz winning Iowa wasn’t likely to get him very far and it didn’t. But Rubio, who had the third best chance to win, if he’d taken Iowa he probably would have been the prohibitive front runner from that point on. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/475 "2016-03-16T12:58:01Z")
If it was down to “Trump or Rubio” I might have conceded your point about Iowa, but third is third. Nver mind The Donald; Rubio has struggled all the way to come out on top against Cruz as the anti-Trump candidate. Instead he’s ended up being Jeb(!) Mark 2 - someone for whom great things were predicted but never materialized. And even if they had, it was never going to be easy - predicting a “sweep” was, shall we say, highly optimistic. Unlike with Jeb I don’t think Rubio’s career is necessarily over. Michael Grunwald’s Time Magazine article touting Rubio as “The Republican Savior” is a bit unfortunate at the moment but if Rubio manages the next four years properly he could still have a reasonable shot at 2020 (assuming Trump is unsuccessful). Of course, he’s going to have to seriously raise his game if he wants that to happen. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 1:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/476 "2016-03-16T13:19:19Z")
It will be a lot harder after giving up his Senate seat. He could have kept it, started taking it seriously, and built up more cred, but he didn’t. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stainless_steel_rat/32/5727_2.png) [@The\_Stainless\_Steel\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stainless_Steel_Rat)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/477 "2016-03-16T13:43:47Z")
I think Rubio’s biggest problem now is that he is going to be ‘off screen’ for at least two years, as he’ll have to give up his Senate seat in the 2016 election so it’ll probably be 2018 at the earliest that he can run for anything else. So keeping his face in public may be an issue, he needs to shake the ‘loser’ tag and convince people he is still viable. It can be done (Nixon, indeed, was there to be kicked around some more), but the whuppin’ in his home state will give him some work to do while he is ‘behind the scenes’ the next two years. IMHO as always. YMMV. ---
**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:** [March 16, 2016, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/478 "2016-03-16T13:50:57Z")
Jeb’s been out of office for quite a while. Didn’t stop him from being the perceived front runner. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2016, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/479 "2016-03-16T14:05:46Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > Jeb’s been out of office for quite a while. Didn’t stop him from being the perceived front runner. Jeb Bush had far more record and experience, to start with, as well as his family connections. His time was a few years past, but it was an actual thing, and it could seen as positive. Rubio has nothing. No real governing experience, no real legislative achievement, and he is now best known for trying to tangle with Donald Trump, and being crushed. ---
**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:** [March 16, 2016, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/480 "2016-03-16T14:22:19Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Jeb Bush had far more record and experience, to start with, as well as his family connections. His time was a few years past, but it was an actual thing, and it could seen as positive. Rubio has nothing. No real governing experience, no real legislative achievement, and he is now best known for trying to tangle with Donald Trump, and being crushed. I agree. Rubio can definitely find work as some consultant type at conservative groups, or giving speeches, or various other ways, but it will be really difficult for him to get back in office. If it was someone else, they could be out of office and run again in 2020, and try to claim some sort of outsider status after not having much political experience, but since he was the establishment’s hope against Trump, that would be much harder for him to claim. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685.md?page=23) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685.md?page=25)