# 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:** 6
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 3:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/101 "2015-10-26T15:22:13Z")
How can a guy who [hates the Senate so much he’s quit on it in his first term](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2015/10/25/28cfaff0-6d59-11e5-9bfe-e59f5e244f92_story.html?wpmm=1&wpisrc=nl_p1most) claim that as a qualification for the Presidency? Those are the people he’d have to work with. At least Palin had the grace to resign. > [@](#): > > Rubio must convince voters that his decision to leave the Senate — giving up the power he already has — is actually a mark of character, a sign that he is too dedicated to public service to stay. > > Rubio is not a quitter, the argument goes. > > In fact, that’s precisely why he’s quitting this place. > > “He wouldn’t be doing what he’s doing now if he were a quitter,” said Norman Braman, a Florida auto dealer and one of Rubio’s longtime donors. Yes, he would, Norm. ---
**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:** [October 26, 2015, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/102 "2015-10-26T15:28:04Z")
Well, you have to admire him for trying. “He wouldn’t quit if he were a quitter.” This is going to look terrible for his campaign. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/103 "2015-10-26T16:07:49Z")
Palin-Rubio '16: The Undefeated! ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 4:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/104 "2015-10-26T16:29:59Z")
> [@Bayard](#): > > Palin-Rubio '16: The Undefeated! Shouldn’t that be “The Incompleted”? 🙂 ---
**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:** [October 26, 2015, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/105 "2015-10-26T16:40:49Z")
I hate to stick up for Rubio, but he isn’t proposing quitting mid-term is he? I thought he was merely declining to run again. As far as quitters go, Palin serving only 2 years of a 4 year term is much more damning than Rubio’s serving a full 6 year term. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/106 "2015-10-26T17:01:37Z")
Yea, I don’t think its equivalent to Palin. She dropped out mid-term, and not to seek a higher office. Rubio’s just not running again, and it sounds like the rules in FL make it necessary if he’s going to continue his Presidential run (though I’m not exactly clear on why he can’t at least wait till he knows if he’ll win the nomination, or at least the results of the early primary states). Though as an excuse for missing Senate votes for _this term_, “I’m quitting anyways” leaves something to be desired. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/107 "2015-10-26T17:07:18Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > I hate to stick up for Rubio, but he isn’t proposing quitting mid-term is he? He’s already quit the work. He just hasn’t quit the office. ---
**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:** [October 26, 2015, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/108 "2015-10-26T17:16:53Z")
He’s using it as his excuse for not actually doing the job now (missing votes and so on), so while it’s not quite a Palin situation it’s more than just declining to run again. ---
**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:** [October 26, 2015, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/109 "2015-10-26T17:37:13Z")
Sure, but who actually does his job full time when running for president? I think not many. ---
**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:** [October 26, 2015, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/110 "2015-10-26T17:43:11Z")
Hardly anyone. But I’ve never heard another candidate defend his attendance record by saying he didn’t really want to be there anyway. > [@](#): > > “That’s why I’m missing votes. Because I am leaving the Senate. I am not running for reelection,” Rubio said in the last Republican debate, after Donald Trump had mocked him for his unusual number of absences during Senate votes. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/111 "2015-10-26T17:44:55Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Sure, but who actually does his job full time when running for president? I think not many. Sure, I don’t think its a big deal Rubio has been missing votes. Pretty much every sitting senator does when they make a Presidential run, and the job is flexible enough that I don’t think it really does any damage to the Country or anything. But they also always get attacked for it by their opponents, and usually have a more convincing excuse at the ready then, “fuck it, I’m out in a year anyways”. The article also quotes Rubio giving what’s basically the standard excuse (that the votes missed were just symbolic anyways). I imagine that was his canned, talking points answer. Its just funny that he slipped up once and gave an honest answer, and that that answer was basically the same one High School seniors use for getting bad grades in their last semester. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/112 "2015-10-26T17:52:28Z")
Probably not going to miss any votes that are not already foregone conclusions, so its kinda moot, his being a part-time Senator. If the Dems use that against him, I will register a firm “tsk! tsk!”, though I doubt this will go down in infamy like the Great Massachusetts Massacre, which horror still haunts our nation. Well, some of our nation. ---
