Marco Rubio, a Florida Senator running for President, is avoiding the high road and instead stooping to the level of Mr. Donald Trump, a risky move that could cast a wide net of cynicism over the GOP.
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It’s great advice for a child or an adult that, when facing a bully, tormentor or adversary, to take the high road—ignore them and persist on the path of well-mannered—and not stoop to their level. That advice has been shared with me, and countless others whom I associate with or know of. This wisdom, however, seems to either have never been communicated to Mr. Marco Rubio, a freshman Florida Senator who’s running for President of the United States as a Republican but who thus far has yet to win an early voting state, or its just being blatantly ignored by him because he’s desperate to decelerate and shame Mr. Donald Trump and win the GOP’s nomination.
To be fair, quite a lengthy period went by before Mr. Rubio, who was once mentored by former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, leveled attacks at the brash billionaire from New York City who has won three of the four early voting states. In fact, it wasn’t until Mr. Bush, the only presidential candidate to repeatedly push back against Mr. Trump, suspended his campaign did Mr. Rubio, the establishment’s choice and a routinely timid voice on the campaign trail, begin to show a fighting spirit. To be precise, it was last Thursday’s GOP debate in Houston, Texas, where Mr. Rubio was reborn as somewhat of an insult comic, shedding his image as a mature and meek individual with the temperament to run the country.
Mr. Rubio pointed out and critiqued Mr. Trump’s failed and controversial Trump University, implying that the institution was nothing more than a scam. He hit Mr. Trump, who he refers to as a “con-man,” on his stance on immigration, illuminating that the Republican front-runner has utilized foreign labor, instead of American workers, and that his ties and suits are made overseas, despite Mr. Trump’s constant lamenting of companies taking work abroad. And, in a spin of irony, Mr. Rubio, who was tagged with the nickname “Marco Roboto” after a debate in which he repeated the same talking points, called out Mr. Trump for being repetitive, suggesting the real-estate mogul says the same few lines every day, including his slogan of ‘Make America Great Again.’
But the real comedy show began after the GOP debate in Houston. On Friday in Dallas, Texas, Mr. Rubio suggested Mr. Trump, rattled from the attacks on stage, urinated on himself. He also poked fun at a tweet which Mr. Trump published that was laced with spelling errors.
“Just like Trump Tower, he must have hired foreign workers to do his own tweets,” Mr. Rubio said.
And on Saturday, at a campaign event in Georgia, responding to a tweet Mr. Trump published that showed the Florida Senator having makeup applied during a commercial break at the GOP debate, Mr. Rubio said “the guy with the worst spray tan in America is attacking me for putting on makeup.” He then stated that Mr. Trump, who on numerous occasion has either sued someone or been sued, should seek litigation against “whoever did that to his face.”
The Senator’s new attitude has received mixed reactions. Some have said Mr. Rubio waited too long to flex his muscles, and others are saying that it doesn’t seem natural for Mr. Rubio to behave in this manner. Mr. Chuck Todd, host of NBC’s ‘Meet the Press’ today explained Mr. Rubio’s behavior by quoting former WCW World Heavyweight Champion, Mr. Ric Flair: “To be the man, you have to beat the man.”
Without question, the man to beat right now is Mr. Trump, who in Florida is leading Mr. Rubio by nearly 20 percentage points and who, according to Breitbart News, leads polls in eight of twelve Super Tuesday states. Additionally, after Mr. Trump received the endorsement of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, who suspended his presidential campaign weeks ago, Mr. Rubio’s odds of winning the republican nomination dropped 10 percent, according to CNN. Given this data, one must assume that Mr. Rubio will continue his shtick, but to what end?
Mr. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina republican senator who also suspended his 2016 presidential campaign, said the GOP has gone batsh*t crazy. Mr. Chris Wallace of Fox News said the GOP debate was “an embarrassment for the Republican Party.” And Rupert Murdoch, the Chairman and CEO of News Corporation, has tweeted that both “establishment Republicans and Trump need to cool it and close ranks to fight the real enemy.” As these antics continue, and they undoubtedly will, the Republicans risk casting a wide net of cynicism over their Party, giving legitimacy to the claim that only a Democrat can, and is prepared to, lead America into the future.
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