The rise of Marco Rubio

Vulture

Excellent post. I was banging on all day yesterday that the Republicans have found the man to beat BO - Deroy makes the same point with much more authority. Rubio hits all the right buttons to be a big winner.

Timid British commentators yesty were nervously suggesting that he would make a good VP on the 2012 GOP ticket. But who would top the ticket? Answer comes there none.

Let's just hope that he's not too good to be true. One point that Deroy does not labour is that Marco is the son and grandson of Cubans who fled Castro's Communist hellhole - so there will be no more of Obama's hand-me-down Marxism if he makes it to the White House.

Matthew Blott

I hope the author of this piece is an American otherwise the "electoral math aside" comment is unforgiveable.

Fiona

"For years, Republicans have been chided — rather unfairly — as the party of old, bald white men."

Ah! That explains the ridiculous combover.

alan campbell

Groupie.

Nick Wilde

I don't know if Deroy Murdock is an American but he is posting on a UK website. Why can't the Spectator ensure he uses UK spelling. We say savouring not savoring. Language is important and if the Spectator can't be bothered to get this right, what hope is there for our distinctive brand of English.

RMH

Jeez,

A quick read on his ideas and they are common sense 101, and so dam simple.

The healthcare is good, teh cut spenidng stuff is too (may not agree with all, but its "right" in its tone).

No wonder he breezed in.

Bill Rees

He sounds promising, but I hope the Republicans don't just see him as an articulate pretty boy who will out-Obama Obama as a hope and change candidate.
Mr Rubio clearly needs to get some experience of running something under his belt before he thinks of running for the Presidency.
Writing books with catchy titles is no substitute for genuine experience.

TrevorsDen

Dear Mr Blott - at the bottom of the report you see 'New York commentator Deroy Murdock is a nationally syndicated columnist with the Scripps Howard News Service and a media fellow with the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace at Stanford University.'

Is that your answer?

Matthew Blott

@ TrevorsDen

I did see that - but that doesn't mean the author is an American citizen does it? Niall Ferguson is a professor at Harvard and Simon Schama a professor at Columbia.

Chingford Man

Check out his acceptance speech on You Tube if you haven't already done so. Superb - and I don't think it's just because I'm jaded from Dave 'n' Nick 'n' Ed.

Frank P

It's early days and Mr Murdock is no doubt commissioned to fly a kite.

"Events - dear boy, events!" And the ones that will decide have not yet evented; give it another - er- 15 months? In the meantime watch them try to reshape their commie shill to suit the new political reality. It took three terms to get Blair out, remember, and even then they had to do it themselves - and lost the Election as a result. And what did we get to clear up the scorched earth? The worst political fudge for a century and merely a more aristocratic output of horseshit.

Obama's string pullers are much cleverer than New Labour's cultural mechanics. Christ! Even Clinton weathered a worse storm than this to get re-elected - and he was depraved. These bastards won't give up and the Tea Party will be more of a help than a hindrance, in the medium run. A military coup would be the only thing capable of stopping the inexorable progress of the Long March and the chances of that in the pussified West is null. Zero. Zilch!!

Our underbelly is now so soft that any attempt to harden it up will result in ruptured vital organs - which are already deeply diseased.

I can't see Glenn Beck marshalling the lemmings back from the cliff-edge, by waving the Bible, a facsimile of the Constitution and his latest 10 (signed) ghosted books with a T-shirt and a Glenn Beck mug thrown in ex-gratia. The West is already in intensive care and the alien clinical staff need the bed for their own casualties. Only matter of time before somebody pulls the plug. No false hopey-changey of a different political stripe with a Latino flavour, Mr Murdock. Rubio is just another dreamer. Dream on!

Craig Strachan

I'd say Rubio's victory speech was Reaganesque, except for the heavy-handed religious stuff at the beginning. (The unchurched Reagan would have been much more perfunctory in that area, which was always part of his charm for me.)

yank

Goodness, Frank. I read that and thought I might just as well go find a bottle of pills to swallow. Buck up, mate.

I like Rubio, but it's a massive mistake to put out call for messiah. We see the results of that, and they're ugly.

And it's particularly mistaken to use skin pigmentation as mark of messiah. That's even uglier. Conservatives must cede that racial foolishness to the Left, no matter if cheap advantage might be gleaned in the near term. Take a look today at how the Left here exists in self created and gerrymandered urban bantustans. Take a look at that electoral map. This is what they've wrought upon themselves. Nope, that's a dead end, and poisonous to us all.

If Rubio makes it, let him make it on merit.

Rubio is about to get a rude awakening, same as all the newcomers, and the sweet veneer won't last long. Change comes slowly, and the system is designed for that, thankfully. That's been Obama's/Pelosi's problem... they didn't get in synch with that rhythm, and forced that which couldn't be forced, and ignored that which couldn't be ignored.

Are we on Frank's Long March, and is it almost over? Perhaps. But to avoid blowback, the march will have to proceed a bit slower than it has been.