**Author:** ![DinoR](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dinor/32/2821_2.png) [@DinoR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DinoR)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/113 "2015-10-26T17:58:29Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > Sure, but who actually does his job full time when running for president? I think not many. The committee meetings last year bother me more. Most of the votes are just putting the official seal on the result everyone knows by the time they hold them. I admire the work he tried to do intentionally reaching across the aisle to get something, \*\*anything \*\*, useful done. That part makes me like him more. Giving up makes me leery of whether he’s got the determination to keep fighting if we gave him a new role. Saying he’s fed up is both refreshing and troubling. I wish he’d used fed up to instead become an absolute pain in the ass. Filibuster every meaningless resolution or sham vote by attacking all the things that the Senate isn’t doing. Be that guy who filibusters for three hours on a resolution recognizing the winner of the World Series. C-Span would be a lot more interesting at least. ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/114 "2015-10-26T18:24:59Z")
He’s also mildly fucking over his party, in that he’ll be freeing up a Senate seat in a purple state in a year where turnout is likely to be more Dem favorable than it was when he was elected. Obviously the GOP wouldn’t mind if he was trading it in for the Oval Office (or even, to run in the General Election for that office), but by locking in his choice during the primaries, it means he’ll be putting an important Senate seat at risk. As a Dem, I certainly don’t mind that. But I’d be annoyed if I was a Republican that he only decided to stay in the Senate for one term. I was kinda pissed at Jim Webb for doing the same thing on the other side in 2012. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 6:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/115 "2015-10-26T18:59:41Z")
> [@ElvisL1ves](#): > > He’s already quit the work. He just hasn’t quit the office. He and Kim Davis should form a support group for people who want to keep their jobs without having to do the work. ---
**Author:** ![stillownedbysetters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/41988e/32.png) [@stillownedbysetters](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stillownedbysetters)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/116 "2015-10-26T19:26:26Z")
This may be the oddest political move yet from the Republicans…quit your political job in order to concentrate on politics. Didn’t a certain Sarah Palin do the same sort of thing in Alaska? (I want to be well known and considered a political pundit, but I don’t want to actually be a politician), and now we have Rubio vexed with the impasses in the Senate, largely created by his Tea Party cronies. So he is taking his ball and going home, in schoolyard metaphor. All I can say is WTF? What potential voter looks at such a move and says “Now that is the candidate I want for President!” ---
**Author:** ![Simplicio](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c37758/32.png) [@Simplicio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Simplicio)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 7:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/117 "2015-10-26T19:41:10Z")
> [@stillownedbysetters](#): > > This may be the oddest political move yet from the Republicans…quit your political job in order to concentrate on politics. Dole quit the Senate to run for President, so there’s a precedent. Though IIRC he already had the nomination locked up at that point, and at 73 the optics were a little different, since “WH or retirement” makes a little more sense at that age. Rubio presumably doesn’t intend to end his career at 45, even if he doesn’t go to the WH. ---
**Author:** ![Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a183cd/32.png) [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Barkis_is_Willin)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/118 "2015-10-26T19:46:58Z")
Not seeking re-election is not the same as quitting. ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 7:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/119 "2015-10-26T19:58:35Z")
This [article](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2015/10/20/marco-rubio-blasts-slacker-government-employees-after-missing-his-7th-vote-this-month/)is a few days old, but on the Senate floor last week, Rubio said of a bill he was pushing: > [@Marco Rubio](#): > > All we’re saying in this bill is, if you work at the V.A., and you aren’t doing your job, they get to fire you. I think people are shocked that that [doesn’t] actually exist in the entire government, since there is really no other job in the country where if you don’t do your job, you don’t get fired. > > In this instance, we’re just limiting it to one agency. This should actually be the rule in the entire government. If you’re not doing your job, you should be fired. Yeah, fuck those federal employees who stop doing their jobs and can’t be fired. ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 26, 2015, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685/120 "2015-10-26T21:08:12Z")
Regardless of his hypocrisy, he is right. There should be performance goals, and those goals should be used to decide who gets the raises, who gets the promotions, and who gets kicked out of public service. If the military can be run as a meritocracy, so can the civilian workforce of the government. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/marco-rubio-presidential-campaign-discussion-thread/717685.md?page=7)