His only chance is to take a couple years off and run as governor. I don’t consider that viable if he’s going to get pummeled in the FL primary. That will be proof that his home state and constituents don’t think much of him. The FL Gov fallback plan was conceived when he thought at worst he’d narrowly lose the nomination. I doubt Rubio ever considered he could lose in FL until very recently.
I suppose Rubio could get a job at a lobbying firm. I don’t know how much he’ll be valued since his political clout has been severely eroded. In politics once you’re branded as a loser and dumped by your allies people view you as toxic and stay away from you. The manner in which you lose a campaign is also very important. Cruz hasn’t damaged his credibility and political viability like Rubio has.
Him and Cruz both rode the tea party wave into office. Cruz has more political talent and intellect and didn’t sour himself among his support base. Cruz will continue to be a Senator until at least 2018 and can easily be re-elected b/c Texans have shown they will support him. Lindsey Graham and crew have nothing to do with elections in Texas. He also shows up to do his job despite being a destructive force. Rubio on the other hand tried to spin his chronic absenteeism as proof of his commitment to public service on top of insulting the Senate on his way out.
I promise to eat a big fat plate of crow if Rubio wins the FL primary. Ask yourself why is Rubio not resonating with anyone right now after being heralded as a rising star for several years. His supporters seem to be of the mindset that he’s the best of a bad bunch. No passion. His political persona is fabricated and people are seeing through it. You can say the same about a lot of politicians but they’re either smarter or more talented than Rubio.
Cruz had to fire somebody as a scapegoat for how he was running his campaign and many I’m sure would say he is (or maybe was) running a dirtier campaign. Again, I’m not following your logic of dirty campaign = bad, the only clean campaign left is Kasich and he’s very far from the lead. The most policy-lite campaign with lies, insults, and threats is the front-runner.
Candidates have always missed votes. That has not changed anything once the primary season ended and your absentee argument has not been true historically.
You also didn’t answer the key question regarding what he has done that is “career ending”, but its all hypothetical at this point.
There were other good ones, and I will always remain baffled how people can support someone like Trump.
Mitt’s spectacle will only bolster Trump more. For a guy that pioneered the leveraged buyout industry you’d think he’d have more sense. Mitt thinks he’s doing a selfless act but he doesn’t seem to understand unintended consequences. The GOP is an unorganized mess.
Rubio shows up for work less than any other senator. He’s so proud of his FRC membership but doesn’t even show up to half of the hearings. That’s published fact. Rubio’s attempt to spin this as a good thing is embarrassing. Not showing up for work, then saying you hate the institution and being a Senator means you will never be elected to that office again. You think he can win it back in 2023 after his first go-around was a bust? He rode the Tea Party wave and has since been shunned by that group.
What more do I need to say about Rubio? Nothing specific he’s done is career ending. It’s his collective package and multiple miscalculations. He’s been exposed and no one will ever refer to him as a “rising star” again. His only hope is the FL governorship. Do you think he’ll be a viable candidate after getting pummeled in the primary? I do not.
Frankly I think this entire campaign was an attempt to salvage his career b/c I don’t think he was going to be re-elected in Florida. I am not introducing some crazy idea. Really it’s just agreeing with the prevailing wisdom and reading b/t the lines. He was never the bright star you were told he was. He got lucky once and won’t get lucky again. Rubio is more likely to be bankrupt in 2018 than POTUS or FL Gov.
Enlighten me on Rubio’s path to elected office after this disaster. What do you think he’ll be doing in 2018 and beyond? My guess is he’s working for a regional lobbying firm and will get paid to be listed on their website as a “partner”. Another no-show job for Rubio. He’ll be equivalent in relevancy to Rick Santorum going forward with less experience.
That’s not what I was trying to convey. Cruz hasn’t been pummeled like Rubio has. He’s still confident when he speaks and won his home state. No one will ever remember the Carson Iowa thing. It’s already been forgotten for practical purposes. On the flip side no one will ever forget Rubio’s NH debate debacle. That will follow him around forever. I’ll give Rubio credit for not trying to spin that into a positive for once.
Kasich is getting beat bad right now but his dignity is intact and he hasn’t embarrassed himself. He still has a solid chance to win OH and a governorship to fall back on.
Clean vs dirty campaign is irrelevant. It’s about public perception and if you end up being branded as a loser. Kasich can lose more than Rubio but still avoid that distinction. It is what it is.
If you check the insults from Trump they are less vulgar than Rubio’s insults back. This is Trump playing him like a fiddle. Trump calls Rubio “little Marco” and a “light little nothing”. Rubio makes a lame dick joke and a pants wetting joke that are obviously rehearsed and come off as awkward. The best he can muster out of his supporters is a strained laugh and he ended up hurting his campaign. Trump isn’t even going for laughs just a constant barrage of non-vulgar insults to fluster Rubio and it’s worked. Notice Trump doesn’t do the same to Cruz b/c he knows Cruz isn’t easily as played or as desperate. Cruz shrewdly stayed out of that game b/c he has superior political instincts.
He could still capture the nomination. Granted, it is a longshot at this point but it could happen.
He could get a high level cabinet post in a Cruz administration should Cruz eventually get the nomination and win. He could then run again in 8 years. he would only be 52.
He could go back to the Senate and run again in 4 years should a democrat be elected. He would then have far more name recognition and plus 4 more years of experience under his belt.
There have been many “failed” Presidential candidates who have gone back into the Senate, or who have run again and actually won.
The point is there are many possibilities for someone like Rubio who by the way has the lowest negatives of anyone running for President. That means that, while they may favor another candidate today, in the future they may turn to Marco Rubio.
I’m glad that others are articulating these thoughts more comprehensively than I do. That was great.
And kudos @BPCorso too. I’d buy you a beer if I still drank.
I understand, and you’re correct, and Mitt Romney maybe ought to have listened to you, but it doesn’t matter at all to me how much it inflames utter idiots to call them utter idiots. Trump will not win a general election. He stands only to damage the GOP, which, in quietly accepting and often openly feeding everything from proud anti-intellectualism to trashy xenophobia to bizarre nihilism to creepy racial resentment to the worst string of foreign policy initiatives in modern American history, has really earned whatever it gets from him. I don’t care whether the empty-headed moral filth (again, targeting noncombatant women and children in war – literally removing the operative distinction between the contemporary armed forces of the United States and al-Qaeda – is a project for moral filth who don’t understand war in the year 2016) I’ve been insulting in this thread feel emboldened by the prospect of riling up one of them thar coastal elites. Come January 2017, their candidate will be alone in a hideous penthouse apartment, combing his single greasy clump of foot-long hair, mumbling about conspiracy theories and trying to put together his next reality show with fuckin Dennis Rodman and the various other F-listers with whom he naturally belongs. And the Trump fans will still be all the things I’ve called them in this thread.
Mitt Romney was trying to save the GOP today. He definitely didn’t help. But me, I don’t give a shit. What was sown is being reaped, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.
Edit: though I like old Mitt and what he represents. I hope his wing of the GOP and the center left split away from the loons on either side, creating a new party and kicking both sets of extremist assholes, L and R, in their little dicks for a hundred years to come.
Trump again had no policy, threw insults, and got embarrassed by any facts. The budget spending was an incredible blunder… But who cares, he speaks his mind!
