Given his bungling 2016 campaign, I could say I feel sorry for Jeb! Bush, but that would be dishonest because I've never liked him, nor his policies.
Still, his latest acts of desperation have just become sad.
In an attempt to pander to gun loving South Carolinians, yesterday he Tweeted a picture of a gun with his name engraved on it with a one word message: America.
Not only was it shameless pandering, but it was pretty much a slap in the face to America and all the victims of gun violence from the guy who's not only the father of legalized murder Stand Your Ground laws, but he's also the same guy who responded to one of the most recent mass shootings at a college campus in Oregon by saying "stuff happens."
Meanwhile, as South Carolina's Governor Nikki Haley is passing over Jeb! to endorse Marco Rubio, Jeb! is making another attempt to boost himself at Rubio's expense in the foreign policy department.
“I know what it is to be commander in chief,” Mr. Bush said, referring to his time as governor of Florida, where he oversaw his state’s National Guard. “I know what it is to lead.”
“And for someone who has no experience at all to suggest I don’t — having lived overseas, having worked overseas, developing relationships with leaders overseas, being governor of the fourth-largest state and being a commander-in-chief of the Florida national guard,” Mr. Bush said. “With all due respect Senator Rubio, your four years or five years or whatever it is as senator does not match up to my capabilities of understanding how the world works.”
While he's certainly right that the senator who's most famous for being MIA from the Senate for the last five years lacks foreign policy experience, Jeb's self-proclaimed experience makes about as much sense as it did when Sarah Palin used the same argument in 2008.
Being in charge of the state's National Guard hardly qualifies one for CIC duties and saying so sounds even sillier considering Jeb! and many of the other half dozen GOP candidates still running claim that a former Secretary of State isn't qualified in the foreign policy department.
Under U.S. code, when a unit in a state National Guard is called to active duty, or performs a national defense mission, the Guard personnel convert from Title 32 status under the command and control of the state governor to federal Title 10 status under the command and control of the Defense Department.
When Jeb! was the governor, the responsibility he had was for in-state Florida National Guard activities such as disaster assistance.
To Jeb's credit though, he has yet to also add "could see Cuba from my house" to his resume, but I suppose there's still time for that between now and the South Carolina primary on Saturday.
The Republican Party and the mainstream media have invested a lot in the narrative of Marco Rubio as the head of the golden ticket for the GOP establishment. (Never mind that just a couple years ago they also branded him as the "darling of the Tea Party.") One need look no further than his "victory speech" when he came in third in Iowa to know that he's cashing in on it as well.
Reciting a victory speech for losing is indicative of Rubio, because his entire political career and the narrative that goes with it is based on a myth. Rubio rewrote the story of his parents coming here from Cuba and he was easily caught in a lie simply because he couldn't count. (How "inspired" can you be by your parents' story when you can't even get the dates right?) He says that Ronald Reagan is his mentor, yet if you look at what Rubio claims to stand for, it's the fictitious Reagan the right has created that he admires, not the one who actually existed.
Rubio claims he pulled himself up by his bootstraps and lived paycheck to paycheck. Nope. He's climbed the career ladder on rungs of favors and money from highly placed political insiders and the rich. His "living paycheck to paycheck" was really living off a Republican Party credit card and PACS while working as a lobbyist and a lawmaker. He's enriched himself with cushy jobs he really didn't "work" at very hard, from so-called teaching positions at universities where he was paid more than those who actually earned their positions, to his current job as a Senator where he holds the record for missed votes, not just since he began running for President, but since he got to Washington. The minute he landed the job, he went to work crafting a narrative for his own political future by making speeches and publishing books that were probably written by others.
In short, Marco Rubio is a myth. But that's only part of the myth, because what he isn't is a "moderate" as he and the media narrative would have you believe. When you peel away the other horrible GOP candidates, Rubio is just as radical and extreme as the rest. He's just quieter about it. Trump speaks of databases for Muslims and rounding them up, where Rubio wants to monitor places where they gather. Trump called Mexicans drug dealers and rapists, while "Immigration Rubio" says he wants others to have the opportunity to live the American dream as he did, yet he's pulling up the ladder behind him and burning it just in case, including rejecting President Obama's prospects for improved U.S. relations with Cuba. Ted Cruz speaks of carpet bombing other countries, and while Rubio hasn't yet proposed war crimes, his warmongering views are crafted by neocons and they aren't that different. Cruz recently hung out with the "kill the gays" religious crowd, while Rubio has spent his share of time in the past with many similar fanatics.
