Marco Rubio goes for President

[Johan]

Marco Rubio Announces 2016 Presidential Bid

Senator Marco Rubio of Florida told his top donors Monday that he was running for president in 2016, becoming the third Republican to officially enter the contest.


Mr. Rubio will make a formal announcement Monday evening here, when he is expected to present himself as the embodiment of generational change who can unite the Republican Party’s factions and offer economic solutions for the 21st century.

At 43, the youngest candidate in the rapidly growing 2016 presidential field, Mr. Rubio is expected to cast himself as a forward-looking, next-generation leader — and an implicit contrast with both Jeb Bush, 62, whose family has dominated Republican politics for nearly three decades, and Hillary Rodham Clinton, 67, the wife of a former president and the most likely Democratic nominee.

At a breakfast for bundlers of donations to his campaign on Monday at the Miami Marriott Biscayne Bay, Mr. Rubio said that people were eager to look to the future. He described “one candidate in the race who’s from yesterday and who wants to take us back to yesterday,” one attendee said afterward.

Another donor said Mr. Rubio pointed to the venue for his announcement Monday night — Miami’s Freedom Tower, which served as a processing center for thousands of Cuban refugees fleeing the government of Fidel Castro — as a sign of America’s greatness because the child of refugees children could run for president.

Mr. Rubio joins his Senate colleagues Ted Cruz of Texas and Rand Paul of Kentucky, who both have announced their candidacies. Other Republican hopefuls, including Mr. Bush and Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin, are also preparing to officially enter the race.

Mrs. Clinton, wh announced her candidacy in a videotaped message Sunday afternoon, was on a road trip to Iowa after announcing her second bid for the Democratic nomination.

Mr. Rubio is expected to campaign on themes that emphasize American greatness and the American dream, an optimistic, aspirational message that he outlined in his newly released book, “American Dreams.”

He is also angling to become the youthful face of a party that skews older and has struggled to attract young voters, blacks and Hispanics. Many mainstream Republicans hope that a Cuban-American who speaks fluent Spanish can help draw Hispanic voters, a growing demographic that will be critical during the general election, into the party.

Mr. Rubio served in the Florida House of Representatives from 2000 to 2008, eventually becoming speaker. He was elected to the United States Senate in 2010 and has said he would not run for re-election if he ran for president.

Among the Republican Party’s announced and expected candidates, Mr. Rubio occupies a middle ground, which is both an asset and an obstacle. He hopes to appeal to more moderate Republicans as well as to social, fiscal and foreign policy voters, but he could also find himself without a clear constituency, especially in the first four nominating states.

Mr. Rubio has credibility with the conservative grass roots after defeating both a Democrat and Charlie Crist, a former moderate Republican governor, in his Senate race, but he offers a message that is not as hard-line as those of Republicans like Mr. Cruz and Mr. Walker.

As a member of the Foreign Relations and Intelligence Committees, Mr. Rubio has used his time in the Senate to position himself as a hawk, a stark contrast with Mr. Paul, who prefers a more restrained approach to military intervention. After his announcement here, Mr. Rubio plans to travel back to Washington to attend a Foreign Relations committee meeting on legislation that would require Congress to weigh in on any nuclear deal reached with Iran.

But his work on immigration — one of his biggest achievements in the Senate — illustrates the delicate balance Mr. Rubio will have to strike to make it through his party’s nominating process. In 2013, Mr. Rubio was part of a bipartisan group of senators that drafted a broad immigration bill that included a pathway to citizenship for the 11 million unauthorized immigrants already in the country.

He has since distanced himself from the proposal, saying he believes any immigration overhaul must start with securing the nation’s southern border and proceed step by step. But his original legislation enraged the right, which saw it as amnesty, while many liberals and immigration groups thought he had not gone far enough and were frustrated with his position.

By making his announcement in Florida, the state that Mr. Bush governed for eight years, Mr. Rubio signaled that he planned to cede nothing to Mr. Bush, his former mentor.

In the weeks leading up to his announcement, Mr. Rubio concentrated on fund-raising and putting together a campaign team that aims to be seasoned but lean.

On Monday, he gathered some 60 bundlers of campaign donations, from all over the country, for the breakfast; the group was scheduled to have a lunch with Mr. Rubio’s campaign team and then get to work en masse for an afternoon round of fund-raising calls.

Raising money could be a challenge for Mr. Rubio, especially in light of Mr. Bush’s aggressive efforts and the large network of Bush family allies. And, because he is less known than some of his rivals, he will need to introduce himself to as many voters as possible, particularly in the early nominating states — Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada.

