Senator Marco Rubio, young as he is, is the right candidate to win the White House in 2012 and I’ll tell you why:
Rubio can unite establishment Republicans, Conservative Republicans and Tea-Partiers. While the first category is taken aback by his conservatism, they recognize the power of his person. And they are willing to tolerate his positions if they are convinced he can win. Conservatives, on the other hand, are a tougher bunch. They require their candidate to have character…not simply to have cast good votes on core issues, but to hold their positions with passion. Marco Rubio passes this test.
Tea Partiers are purportedly concerned with financial issues only. No one articulates the current crisis like Rubio. And underneath the Tea Party platform veneer are a strong majority of participants whose hearts also beat fast at the notion of a champion on the moral issues of our day. Rubio is that.
Rubio has the combination of elements Republican voters so long for: character, passion, conviction, and the ability to communicate clearly with all three. He would be a powerful opponent. He could take on Barack Obama in debates with style, grace and chutzpah. He has that infamous “Q Factor” want-to-be media types long for but can’t acquire by sheer determination. It is innate. It allows him to take the room with confidence, to command attention, and most importantly command respect.
Marco Rubio understands the threat of socialism and government control through the personal story of his exiled parents. Although a few presidential candidates have tried to articulate the danger, Rubio has tasted, felt and experienced it through the lives of his Cuban family. Unlike Candidate John McCain, Rubio will fight for American freedom with a passion that can only come from a closer glimpse of what it means to be with out it.
Marco Rubio can win in the general election. Shallow American female voters will vote for him based on his handsome good looks. The first Hispanic candidate who is also “cool” will win the young vote as powerfully as did the first “cool” black one in 2008. Hispanics will vote for him because he is Hispanic; those that are informed, because he represents strong families.
Blacks will consider voting for him because he is NOT White establishment. And because if they stop and think about it, he more nearly represents their values than Barack Obama, the “post-racial” President who turns out to care more about the left than the black community.
Yes. I would prefer an elder statesman, someone with the resume of a George Herbert Walker Bush. But these are not ordinary times and elder statesmen don’t appeal to a population hooked on American Idol.
American voters, thanks to our educational system, can’t handle long explanation, erudite delivery, nor do they have the respect to recognize and appreciate gravitas. Charles Krauthammer would bore them. So would John Bolton or Andrew McCarthy. They don’t appreciate brilliance. And by the way, the American President needs to be longer on leadership skills than erudition.
It isn’t possible for one man or woman to know all that needs to be known to lead this great country. We need someone who will command respect and possess the wisdom to select people like Paul Ryan, Bolton and McCarthy to school him, then unleash them to do all they are capable of doing.
Rubio has proven his leadership already. At forty, he has led one of the largest legislatures in the country as Speaker of the House in Florida. He is more qualified already than was Barack Obama in 2008.
Rubio will unite Republican voters. He can win the primary and he can win the general election. And the country needs him, now, at the age of forty. We may lose the Republic if we wait.