Rubio's proposed SCOTUS appointees who will turn back the clock on gay marriage, and he wants rape victims to carry their attacker's child because "he" chooses life at all costs, just as long as those same mothers and children don't want health care now, nor a safety net later on. He's bragging about making it harder and more expensive to get health insurance for everyday Americans, while also voluntarily enjoying the benefits of Obamabcare for himself and his family. Of course, if he could end Obamacare period, he would. After all, he can well afford insurance without the subsidy he's enjoying now simply because he can.
If you look at his proposals, they read like a wish list from the Koch brothers, because they are. (He wouldn't have gotten into the Senate without them.) Cutting taxes for the rich who are barely paying any as it is now, while letting the "free market" loose at everyone else's expense. He claims he's "not a scientist" and says the climate is always changing, but he's really saying what his oil company donors have dictated to him, which is kill any regulation and taxes that will cut into their profits, planet be damned. He wants guns for everyone, including those on the no-fly list because freedom! He wants to end Social Security by raising the retirement age, and Medicare, which his well crafted message calls "strengthening." He wants to privatize the VA, while creating more veterans with "boots on the ground" in "fill in the blank." Regulations that protect consumers? Gone. Unions? Crushed. Minimum wage? Forget it. Education? Good luck jumping through his hoops to get one.
And because his ideas are extremely unpopular with those who are actually paying attention to them, he's all for making it that much harder to vote.
He promises he's the candidate of the future when what he really wants is to set back the clock.
But here's the problem with living a myth. When you've been at it as long as Rubio, you start to believe it, especially when others keep reinforcing it. Those of us who've watched Rubio in action for years here in Florida have heard the same canned speech so many times we could recite it ourselves in our sleep. No doubt he can too. But all that time he's spent memorizing talking points crafted for him by others is about to be tested. Because he can't go off script. He doesn't stick to FOX for broadcast messaging and steer clear of actual one on one conversations with voters for no reason. If you take away his talking points, you have a fumbling robot whose battery is running low. He's never existed in the real world and has no idea what it's like for those who do. If any given scenario doesn't play out the way his index cards tell him, he's lost. I don't like, nor do I agree with anything Chris Christie says, but I have to say he was spot on when he compared Rubio to a "bubble boy." Many of us, myself included, have been saying this for a long time, and we've waited to see when the rest of the country would notice.
They finally have.
"When I'm President" Marco Rubio has spent his entire career inside a bubble based on myths and fantasies. He can't exist outside of one. His rise in the polls, coupled with his rising confidence that commanded him to give a victory speech even though he came in third in Iowa, means he may finally get the first test that bursts that bubble when the knives come out from others in his own party, beginning with the debate tonight.
Rick Santorum (R-Who?), apparently realizing no one is going to vote for him, has finally dropped out of the Presidential race. I guess his first clue was not reliving the magic from Iowa years ago while coming in at a whopping 1% this year.
So, who's the lucky winner of an endorsement from the guy who many thought had dropped out of the race a long time ago?
Days after endorsing Marco Rubio for president, Rick Santorum said "it's hard" to name a significant accomplishment the [sic] Rubio has had in the Senate.
"If you look at being a minority in the United States Senate in four years where nothing got done, I guess it's hard to say that there are accomplishments when nothing was done."
Never mind that:
1) Little's been accomplished by the Senate (or the House) because the Republican Party got together before President Obama's inauguration and made a pact to block anything he did, and followed through with that threat, and
2) Part of the reason nothing's been done is the lack of contribution by one Marco Rubio because he never shows up there.
But yes, Santorum says Rubio's his man, because he has "tremendous potential" and a gift...for having accomplished absolutely nothing in the five years he's been in Washington, but would make a great President because....who knows?
Yes, that's quite the winning endorsement, and well put by a member of the party that has virtually nothing to offer the majority of Americans.
