It doesn’t really matter. He can’t undo the fact that he is a candidate who is totally a creature of his handlers. That’s built into his numbers at this point. If you want someone different, Rubio’s not your man.
New Hampshire values straight talkers. South Carolina is more willing to vote for the best marketed candidate. That’s why Clinton is doing so well on the Dem side.
Of course it matters. If Rubio can actually avoid further robot malfunctions, this meme dies and he potentially has a path (narrow, winding) to the nomination. If he malfunctions again, it’s all over for him.
Oh, cool. I guess that also explains why Obama did so in NH in 2008 she did so well in SC.
That’s the beauty of the meme. If he does well, it’s proof that his handlers are doing a great job. It’s the kind of attack that works whether he screws up or whether he does well.
THe only real way to disprove it is to be a little more random and unpredictable. But given the history of how campaigns normally go, Rubio would be better off just staying on message.
Note that Clinton won in NH when she finally showed the public a little authenticity.
The meme in question is that Marco is a robot who gets stuck in repeat loops; let’s laugh at Robot Rubio. If he can avoid a repeat of that debate - forever, this meme dies. But he’s always at risk of bringing it back.
Tell ya what. Why don’t you try postin’ one of them cites that backs up what you’re hollerin’ about, and I’ll consider noting it.
sadly, that’s what the meme has become, but that works for Rubio because it’s a pointless meme. Whereas the original attack Christie made hurt: that Rubio is just a scripted candidate who says what his handlers put in his mouth.
Resistance is futile! Prepare to be USsimilated!
What a strange reply. The Robot Rubio meme is the distilled essence of Christie’s attack. That’s pretty much how memes work.
By the way, do I take that as a no on the previous cite request?
I agree that the punditocracy can grab a sound-bite and repeat it unto death.
I have a hard time believing the rank and file not-very-interested R voter has absorbed the Rubio=robot meme. IOW, it’s not really a meme, a self-replicating idea propagating virally through the populace. Instead it’s a tired refrain repeated hourly by a small cadre of talking heads.
As soon as they have something else new to say about Rubio they’ll start saying that instead. Over and over and over and … . It might be favorable, or it might be unfavorable. But in either case it’ll displace the Rubio=robot canned comment.
Note I’m not saying (here) that the R voters are especially low-info versus anybody else. Just that most voters aren’t political junkies like some of us here in this forum are. Nor are they professional pundits whose paycheck depends on talking & writing about politics every waking moment of every day.
Most of those folks are mildly interested in who to pick, but are cowering before the onslaught of angry & angering ads in their market as their states’ primary day approaches.
One confuses the media echo chamber for the populace at his/ her peril.
I think you’re conflating whether or not it’s a meme with its penetration into Republican primary voters’ minds and its long-lastingness. It’s clearly a meme: my facebook feed, for example, was filled with all sorts of stories of people dressing up as Rubio Robots, getting physically attacked by Rubio staffers, etc. My facebook feed is not, however, filled with Republican primary voters, so it could certainly be a meme mostly among left-leaning urbanites that lives for approximately a fortnight.
Rubio’s improved…to third in SC.
Guess that 3-2-1 is now a 3-5-3.
Good thing for him that his backers are so desperate for a non-Trump, non-Cruz that they’re willing to keep backing him through a sequence of failures to win or even place.
But maybe he can pull out second place in Nevada on Tuesday. Feel the Rubotomentum! 
Just wait for his victory speech!
“Assume the sale” is the first thing taught to budding salesfolks all over the western world.
Just announced: Former Minnesota governor and sometime-aspiring presidential candidate Tim Pawlenty throws his support behind Marco Rubio link. Just the break the Rubio campaign has been waiting for!
Bush supporters are apparently moving over to Rubio and as I mentioned in the GOP Super Tuesday thread, he’s getting some solid endorcements in Georgia, the silver prize that day. 538 gives him a 40% chance of winning there.
From the Department of Straining Analogies:
Great. So this entire election season is like being trapped with Whiny Harry in Order of the Phoenix.
Oops, there goes the evangelical vote!
Vote Slytherin! I mean Cruz!