New Republic: Rubio The Reasonable Republican

NPR ^ | Aug. 25, 2011 | T.A. Frank

[La Enchiladita]

I saw him Tuesday night. I saw Senator Marco Rubio in person as he delivered a speech at the Ronald Reagan Library outside of Los Angeles. I saw Marco Rubio catch Nancy Reagan as she stumbled. And I saw Marco Rubio offering coy answers to the question everyone in the press was there to see him answer: would you want to be vice president?

...Rubio is known as a Tea-Party candidate, or semi-Tea-Party candidate, but he didn't throw any rhetorical bombs Tuesday. That alone made him sort of agreeable. There were moments when he dared to offer a gram of risky honesty and an ounce of real ideas.

On the honesty part, for example, he admitted, obliquely, that George W. Bush had raided the nation's piggy bank and subsequently beaten the piggy to death. "I know that it's popular in my party to blame the president, the current president," Rubio said. "But the truth is that the only thing this president has done is accelerate policies that were already in place, and were doomed to fail."

[wardaddy]

rubio is soft on illegals

hispano primero....americano segundo

shame....coulda been a contnder

[GeronL]

Isn’t that the truth!

[newzjunkey]

Don't even try to play that game. Bush did not veto or fight the wild spending budgets the crooked Tom DeLay claimed were "fat free" (2005) and, really Bush vetoed next to nothing throughout his presidency.

You have to go back about 175 years, to Andrew Jackson, before you can find a two-term president with fewer vetoes than W and even to Harding in the 1920s for a one termer with fewer vetoes.

Clearly, W wanted what he got from the Congress.

[Gena Bukin]

Parents were NOT US Citizens at the time of his birth (Does NOT meet the Jus Sanguinis made-up birther Requirement)

As far as the Constitution goes, Rubio is eligible.

[GeronL]

I was not defending Bush.

[Gena Bukin]

Sorry. Didn’t know he was ineligible. Guess I should have done my homework.

Only if you limit your homework to birther conspiracy websites. Nobody else is buying this nonsense.

[ilgipper]

Rubio has not passed the senator experience mark of Obummer as of yet. Depends if you count days campaigning or not :). I think he might have already eclipsed Obama's actual days in the capital. I agree, he needs to prove his stripes and get enough experience before he goes for a higher office, including VP. While I would love to see him on the campaign trail representing our side, I don't think it is the right long-term move for himself or the conservative movement. I am hoping he resists the overtures, but is the keynote speaker in Tampa next year.