The establishment is suddenly coming out in droves to support young Mario. Orrin Hatch and Bob Dole have announced their endorsements today.
Utterly predictable. The establishment hates Cruz and they’re terrified of Trump. Expect a lot of money and endorsements of Rubio to follow.
i wonder if Jeb! is going to endorse him.
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.
It was probably Cheney holding them hostage.
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
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.
He’s a devil with that hunting rifle. 
Endorsements are usually strongly favourable but yeah it’s a weird season.
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.
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.
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.
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 . . .
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.
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”.
Jonathan Chait sums up Rubio as Bushism without Bush.
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 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.
Wait, which one is that? Iowa? 
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.
What must the GOP be going through …