It's well known among observers of Marco Rubio that he seems to live in an alternate reality from the rest of the world, as does his entire party these days, but Marco truly stands out over the rest.
The latest example of this, and the latest among many reasons why he should be disqualified for life from running for President, came yesterday after President Obama visited a mosque and gave the kind of speech that true leaders give as he reached out to Muslim Americans who are unfairly targeted and discriminated against. While the speech drew praise from just about everyone else, Rubio, who somehow manages to find fault with every last thing this President does, was one of only two people on the planet to say, yes, even this speech was somehow wrong. This puts Rubio squarely in the camp of Donald Trump, who has called for Muslims to be rounded up, registered, and/or run out of the country.
“I’m tired of being divided against each other for political reasons like this president’s done,” Rubio, a senator from Florida, said at a town hall in New Hampshire. “Always pitting people against each other. Always.”
“Look at today: he gave a speech at a mosque. Oh, you know, basically implying that America is discriminating against Muslims. Of course there’s discrimination in America, of every kind. But the bigger issue is: radical Islam. And by the way, radical Islam poses a threat to Muslims themselves.”
President Obama gives a speech reaching out to those very people who have been hurt by angry rhetoric and worse, by many, including Rubio and his party, in an effort to bring people together, yet in Rubio world, this is "pitting people against each other?"
Really? Is this pitting people against each other, Marco?
Now, this brings me to the other reason I wanted to come here today. I know that in Muslim communities across our country, this is a time of concern and, frankly, a time of some fear. Like all Americans, you’re worried about the threat of terrorism. But on top of that, as Muslim Americans, you also have another concern -- and that is your entire community so often is targeted or blamed for the violent acts of the very few...]
[..And since 9/11, but more recently, since the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, you’ve seen too often people conflating the horrific acts of terrorism with the beliefs of an entire faith. And of course, recently, we’ve heard inexcusable political rhetoric against Muslim Americans that has no place in our country.
Or this?
Some of them are parents, and they talked about how their children were asking, are we going to be forced out of the country, or, are we going to be rounded up? Why do people treat us like that? Conversations that you shouldn’t have to have with children -- not in this country. Not at this moment.
And that’s an anxiety echoed in letters I get from Muslim Americans around the country. I’ve had people write to me and say, I feel like I’m a second-class citizen. I’ve had mothers write and say, “my heart cries every night,” thinking about how her daughter might be treated at school. A girl from Ohio, 13 years old, told me, “I’m scared.” A girl from Texas signed her letter “a confused 14-year-old trying to find her place in the world.”
These are children just like mine. And the notion that they would be filled with doubt and questioning their places in this great country of ours at a time when they’ve got enough to worry about -- it’s hard being a teenager already -- that’s not who we are...]
[..We’re one American family. And when any part of our family starts to feel separate or second-class or targeted, it tears at the very fabric of our nation.
Or, Marco, what about this?
We are one American family. We will rise and fall together. It won’t always be easy. There will be times where our worst impulses are given voice. But I believe that ultimately, our best voices will win out. And that gives me confidence and faith in the future. ..]
[... If you’re ever wondering whether you fit in here, let me say it as clearly as I can, as President of the United States: You fit in here -- right here. You’re right where you belong. You’re part of America, too. You’re not Muslim or American. You’re Muslim and American.
No, Rubio says he will not tolerate all this dividing of people for political reasons. He won't tolerate any of this talk of bigotry against people who are discriminated against and attacked simply for being Muslims, because RADICAL ISLAM!
"As far as national security, let me just say, I obviously am not happy about the events from last week in Paris, but I think it’s a positive development that it suddenly has cast — forced Americans to confront more carefully the issue of national security, because it is the most important thing a president will do and that is the most important function of the federal government.
And I hope we focus on that more, not just for political advantage, but because the world has become a very dangerous place."
That was Marco Rubio, speaking of the terrorist attacks in Paris last year, which he saw as a positive development for his campaign. So yes, he will not tolerate any of this bringing people together talk. It steps on his narrative of bigotry and warmongering.
