Posted on 02/05/2016 6:21:30 AM PST by Kaslin
"The Republican Obama."
That's the new hot attack on Sen. Marco Rubio. Ted Cruz leveled the epithet at Rubio just days before the Iowa caucuses, which is a little ironic since Cruz has been called the same thing in the past.
But the leader of the opposition to Rubio, at least when it comes to this line, is actually someone not in the race: Joe Scarborough, the normally affable host of MSNBC's "Morning Joe."
Contrary to all evidence, Scarborough has denied he has an unhealthy obsession with his fellow Floridian. But given Scarborough's near-relentless denigration of Rubio, objective viewers might wonder if Rubio had run over Scarborough's dog or toilet-papered his house one Halloween night in junior high school.
On Thursday morning's show, Scarborough launched into an extended tirade about the best ways for other Republicans to attack Rubio. Sounding a bit like an armchair general who can't wait any longer to be asked his opinion, Scarborough declared, "He is the Republican Obama. And he really is." Time magazine, Scarborough complained with more than a touch of resentment, "anointed him the Republican Party's savior before he threw his first pitch."
"Seriously," Scarborough added, "I have complained for years that Barack Obama was sold and marketed like a bag of potato chips, and when I have said it, every Republican has agreed with me, and I said it was a bad move for America when they had a chance to have a more experienced candidate. Even Hillary Clinton. So now Republicans are going ... down that road to elect a guy that has been marketed like a bag of potato chips. Good luck."
It's almost as if Scarborough forgot that Obama was elected -- twice.
Because he has a unique animosity for Rubio, Scarborough left out that his indictment applies in equal measure to Cruz, another first-term senator who hit the ground running for the White House. Indeed, Cruz has been in the Senate for even less time than Rubio.
Scarborough is certainly right that Rubio's list of Senate accomplishments is short. So is Cruz's, and for largely the same reasons. They haven't been around long, and in the last year -- with Republicans in control -- the GOP has mostly focused on limiting any further damage Obama can do.
Which brings us back to this whole "Republican Obama" thing. For Scarborough, not to mention Jeb Bush and N.J. Gov. Chris Christie, the charge that Rubio is a Republican Obama is meant to be a scathing indictment of Rubio's inexperience. But that may not be the way everyone hears it. They might hear: "He's a Republican who can win."
Moreover, while conservatives have rightly faulted President Obama for not being up to the job, particularly when it comes to foreign policy, that indictment isn't the one most on the right focus on. Rather, conservatives have been told, with good reason, that Obama has been a hugely effective progressive ideologue.
While Obama has been something of a disaster for the Democratic Party in terms of congressional and state offices, he still got Obamacare. He also helped steer same-sex marriage to a victory at the Supreme Court, a court where his two ideologically left-wing appointees sit. His EPA helped kill the coal industry while he's poured billions in subsidies into wind and solar boondoggles.
No Republican wants to emulate Obama's many failures, but few wouldn't love to emulate his successes -- in a conservative way.
The point is, it depends what you mean by a Republican Obama. For instance, when Cruz was elected to the Senate, many conservatives hoped -- and many liberals feared -- that he would be a Republican Obama.
My National Review colleague Jay Nordlinger wrote back in 2009, before Cruz was elected, "Is he our Obama -- a Republican Obama? Well, he is far less slippery than our new president. But there are similarities -- especially where communications skills are concerned."
Every candidate's record is fair game. But by their very nature, arguments about a politician's record are arguments about the past. Rubio and Cruz -- or as I like to call them, Los Hermanos Cubanos -- can frame their candidacies on the future. In a year when a majority of Americans -- and a super-majority of Republicans -- think the country is on the wrong track, that's an advantage.
As Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen wrote last year, "Those who dismiss Cruz as a 'Republican Obama' should not forget what we call Obama today: Mr. President."
A damning from Joe Scarborough is faint praise, indeed.
The MSM will promote Marco through the nomination, then, when it’s too late for us to change candidates, they will drop the gay past bombshell on him.
