As a bright bulb in a field notorious for "low wattage", does Marco Rubio have a "chance in hell"?

Too young, too inexperienced, too much of an arrogant, greaseball.
I saw & heard of him for the first time ever, he was on the news over here, appears to be a dick.

I think the smart ones are scarier. Ted Cruz is very smart too. Too soon to say how far either of them will get against the Bush machine. (And I just broke my new policy of not engaging in election questions. Ha!)

@janbb Yes Cruz is smart, but his views render him borderline certifiable. A dim bulb is bad enough, but a bright light with “leaky” voltage would seem a difficult prospect anywhere but Texas.

What? How do you see Rubio as a bright bulb? He seems like a cheap, pandering idiot to me.

I’m surprised that you and Ucme don’t find the man intelligent and VERY capable as well as logical in his positions as well as in his ability to state and defend them. Of course, he’s both wrong and pandering in my view, but contrary to most things Republican, the usually mandatory “idiot” is out of place here.

I call your attention to the following anagram of Marco Rubio’s name

link from Washington Post

And no, he has no chance. But he’s smarter than most of them.

@stanleybmanly No, no, no, no. All Rubio does ever is to spout poorly composed talking points. Have you heard him speak at all? He’s not even consistent. He doesn’t seem to understand his own scripts much of the time. I’m really surprised at your characterization of him here.

Honestly, I think the only reasons we even know his name are that he’s Hispanic, and he’s pretty, and therefore the Republicans think it’s important to keep grooming him, and keep him in the public eye.

He’s like the kid at school everyone wanted to slap.

Now I agree that his positions are untenable. And I have listened to several of his speeches, interviews, etc. But here’s the difference between the low caliber, hollow, right on the surface claptrap one grows accustomed expect from the menagerie on the right. Rubio, unlike the majority of his peers can lace together an argument, and articulate it better than ANY current Republican out there. In fact, his presentation skills and rhetoric are so good that I actually have to analyze AFTERWORDS what the man says. He is going to be formidable in debates, and I feel almost sorry for his competition when the time arrives. Of course his positions on several issues are preposterous. but when has that been an impediment to conservative politics? I listened to a lengthy answer from Rubio on the subject of global warming, and had to replay the clip to realize that his argument amounted to “climate change (you couldn’t extract the words ‘global warming’ out of him at gunpoint) MUST be beyond our control.” And the reason for this -wait for it. “regulations and government involvement in mitigation are ‘bad for business’ ”.

Too young, too inexperienced

That’s what I said about Obama before he was elected.

Yeah & look how he ended up, he whistles his esses, just like the beaver in Lady & the Tramp.

If you consider Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, Ben Carson and Rand Paul dumb then you are in a fantasy world.

@gondwanalon – I doubt they are dumb in an intellectual sense. Carson, for one, is is a celebrated MD – neurology, if I remember correctly.

But they are all one-trick-ponies. None of them have a world view at all. Maybe one of them has an US-as-a-whole view. Mostly they are anti-Obama, anti-tax, reactionary republicans with practically no real experience in the great big world.

So they aren’t stupid, but they are woefully unprepared to look at the big picture,

Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, Ben Carson, aren’t dumb. Ted Cruz is in orbit around something beyond fantasy, and Rand Paul is just too far out there (and much too honest in expressing his views). He has something to say that’s guaranteed to offend everyone, and makes little effort to hide it. Commendable perhaps, but decidedly unelectable. Walker, Bush, Christie and Carson on the other hand are saddled with a party deploringly notable for the fact that intelligence is no asset in a national campaign.

Rubio’s chances may well depend on whether, and when fellow FLoridian Jeb Bush declares his candidacy. Once Jeb launches his campaign (as it looks like he will), then the chances of the rest of the field diminish significantly because Jeb is the darling of the entrenched well-heeled Conservative Establishment. Given his youth I see Marco as more viable, and probably more attractive as a Vice Presidential nominee.

Can he win the general election in November of next year? Nah.

@sahID Nice analysis. And don’t forget to add that JEB has ALL of the money behind him. He can outspend the rest of the field combined by 10 to 1.

His parents were decent hard working folk from Cuba. What is it about America that turns people into this?