On Friday, Mr. Rubio plans to do just that, heading to New Hampshire for a day of meetings with activists, business leaders and students, as well as the local news media. Friday evening, he will kick off the state party’s two-day leadership summit of 2016 hopefuls, speaking at a dinner in Nashua, N.H.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/14/us/politics/marco-rubio-2016-presidential-campaign.html

 

[darthtexan]

He is my favorite candidate right now, but I will listen to the rest of the Republican Candidates. What I like about Rubio is he talks in detail and specifics about the problems facing the country, whats causing them, and how to solve them. Not just proclaiming stupid Obama and Clinton generalities about the rich having so much and the poor having so little and the "lack of opportunity " for non rich people. I also like him because he knows how to articulate conservative principles in short sound bites which is very hard to do.

 

[Jagger69]

I need to see him perform under campaign pressure and see how his views develop as time goes on before I can form a solid opinion of him. He hasn't faced the hard questions yet. Right now, I don't think he's conservative enough to capture the tea party voter and he may be too conservative to attract large numbers of independents. Still, he intrigues me. He's got the looks and the articulation as dt just said so he has some real positives going for him.

Also, Hillary may have a lot of the female vote but I sense a definite turn-off with male voters. She has a lot of work to do on that front. I really hope another democratic challenger emerges and I actually think that they will before it's all said and done.

 

[Straight Shooter]

Marco Rubio reminds me of this one politician. Rubio is a first term senator, under 50 with a family straight from central casting, has never been an executive or worked in private business. He reminds me so much of this politician but I can't quite remember his name....it rhymes with Osama....anybody help me out here?

 

[sean miguel]

^ I think for those reasons among others he has the best shot to win a general election. He'd be a fresh face juxtaposed to Hillary's. And I think he would capture more of the young people and latino vote than any republican candidate has recently if not ever. And Florida would be in the bag.

 

[Jack Davenport]

He'll never win the Hispanic vote.

 

[Jagger69]

He'll never win the Hispanic vote.

This....his flip-flopping is not a good standard to set with the Hispanic bloc that some might assume he would garner just just because of his heritage. The more I look at him, I see all the good things that fox brought up cloaked in a shroud of neoconservatism. The fact that he's Hispanic and not a Bush or a Clinton is bound to score him some points no matter what. Bears watching for sure. His movie-star good-looks and his youth are probably his greatest strengths at this point.

 

[Straight Shooter]

This....his flip-flopping is not a good standard to set with the Hispanic bloc that some might assume he would garner just just because of his heritage. The more I look at him, I see all the good things that fox brought up cloaked in a shroud of neoconservatism. The fact that he's Hispanic and not a Bush or a Clinton is bound to score him some points no matter what. Bears watching for sure. His movie-star good-looks and his youth are probably his greatest strengths at this point.

He will not automatically get the Latino vote. As a Latino, specifically a Mexican, I can tell you that within the Hispanic community there's sort of a rivalry between Cubans and Mexican-Americans/Central Americans. This stems from the fact that Cubans arrive on American soil and they get to stay here, while the Mexicans and Central Americans get deported. Also, Cubans have created a conclave for themselves in south Florida which has limited them while the Mexicans have managed to disperse across the country and create communities. Simply put, Cubans are seen as "not one of us" by the Mexican community.

 

[Deepcover]

Fuck this was kinda long for me to read...

ByStephen A. Nuño April 14, 2015, 10:15 AM EDT

The media is in a frenzy over the entry of Marco Rubio into the presidential race. He’s young, handsome, well-spoken in English and Spanish, he’s got an immigrant history. He is a genuine American success story. The media has been waiting for a Republican candidate whose vision of America isn’t something found on a black-and-white sitcom from the 1950’s, and at first glance, Marco Rubio seems like that candidate.


But while he may be the best chance the GOP has to drag the party into the 21st century and connect with an essential part of the electorate, it may not be much of a chance after all. Because the problem between the GOP and Latinos isn’t marketing—it’s their policies. Marco Rubio may just be another GOP attempt to put lipstick on a pig.

The share of Latinos who identify as Republican over the last 15 years has remained relatively stable. According to Pew Hispanic Research, about 25 percent of Latinos identified as Republican in 1999, while 27 percent of Latinos did in 2014. That isn’t likely to change by much in 2016. And Rubio isn’t polling well among Latinos at the moment. Latino Decisions reports that Marco Rubio has a net-negative favorability rating in each state they polled except for Texas, where his net-favorability rating is a wash. The bottom line: Where Republicans go, anti-immigrant policies will follow.