Standard media question then: “Why won’t you admit it, Senator Rubio? Are you ashamed of your past? There is nothing wrong with experimenting with the gay lifestyle. Please, be honest. Don’t be a hypocrite.”
Christian conservatives stay home, and Hillary/Sanders wins. (The GOP is not called “the stupid party” for no reason.)
Wayne Madsen: Marco Rubio Gay Homosexual Duplicity Update with Photos
http://www.phibetaiota.net/2016/01/wayne-madsen-marco-rubio-homosexual-update-with-photos/
They have Scarborough pegged correctly. My question is what has happened between Scarborough and Rubio in their Florida past for there to be so much animosity? Scarborough goes after Rubio every chance he gets while praising Jeb Bush whenever he can. There is something in their Florida past that needs to be researched.
There’s a lot of truth to this.
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/03/09/crist-rubio-charged-credit-card-for-back-wax/
I look at Rubio’s cheerleader wife and four kids. And I think to myself, yeah he is gay. Get serious, this crap was all over the internet about Obama too. It was crap about him and crap about Rubio. Let’s talk about issues here. Let Joe talk, I am sure every Republican in N.H. gets up and wants to know that Joe likes Jeb better. Who cares. One thing the article points out, they call Obama Mr. President. I suspect we will be calling Rubio the same thing. And for the record bashing me does not make any this less true. And I hate he co-sponsored the gang of eight. I am ready to let him turn the page, just like every other politician that made a serious mistake. They all do.
I look at Rubio’s cheerleader wife and four kids. And I think to myself, yeah he is gay. Get serious, this crap was all over the internet about Obama too. It was crap about him and crap about Rubio. Let’s talk about issues here. Let Joe talk, I am sure every Republican in N.H. gets up and wants to know that Joe likes Jeb better. Who cares. One thing the article points out, they call Obama Mr. President. I suspect we will be calling Rubio the same thing. And for the record bashing me does not make any this less true. And I hate he co-sponsored the gang of eight. I am ready to let him turn the page, just like every other politician that made a serious mistake. They all do.
Have you never heard of BISEXUALS?
This needs to be fully vetted, or once again, the GOP will earn it’s label “the stupid party.”
I’ve not yet read the piece, but I find it discomforting that a supposed conservative journalist seems hell-bent on insulting the conservative base, first by telling them they have lost their minds in supporting Trump, then by telling them they have lost their minds by recognizing Rubio for what he is.
Then explain Rubio saying that he would leave in place Obama’s executive amnesty. What page exactly is it he turned? Sounds like he’s still on the same page to me.
This too:
Lot of that visiting part-time distinguished service guest lecturer professorships going around, it seems.
Principled Conservative speaks loud and clear while reminding us that Cheap Labor has become the primary Conservative “principle”.
Than why are you replying? Trump isn’t even mentioned in the op-ed
Nonsense. I will not participate in silliness. Did you see the pictures. I did, that isn’t Rubio.Do you know how many Cuban Americans that might be?
Think you need to look into this further. Obama’s executive amnesty is being prosecuted in court, he knows that. That is not what he is talking about. He is talking about some of the action taken about Hispanic youth who have been in this country all their lives. I am illegal immigration as much as everyone else. But confusing this statement with Obama’s illegal amnesty executive action is just politics.
It fits Rubio
I replied because writers should be aware of the filters they create in their readers over time. Because NR has been full-throated in condemnation of their readers over Trump, they have damaged their own credibility.
Now, having read the story, the author may have a point. Because the story is about the epithet Obama, who happens to have bobbed to the surface way above his ability, we shouldn’t use the epithet.
Sure, close your eyes and hope for the best.
All I’m saying is it needs to be fully checked BEFORE he becomes our candidate.
If he is embroiled in a gay/bisexual past scandal in the weeks before the election, Christian conservatives will stay home and we will lose.
Get it out now, I say. One way or the other.
Also Chris Christie, a flamboyant gay until he needed a “beard” for political reasons.
And maybe Marco is/was bisexual.
I don’t care.
I just don’t want this scandal to help elect Hillary/Sanders in the weeks before an election.
Get it out and deal with it NOW.
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