We've got 50 laboratories of democracy here, and some will soon fail, and must be allowed to do so. Others are prospering, and must be emulated. That's really the only thing that matters, that we stick to those simple ideas. If Rubio and others succeed in gumming up the federal overreach, and balancing the budget, that's as much as can be reasonably expected from them.

But the Devil's pitchfork will poke his behind come January, when he's called upon to vote on the Senate's rules. They're going to pass, but we'll see if he and the others vote for them. And we'll see if they blow up those rules, and turn them around on the Devil, when comes time for that first budget and national debt ceiling hike. That's where the rubber meets the road.

Move along with the flow... or sledgehammer? As Bush/Pelosi/Obama found out, there's downside on either side of that choice.

Events, dear boy, events. Frank's right about that.

Verity

Bill Rees - "Writing books with catchy titles is no substitute for genuine experience."

Especially when the books were ghostwritten for you by William Ayers.

Rhoda Klapp

With the Obama experience in what ought to be recent memory, what part of proposing the guy as a prospect for 2012 or 2016 on the day after he has been elected makes any sense?

If fine speeches were what brings success in office, maybe. But we aren't fooled by speeches any more, are we? (That was a rhetorical question, in an ironic vein, in case the literalists are here again.)

He must be judged by his record. He hasn't got one, of any kind. Don't get excited, just wait and see.

Frank P

yank

"We've got 50 laboratories of democracy here, and some will soon fail, and must be allowed to do so."

But will they be allowed to do so? Bail-outs are already being mooted by the pundits. More to the point, what would happen if a State were to bust out? Especially Ca. which appears to be the worst basket case at present. You can put the shutters on a store or an office block - a bank, even but HTF do you put the bailiffs in when a State busts out? What are the mechanics of that? I've seen cities stripped by the Mob and left as husks of their former selves - Mayor Hugh Addonizio and his mob crew did it to Newark NJ in the late 60s (I know Herb Stern the Assistant US Attorney who nailed him) - but a State? Do tell...

David Lindsay

The Tea Party had a bad night and the GOP Establishment had a good one. Time was when Telegraph, Spectator and the posher Mail writers would have exulted in that. But now, to please those below the line, they have to pretend that the Tea Party was triumphant, and we could do with such a thing here. It is very, very funny to read.

Not a single Tea Party pick-up in the House would not have gone to any old Republican this year. In the Senate, the Tea Party managed precisely three: one who had won as soon as he won the Republican primary, another who faced divided opposition, and a third whose supporters mistakenly believed that they were voting for his father; those last will rue the day that they sent Ayn Rand to the Senate.

Meanwhile, Lisa Murkowski will be caucusing with the Republicans, with all that that entails for that caucus. Had Sarah Palin not owed John McCain the biggest favour of her life, then she would have endorsed J D Hayworth, he would have won the closed primary in Arizona, McCain would have gone back to his roots and his record, and the Independent third of Arizona's voters would have put him right where Murkowski is now.

If the Tea Party still exists in 2012, then Olympia Snowe, Dick Lugar, Bob Corker, Orrin Hatch and Jon Kyl will join her as senior Republican caucus members elected as Independents against Tea Partiers. In 2014, Susan Collins and Lindsey Graham, if the latter does not become the first Tea Party victim in the Senate to fail to hold his seat as an Independent despite having attempted to do so. All in all, quite a bloc(k).

yank

Frank,

You're right, Obama and Brown will conspire to get my tax dollars, or rather Chicom borrowed dollars, to bail out California. That's what's been going on with Porkulus and these other state bailouts. Obama is paying off his public employee union buddies, and boy they sure worked hard for him this election. They rammed MILLIONS of out of state cash into state elections here in Michigan. It was disgusting, but they still got their clocks cleaned. Not as bad as they deserved, nor as bad as they'll be getting in the coming years, because those who survived that public union cash onslaught are gonna have their revenge, rest assured. Pass the popcorn.

And at the federal level, that bailout shite is all about to cease, I suspect. And it was a VERY good thing that the whore didn't win that Cali gubernatorial election, or she'd be helping to tap my pockets, too. See, things aren't always as they seem. There's the game, and there's the game behind the game, and then there's the game behind the game behind the game. That's the one I want to win.

As for a Cali bankruptcy, they'll throw public employee union contracts (generally 80% of budget is for personnel as you may know) into the dumpster, and screw them completely. Public employee union pension agreements will go into another dumpster, and they'll be screwed semi-completely, and be converted to an annuity arrangement. Bonds will be handled like Greece's... creditors will get 10 cents on the dollar, or whatever. Cali's bond rating is junk, so looks like the market is already pricing-in a bankruptcy.

This is all being talked about already, and has been. California is going down, and the water issues will only exacerbate it. The rest of us are sick and tired of subsidizing those bastards. Phuck off and secede, pogues.