While Marco Rubio’s stance on immigration wasn’t always so hard-line, he now supports ending DACA relief for eligible undocumented immigrants. About four million undocumented immigrants are eligible for temporary relief, and DACA is strongly favored by Latinos. Messing with DACA may appeal to the GOP base, but it won’t go over well with Latinos in 2016, especially since the policy is wholly dependent on the president. If Rubio is elected, ending DACA relief is likely to be the first thing on the agenda.

Marco Rubio is a walking immigration irony. He is not what happens when “you do it right,” but an example of what integrative immigration policies can do. The only entity that did it right in relation to Marco Rubio’s immigration story was the federal government and their favorable policies towards Cubans. Explaining why he wants to deny other Latinos access to the same opportunities his parents had won’t go over well in the Latino “firewall” states.

But immigration isn’t the only thing that matters to Latinos. In Gary Segura and Shaun Bowler’s book, The Future is Ours, they report that almost 74 percent of Latinos support greater government involvement to address the problems we face as a country. Meanwhile, the GOP favors small government and free markets—except when they don’t. Republicans, including Marco Rubio have been strong advocates of government intrusion of the job market when it comes to Latinos, by strongly pushing for E-verify, a system that threatens jobs and liberties.

The GOP continues to block student loan reform that will provide relief for Latinos. Unlike the older, whiter demographic of Republicans who benefited from a strong investment in education by the government, today’s GOP presidential hopefuls need to explain how education is important while arguing for less oversight of education by the federal government. And Latinos won’t be comforted by Marco Rubio’s states-rights argument, since minorities have historically fared poorly in these types of decisions where states are in charge. Latinos will want to know why, if states are such great arbiters of education, Rubio presided over $2.3 billion worth of cuts to Florida’s public education system.

When it comes to social issues, Republicans and Latinos couldn’t be more out of synch. Latinos support gay marriage in line with whites and the country. The GOP may be able to chip away at some protestant Hispanics with an anti-gay message, but Latinos are a young demographic, and young people support gay marriage. Pew Research reports that seven in 10 Millenials support same sex marriage and about a fifth of U.S. Millenials are Hispanic. Rubio might have a tough time explaining why he’s railed against gay parents’ right to adopt children, or helped fundraise for the Florida Family Policy Council, an organization that supports "ex-gay therapy."

Across the board, Latinos favor strong protections for the environment. From ending subsidies to oil and gas in New Mexico to strong views on conservation of national parks, forests, and wildlife, Latinos are far less likely to respond positively to anything resembling “drill baby, drill”.

Nobody likes taxes, and you’d think Rubio would at least fare well among Latinos when it comes to his hardline approach on taxes. But the fine print in their low taxes plans is that they also shift revenue-making policies to those which largely hurt low income taxpayers. The GOP has been at the forefront of eliminating the earned income tax credits (EITC) and supporting regressive tax policies like sales taxes to make up for the reductions in income taxes. Rubio has been in step with his party the whole way, advocating for a flat tax, extending the Bush tax cuts, and eliminating Florida’s property tax.

Marco Rubio and the GOP have fought tooth and nail against the expansion of Medicaid, a program that Latinos strongly favor in Rubio’s home state of Florida. Latinos strongly believe that the government should play a strong role in guaranteeing access to health care compared with the overall public. While support for the Affordable Care Act has waned, a GOP that has fought government support for healthcare is not likely to convince Latinos that a “free market” approach to health care is the answer.

Prisons are a big sticking point, too. The U.S. has among the highest incarceration rates in the world, surpassing Iran and Russia. Private prisons also house undocumented immigrants without any rights to due process and they disproportionately prey on minorities. Marco Rubio has been tied to one of the largest private prisons companies in the country, GEO Group, headquartered in Boca Raton, Florida. The privatization of the prison system has been seen as directly correlated to the high incarceration rates and it’s not just a Rubio problem. The GOP continues to push for private jails to save money. Doug Ducey of Arizona recently proposed a 70 million dollar reduction in higher education to balance the budget, only to propose a shift in those savings to increase state spending on private prisons. The GOP-run legislature surpassed Governor Ducey’s cuts in education by 30 million dollars.

Republicans hate unions and worker protection laws. The white middle class benefited substantially from strong unions, and the fall of unions has mirrored the fall of the middle class. Also, where Republicans go, right to work laws go. These laws significantly hurt Latinos. Republicans also oppose raising the minimum wage, a policy that has a significant negative impact on Latinos.