They’re referring back to the aboslute stink the republicans made over the not-even-true idea that Obama wasn’t born in the U.S., but the aren’t saying a word about the fact that one of their candidates really WASN’T born in the U.S.! But his Mom was, as was Obama’s, so it’s all good.

Rubio is a good-looking boy. He’s smart (as opposed to wise), extremely ambitious, did fairly well in school, married a smart woman and former Miami Dolphins cheerleader, fathered four kids, did some time in the Florida House then started his own law firm in Miami from whence he comes. He has done well for himself and his family and I’m sure his parents are very proud.

He was born to Cuban parents who had immigrated to the U.S. in 1956 during the Batista regime—and not as Cuban refugees from the later communist Castro regime as he frequently claims. His parents came here to have a better life, to live among the growing Cuban community in Miami, to raise their future children in a style and with educational opportunities that were not available to them under Batista, because they were of peasant stock (just like Fidel Castro) and they succeeded in their goals.

He attends Catholic services as well as services at Christian Fellowship, a Southern Baptist church, but he doesn’t appear to be overtly religious and he doesn’t appear to have any doctrinal problems as a result of attending both faiths.

Rubio identifies strongly as a Cuban-American politician (but he is expected to broaden his appeal as he goes national – he’ll be a good chameleon), and as such has naturally aligned himself with the far right-wing of the Republican Party and has done very well for himself espousing their platforms, especially the anti-Castro, pro-corporate, pro law-and-order, pro medicare and welfare budget cuts, pro increasing the U.S. military budget (especially when they protect American corporate interests abroad), and he is anti-immigration—all policies consistent with his branch of the GOP. He is rabidly anti-socialist, anti-liberal, and adamantly against any political or business relationship with a communist Cuban state.

Much of the money to cover his expense for law school and his later political campaigns has come from one source: The Diaz-Balarts, a pro-Batista family who arrived in the U.S. with much of the Cuban Treasury when Castro took over and ousted Batista. This family has since branched out into sugar and many other commodities, real estate, and produced U.S. congressmen, funded congressmen and senators, retained Washington lobbyists to protect their interests inside and outside the US, contributed heavily to certain Republican presidential candidates, and have given fortunes to the GOP. They are tied through investments and marriage to remnants of the Batista family (telecommunications, sugar, liquor, soft drinks, energy, real estate), the Bacardi family, the Fanjul families (Big Sugar—and anything in which sugar is used) and others; all political “refugees” who lost power if not fortunes when Castro took Cuba away from them.

The family has three objectives, none of which has anything to do with democracy, a free Cuba, or America: (1) Get Castro out of Cuba (2) Get the family holdings and positions of power back (3) Protect and enhance their present American and international interests. They are the single most powerful entity that has kept the U.S. from re-establishing relations with Cuba. They’ve been doing all of this all of these years and you probably have never heard of them. That is how powerful these people are.

Marco Rubio is a product of the Diaz-Balart family.

Sure. he has a chance. But, more realistically, I think he has a very good shot at the presidency in 2020—if he keeps his nose clean and the Republican Party doesn’t self-destruct in the meantime (no such luck).

This is a milk run, just part of his education. The boy is young and tenacious. He’s going to be around for awhile.

Bright bulb? Do you mean you like him? If the Republicans go with him I know I’ll be voting for a Democrat. For now I am open and in a wait and see mode.

The Republican base is split already, but if 2014 mid-term election results are any indication, anti-intellectual Theocrats hold the upper hand in traditional Red states, meaning that the only real chance intelligent Republicans have is picking up states that traditionally vote Democrat. I don’t think there’s enough swing states to win on merit.

So, the question becomes, “Can the Republicans field a winning “fresh face” candidate?

Hillary is Bob Dole and Al Gore. Baggage handlers.

The Tea Party won’t allow a candidate with any appeal to the opposition. Or general appeal.

Arrogant, greaseball, idiot, dick, certifiable, cheap, pandering

I’m counting the insults on this thread. Did I miss any?

Spunkbubble, cuntwallah, ugly fucker?

@JLeslie No I don’t like him. When a smart man starts spouting that right wing bullshit you know there has to be something sinister whirling in his blender.

@Espiritus_Corvus Thank you for the scholarly workup and VERY revealing biographical info. Now that we see just who’s pulling the strings, his positions become understandable.