I doubt it's going to come to bankruptcy though. Speaking of New Jersey, they're taking fiscal measures to head off their budget problems. It can be done, even in kooky California. Maybe even in Washington, D.C., God forbid.

Little noticed was that Cali passed an anti-gerrymandering strengthening this election. Soros was funding a ballot initiative to throw out what they already have, and not only was that rejected, but an even STRONGER one was passed by initiative.

So the greaseball insiders can't jigger district boundaries to facilitate their shenanigans, which has been part of Cali's problems. Expect HUGE volumes of political bloodshed in Cali in 2012 and over the next decade. It should be just epic.

All their stupidity is falling down around their heads. Pass more popcorn, baby.

yank

Mr. Lindsay,

Actually, since the Tea Party is merely a mainstream populist movement, and that's who threw out all those incumbents on Tuesday, they had a great night. They had the night they wanted, whatever you want to call it.

And 2012 is gonna be even better, fyi, although not to work out exactly as you describe.

Only problem is, Obama will likely go down in 2012, and we'll lose the benefits of divided government. Now, if he drops out and Hillary runs, she'll likely win in a walk, and that may be the best mix possible. Let these crooks watchdog each other.

Austerity is coming, like there, and it probably doesn't matter who's in the seats, as long as they recognize what's required. The Tea Party types seem to know, and I'm sure Hillary does as well.

Conservative Cabbie

David Lindsay

The tea party had a bad night? What tosh!

Pat Toomey
Ron Johnson
Rand Paul
Marco Rubio
Allen West etc etc etc

Two years ago, pre tea party, the GOP were written off. Thanks to tea party enthusiasm the Republicans had the best ever electoral performance since wwII. They took over statehouses all over the country, control formerly bluish/purple states like Pennsylvania, Ohio and Florida at all political levels. None of this would have happened without the tea party.

Judging by what you must be smoking, you must have been heavily in favour of California's prop. 19.

Frank P

Yank

Thank you - very interesting grist to the mill. Forgive me for gratuitously poking my nose into your Country's affairs, albeit merely as a hobby now, but my interest was engendered while still in harness, as a result of many years of professional guidance, practical assistance and know-how, not to mention personal hospitality and generosity - nay, largesse - which flowed from counterparts and friends over there while we were jointly delving into the machinations of the ungodly. I deeply resent the poison that Obama and his crew have pissed into The Pond since they usurped the office of Potus and I am extremely heartened to note that they have now been rumbled by a larger section of your electorate. But my fears and concerns about the enemy within, expressed in the above posts, remain mostly unassuaged, despite your reassurances. I've monitored the inexorable, insidious Long March since I first took the Queen's Shilling in 1952, when HM was as new to her job as I was to mine and both with the sounds of the 1930s and 40s still ringing in our ears. Since then I’ve watched my own country succumb. It is a resilient ‘enemy within’ that we all face, even more dangerous insofar as it is now in unholy alliance with Islamic jihad working under the strategy that ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend - pro-tem’. If the US doesn’t eject the bastards entirely in 2012, then several hundred years of our joint civilisation's struggle and development will be pissed down the drain. There is no will on this side of the Pond anymore. I’m relying on America Alone.

Did you ever read The Naked Communist by W Cleon Skousen? His prognostications back in the 1950s need little emendation to be right on the button. And your man John Fonte is a wise soul too. Don’t read much of him these days – pity. Hope he is still alive. Skousen popped his clogs some time ago of course.

yank

Oh I'd guess the folks over there are getting fed up with matters, same as here, Frank. The Long March is going to have to take its foot off the accelerator pretty soon here, at least.

In fact, especially over there that's likely true. We're a bit more wild and loose here, as opposed to the more reserved crew there. We'd tolerate any amount of kookiness, and do. But even we resist, when matters finally buck up against a decent order, and common sense. And in both our cases, it bucks up against English Common Law, stuff that just works, proven so many centuries ago, and by lessons learned and paid for in blood, lessons that shouldn't be tampered with so casually.

Our commie friends know this, and seek to obliterate those lessons. I don't think they'll be successful in the end. Your gal Maggie had them pegged, that eventually they run out of other peoples' money to spend. They have to blow up the WHOLE thing in order to succeed, and the good order and sense of the common people will never allow them to do so.

Haven't read Skousen. I accept that the commies work to a plan, and for now their plan must remain behind the curtain, even if occasionally sifted out via the WH teleprompter-reader-in-chief. That is a small victory, that we all still scorn them publicly.

By the way... check the cable news viewer statistics from election night. Fox simply BLASTED the rest of the stupes.

In soccer terms... think an 8-1 score or so. The kinda whoopin' where everybody and the old boys get into the game.

Why? Everybody, on ALL sides of the spectrum, now understands that the stupes have been lying to them, especially 2 years ago, and no longer trusts a word they say. And Independent voters expressed that in the election, and they are Fox's litmus test... because that's what they watch.

The MSM is dead... and that was the final declaration. The BBC is just a zombie holdover, and let's just see how far they can go with zombies on the Long March.