Marco Rubio

The dilemma Trump poses

Featured image Michael Gerson’s latest column attacking Donald Trump bemoans the fact that Marco Rubio has endorsed the tycoon and the prospect that Paul Ryan soon may do so. More on that later. The passage from Gerson that caught my eye is this one: Here is the problem in sum: Republicans have not been given the option of choosing the lesser of two evils. The GOP has selected someone who is unfit »

WaPo reporter blasts Rubio as flip-flopper. . .for keeping his promise

Featured image Ed O’Keefe of the Washington Post is unhappy that Marco Rubio is ready to support Donald Trump’s presidential bid. He calls Rubio a “shape-shifter” and implies that Rubio’s support of Trump stems from the tycoon’s improving poll numbers. Rubio has explained that wants to be “helpful,” not “harmful,” to Trump “because I don’t want Hillary Clinton to be president.” He added, “if you can live with a Clinton presidency for »

Rubio finally indicates a preference for Cruz

Featured image I have criticized Marco Rubio for not endorsing Ted Cruz, given Rubio’s strong antipathy towards Donald Trump and Cruz’s status as the only serious alternative to the tycoon. I’m happy to report that on Tuesday, Rubio indicated that he does support Cruz. In an appearance with Mark Levin, Rubio said “I hope that [the GOP] will nominate a conservative” and that “the only one that fits that criteria is Ted »

GOP establishment still standoffish over Cruz

Featured image Sean Sullivan and Paul Kane of the Washington Post report that Ted Cruz’s attempt to unify the Republican establishment behind his candidacy is encountering significant resistance. They note that backers of Marco Rubio are prominent among mainstream Republicans who aren’t supporting Cruz. And, of course, Rubio himself has not endorsed the Texas man. Some distinctions are in order. Let’s start with Cruz’s colleagues in the Senate. As I understand it, »

Where is Marco Rubio, and why?

Featured image Rich Lowry asks a question that has been on my mind: “Where the hell is Marco Rubio.” As I noted a week and a half ago, “for at least a week there have be reports that Rubio is ‘nearing’ and/or ‘edging towards’ a decision to endorse Cruz.” I added: I don’t know what he’s waiting for. There isn’t much substantive difference between the two Senators and no one has made »

Bush endorses Cruz; what’s Rubio waiting for?

Featured image With the Florida primary in the rear view mirror and Marco Rubio out of the race, Jeb Bush has endorsed Ted Cruz for president. The endorsement comes a month after Bush dropped out of the race. By waiting as long as he did, Bush accomplished two things — neither of them noble. First, he avoided endorsing Rubio, who “betrayed” him by running for president, while at the same time avoiding »

Trump crushes Rubio, but Kasich wins in Ohio [updated periodically]

Featured image It looks like there will be no surprises on the Republican side tonight. As expected, Donald Trump is the runaway winner in Florida. He leads Marco Rubio 46-27 with most of the voted counted. It’s an impressive victory, one that has caused Rubio to drop out of the race. In Ohio, however, John Kasich leads Trump 43-34, and the networks have just called the race for the Governor. On the »

As Puerto Rico goes. . .

Featured image Marco Rubio has won the Puerto Rico primary and won it resoundingly. Rubio captured just under 74 percent of the vote and will claim all 23 delegates. This is the Florida Senator’s first primary victory and only the second state in which he has prevailed. The other was Minnesota, which has caucuses rather than a primary. Does any significance attach to this victory? Well, it’s 23 delegates that don’t go »

Who is right about Rubio — Trump or Cruz?

Featured image After Marco Rubio’s poor showing yesterday, Donald Trump called on the Florida Senator to drop out of the race. Meanwhile, as Eliana Johnson reports, Ted Cruz seems to be ramping up his campaign in Florida, where polls show him to be a distant third. His efforts seem likely to help Trump win and thus to drive Rubio out of the race. Apparently, Trump and Cruz both believe they will benefit »

Is Jeb Bush too petty to endorse Marco Rubio?

Featured image Earlier this week, in a post that disputed the claim that Jeb Bush is to blame for rise of Donald Trump, I wrote that if Bush endorses Marco Rubio ahead of the Florida primary, he will have nothing to apologize for if Trump is the nominee. At the time, the speculation in Florida was that Bush likely would endorse Rubio. Today, however, the Washington Post tell us that a spokeswoman »

Is Trump a Democratic Party Agent? [with comment by Paul]

Featured image It is hard to explain Donald Trump’s refusal, on CNN this morning, to disavow the Ku Klux Klan. Jake Tapper gave Trump multiple opportunities to do so, but Trump could only respond by saying he didn’t know anything about David Duke, who reportedly has endorsed him. Here is the video: As Dan McLaughlin points out, Trump’s claim to be unaware of David Duke is demonstrably false. But then, who ever »

On Libya, Kasich is right, Rubio is wrong, and Trump is lying

Featured image During last night’s debate, Ted Cruz criticized Marco Rubio for supporting U.S. military intervention in Libya to topple the Qaddafi regime. Qaddafi’s demise has, of course, resulted in awful consequences, including, but certainly not limited to, the rise of ISIS in Libya Rubio responded that he supported our intervention because it was foregone conclusion that Qaddafi would fall and he wanted the U.S. to facilitate a satisfactory post-Qaddafi future. Unfortunately, »

After last night

Featured image The Super Tuesday primaries are imminent. Which candidate do Republicans prefer to face Hillary Clinton in the November election? Whom do they want to represent them? That’s the question. Paul Mirengoff recaps and assesses last night’s CNN debate among the remaining GOP presidential candidates in Houston in “Trump battered, but is he bruised?” Herewith my impressions of the CNN event. Given the needs of Senators Cruz and Rubio to take »

Is This the Moment When Trump’s Campaign Imploded?

Featured image Marco Rubio made a laughingstock of Donald Trump in tonight’s debate. Twitter was on fire over this exchange, in particular, where Rubio had great fun at Trump’s expense, while exposing him as a know-nothing on health care. If Trump’s campaign fails, this may be the moment when the tide turned: It’s not a bad thing to see a bully humiliated. »

Rubio takes “Ankeny strategy” to Minnesota [with quote from John]

Featured image Ankeny, Iowa is a suburb of Des Moines. During the Iowa campaign, Marco Rubio reportedly was so focused on Ankeny that rival campaigns joked he was running for town mayor. But Rubio knew what he was doing. His surprising and relatively strong third place finish in Iowa stemmed in no small part from the margins he ran up in the Des Moines suburbs. Now, according to James Hohmann of the »

Marco Comes to Minneapolis

Featured image The Minnesota caucuses haven’t gotten much national attention, but they take place next Tuesday. Marco Rubio, perhaps the favorite based on the sparse polling that has been done here, passed through Minneapolis today to address a rally at the downtown Hyatt Hotel. The rally was announced just two days ago and was held in a relatively small space, but it drew an enthusiastic crowd that others estimated at around 1,500. »

Can the GOP field be reduced, in time, to two?

Featured image David French at NRO looks at polling data for upcoming GOP presidential races. He finds the numbers “great for Trump [and] terrible for everyone else.” There’s a paradox at work here, however. If the numbers are terrible for two of the three candidates in the credible non-Trump field (Cruz, Rubio, and Kasich) and merely bad for the third candidate, then that’s not so good for Trump. Here’s why. For Trump »