There are so many reasons Rubio would be disqualified for the highest office in the land in the real world if so many weren't busy pretending he's newest "bright star" of the GOP, but ginning up fear and hate no matter who gets hurt in the process in order to keep bombing anyone he doesn't like is just one of the bigger ones.
There are two general camps of thought when it comes to making observations of Marco Rubio over the years.
One is that he plays dumb, while the second is that he’s genuinely dumb. As regular readers of this blog may have noticed, my money’s always been on number two. As to why that is, well, here is exhibit infinity.
Over at The Nation, Ari Berman writes today of an account from October where Rubio was asked a few questions about voting during a campaign stop in Iowa. I would say his answers were classic Rubio, but that would be giving him more credit than he deserves. His responses were kind of stunning, even for him:
Q.: “What about the six-hour long lines to vote in Miami? [During the 2012 election]”
A.: “That is only on Election Day.”
The takeaway being…..good news! There are no lines at the polls during the days when elections are not being held!
This was only half of his wrong answer, because there were also long lines during early voting days. But, as you’ll probably surmise below, he was probably clueless about this too.
Q.: “What is your opinion about the ex-felon voter purge that caused thousands of legitimate voters not to be able to vote? [During the 2000 election in Florida]”
A.: “No one intentionally kept anyone from voting,” Rubio said. “It is unconstitutional and illegal to deliberately keep someone from voting?”
This response is classic Rubio, in that he didn’t answer the question. However, that intentionally keeping someone from voting is unconstitutional and illegal has never stopped Republicans from doing so, especially in Florida, where ex-felons were indeed wrongfully purged from the rolls during the 2000 election. Rubio was, of course, an elected official in the state of Florida at the time. It was an event in our voting history that was pretty hard to miss, so I’ll give him the “just playing dumb” benefit of the doubt on this one. Maybe…
Q.: “What about the restrictions on voting drives that kept the League of Women Voters from conducting their voter drives? [During the 2012 election in Florida]”
A.: “No one intentionally kept anyone from voting.”
Yes, Rubio, as a matter of fact they did. Placing restrictions on registration drives tends to cut down on voter registration, and subsequently, the act of voting. Again, another ugly episode in voter suppression in the state of Florida that was pretty hard to miss, unless you’re Marco Rubio, who has a hard time grasping things going on right under his nose in Washington, much less back home, as is quite apparent in the final part of his Q & A with this voter in Iowa who was much better informed than Marco:
Q.: “Do you support the Voting Rights Amendment Act?” Olsen asked. (He meant to ask about more recent legislation, the Voting Rights Advancement Act of 2015, which would restore Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.)
A.: “I am not familiar with that bill,” Rubio said. “If you get me a copy of that bill, I can take a look at it.”
"I am not familiar with that bill?"
“Well, Senator Rubio, it has been out for many months,” Olsen responded. “I am surprised you are not familiar with it.”
We Floridians are sadly not surprised by that at all. Because Rubio showing up in Washington once in a while would be a good way to familiarize himself with the bill, or any other for that matter. But after more than four years of absenteeism before he announced he was running for President, followed by an even worse record after he did, we all know that’s not going to happen. Rubio himself has confirmed this on many occasions.
But there was more:
“Well, get me a copy of it,” Rubio said.
“I will,” Olsen said.
A sitting senator, running for President, asking a voter to go out and fetch him a copy of a bill that would restore a crucial section of the Voting Rights Act that he, the sitting senator, is not “familiar with,” and promising to “take a look at it” when the voter gets it for him.
This is Presidential? How can one make the case he's Presidential material when he's so painfully uninterested in governing, painfully unaware of the issues, and has little interest on getting educated on, or up to speed with all of the above? It’s almost as mind boggling as having an entire city in the news for being poisoned by a fellow Republican and Rubio saying that isn’t something he’s "quite frankly followed." Or denying climate change, ignoring laws and reality, or saying that a weather disaster that killed over 30 people was a "good thing."
This is where my problem with the “just playing dumb” theory of Marco Rubio doesn’t pass the smell test.
If you were running for President, and had some expectation of winning, wouldn’t you at the least pretend to be smart?
Face it people, it’s not an act.
Marco Rubio should just go back to Washington, pack up, and then do us all a favor and pack it in.