Wealth inequality between whites and Latinos is staggering. While the median wealth among whites is over $141,000, median wealth among Latinos is $13,700. The average age of Fox New viewers is 68 years old and come from a generation of Americans who benefited from a substantial government investment in education, infrastructure, housing, worker protections, and an expanding safety net. The substantial wealth of this generation is attributable and a testament to the investment of the government after WWII. The GOP wants to tear these policies down

Rubio may be young and charismatic, but when it comes to policy, he’s right in line with his party’s current M.O. The GOP's brand of liberty isn’t something Latinos are likely to buy given the party's record—no matter who is doing the selling.

 

[Supafly]

http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2015/04/...-lead-republicans-to-another-crushing-defeat/

 

[mikexmoran]

He will not automatically get the Latino vote. As a Latino, specifically a Mexican, I can tell you that within the Hispanic community there's sort of a rivalry between Cubans and Mexican-Americans/Central Americans. This stems from the fact that Cubans arrive on American soil and they get to stay here, while the Mexicans and Central Americans get deported. Also, Cubans have created a conclave for themselves in south Florida which has limited them while the Mexicans have managed to disperse across the country and create communities. Simply put, Cubans are seen as "not one of us" by the Mexican community.

I didn't know we let Mexicans and Cubans vote. I wonder how he'll do with the US vote.

 

[sean miguel]

His movie-star good-looks and his youth are probably his greatest strengths at this point.

Never underestimate a shallow american electorate. For every person who has their core beliefs and keeps up, there's probably 10 who couldn't care less until they start seeing TV ads.

After seeing Rubio's announcement, he gets it. He's framing this as young vs. old. America is shallow like that. Except unlike Obama or JFK who he's both drawn comparisons to, he's not going to have a fawning media behind him.

Rubio is a tea party conservative and his parents having fled Castro Cuba, he has no romantic notion of what communism represents. For that, I wholeheartedly support him. I just hope the superficial stuff convinces the majority of american voters.

 

[Straight Shooter]

Never underestimate a shallow american electorate. For every person who has their core beliefs and keeps up, there's probably 10 who couldn't care less until they start seeing TV ads.

After seeing Rubio's announcement, he gets it. He's framing this as young vs. old. America is shallow like that.

Rubio is a tea party conservative and his parents having fled Castro Cuba, he has no romantic notion of what communism represents. For that, I wholeheartedly support him. I just hope the superficial stuff convinces the majority of american voters.

That story has since been debunked after Rubio got caught embellishing the facts. His family left Cuba in 1956 pre Castro, not 1959 as he repeatedly kept saying.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...cuments-show/2011/10/20/gIQAaVHD1L_story.html

 

[sean miguel]

That story has since been debunked after Rubio got caught embellishing the facts. His family left Cuba in 1956 pre Castro, not 1959 as he repeatedly kept saying.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...cuments-show/2011/10/20/gIQAaVHD1L_story.html

That's only because he thought it'd be better, simpler and easier to carry just one device for his work and personal emails instead of two.

 

[Straight Shooter]

I didn't know we let Mexicans and Cubans vote. I wonder how he'll do with the US vote.

Why wouldn't we let Cubans and Mexicans vote??

 

[Jagger69]

Rubio is a tea party conservative and his parents having fled Castro Cuba, he has no romantic notion of what communism represents. For that, I wholeheartedly support him. I just hope the superficial stuff convinces the majority of american voters.

I don't see him (at least at this point) as a teabagger. He's more of a neocon from my view. Regardless, you may be right. The superficial stuff may outweight any real substance when it comes to voters. That's how shallow a lot of this is. To quote Jackson Browne...."It's who you look like....not who you are".

 

[Rattrap]

Rubio is a tea party conservative...

And this is why I can't support him; all the good of the tea party already existed: in libertarians. All the bad of the tea party already existed: in the Republican party. They opted/were coerced/hijacked/whatever to the latter rather than former.

That and his foreign policy ideas:

The junior senator from Florida has taken his position on the powerful Foreign Relations Committee to remind the world that he would re-open the prison at Guantánamo Bay, defend the NSA’s dragnet surveillance and “stand up” against North Korea.

- http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/14/marco-rubio-foreign-policy-doctrine

Here's his voting record. Looks pretty in line with his party, though I haven't given it a thorough looking through.

 

[MMMariah]

Ever notice how big his ears are? Dayum they are BIG. He's got charisma but he's the fucknozzle who came out after the audit LOL the right did after Romney got his pussy pounded like a drunk slut on prom night in 2012 and said the answer is to change nothing. Really? That's the answer to a party that is seen by more people today than ever as outdated and out of touch with the average american? change nothing?

The candidate will be Jeb Bush because he'll get the money and they think he's electable because he was somewhat popular as governor of florida. he'll get beat by at least 5 million votes just like Romney did or worse.