The Rise And Fall Of Marco Rubio

The age of the zeppelin died on a rainy day at Lakehurst, NJ nearly eighty years ago.  Airships like the Hindenburg were widely considered the future of air travel, but the spectacular and highly publicized disaster proved to be the death knell for this mode of air travel.

On April 13, 2015, Rubio announced that he would run for president with the enthusiastic campaign slogan “A New American Century”.  Rubio often touted that he and he alone was the only candidate capable of beating Hillary Clinton in the general election.

The establishment’s landslide choice to win the GOP nomination no longer seems capable of even finishing in second place.  After Iowa, Sen. Rubio promised his supporters he would rocket to the nomination on the strength of his 3-2-1 strategy.  

The “Future of the Republican Party” has been humiliated repeatedly in every contest save Minnesota.

Insulting the front-runner with juvenile broadsides about wetting his pants or suggesting he was poorly endowed just didn’t cut the mustard with Republican voters and now he’s been cornered into betting his political future on a first place finish in Florida.

On the eve of “Super Saturday” CNN reported, “Ted Cruz is going for the kill shot.”

“Cruz's aides and allies are preparing an aggressive effort to keep Marco Rubio from winning his home state of Florida on March 15, a blow they hope would render Rubio's path to the GOP nomination unimaginable and force him to withdraw.” 

“A Rubio loss, Cruz's orbit believes, would then set up the two-man race with Donald Trump they believe they are destined for—and absolutely need—to win.” 

"’Florida's a burning dumpster fire for Marco Rubio,’ said Cruz spokesman Ron Nehring. ‘If he doesn't win his own state, it's hard to rationalize going forward.’"

Rubio on #SuperSaturday losses: 'The map only gets better for us' https://t.co/nkubDj8WFm #Decision2016 pic.twitter.com/0x73orTwBf

— NBC News (@NBCNews) March 6, 2016

Get ready for more Rubio alchemy - preparing gold medal speech for his bronze & 4th place #SuperSaturday results. pic.twitter.com/72F2B44XGy

— Michelle Malkin (@michellemalkin) March 6, 2016

Rubio’s campaign is over.  The senator still has time to salvage a political career, but that won’t be the case if he hangs around long enough to be embarrassed by Cruz or Trump in his home state of Florida.

Fox News Hosted A Debate And A Hockey Fight Broke Out

Thursday’s debate in Detroit hit rock bottom for me.  Apparently, to many, the feeling is mutual.  The underlying fear is the effrontery of penis innuendos and name-calling is becoming profoundly detrimental to the image of the GOP.  For all intents and purposes the debate stage has moved to the gutter sewer.

I believe that Fox News is responsible for the hockey fight that broke out.  I remember the consensus praise the cable channel received for the manner in which the first debate in August of 2015 was handled.  This last debate devolved into an ugly exhibition of mudslinging which the Democrats have already racked for video evidence that their presumptive nominee will be a far, far better leader of the country than anyone that emerges from the GOP convention in Cleveland.

I blame Fox for not preemptively addressing protesters entering the debate hall.  There was no effort made to insist the audience remain silent during the debate.  In addition, Fox failed to adequately moderate the debate.  This was evident when Marco Rubio persisted in deploying the now very tiresome mockery of Trump’s “tan”, the size of his fingers and all the other schoolboy childishness.  Rubio’s boyish appearance coupled with his immaturity on the debate stage is part and parcel for why he is polling so poorly.  Others have noticed that Marco, on the campaign trail and on the dais, is “Red Bull-ed up”.  I believe that Rubio regrets having embarked on these cheap attacks and now cannot stop himself.  He is desperate for attention. 

Even as Trump led polls in the months before the primaries began, his biggest rivals Cruz and Rubio, largely avoided attacking him calculating that he would implode.  To say that they gravely miscalculated would be an understatement.

The ever-harsher tones of Ted Cruz, I feel, are damaging his chances of overcoming Trump in the primaries.  The more Cruz declares he is the only candidate who can defeat Trump the more desperate he comes across to voters.  Of course, this election cycle is like no other in my lifetime.

Today we have three states—Kansas, Kentucky and Louisiana—casting their ballots. There could be states where only Trump meets a 20% requirement.  In some states, that could mean sharing delegates with the second-place finisher; in others, it could give him a “backdoor winner-take-all” victory, enabling him to win all or most delegates from a state with only a plurality.

Trump leads Cruz by 15.6 points in Louisiana.  In Kansas, his lead over Cruz is 6 points but that was before Super Tuesday and the pleading of Mitt Romney.  Kentucky, which hasn’t conducted polling since November of 2015, projects a 13 point lead over Rubio.

After March 15’s primaries have concluded, 36 states and territories will have voted on the Republican side, and close to 60% of all GOP national delegates will have been awarded.

About that Romney speech, politicos have been sharing schemes for how Marco parlays a victory out of winning only one state, or Ted roars back, or Kasich has to finish second in Ohio.

What’s more, Romney pushes the ideology of the elite in the party. They are protected from much of the roughness of the world.  More to the point, they are protected from the world they have created. 

Romney claimed to understand the anger of voters.  The unprotected (that’s you and me) watched over the last 20 years and realized the protected were not looking out for us or our beloved country.

I resent their interference in this election.  The people are speaking boldly about the direction in which they want their country to go while the party overlords try desperately to circumvent their will.

UPDATE:   In my haste I neglected to include data for the caucuses in Maine.  There are 23 proportional delegates at stake.  Lance Dutson’s Whip Count Insider’s Survey overwhelming predicted a win for Trump.  Because of the idiosyncratic nature of the Maine electorate national pundit Nate Silver isn’t sure what will happen.