Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio (left, sans gray hair) on Thursday visited Chicago, where he welcomed the moderate temperatures along Lake Michigan on a day when 90 was expected in his hometown of Miami. I’d guess Rubio also enjoyed a break from the heat of a three-way battle in the 2010 Florida race for U.S. Senate.
Just a few weeks shy of his 39th birthday, the Conservative Republican does not appear wilted by a brutal showdown for the GOP nomination with Florida Gov. Charlie Crist. To the contrary, he exudes energy. In a race that has gained national attention, Rubio’s journey from distant underdog to dominant frontrunner is remarkable. By articulating passionately held beliefs rooted in the vision of our Founders, he forced Crist to drop out of the primary and run as an independent, setting up a fierce showdown in the general election this fall.
Rubio acknowledges Crist is armed with fundraising clout and absolute determination to preserve his political career. But Rubio’s unwavering core convictions and unwillingness to witness the managed decline of America give him strength to take on the Crist machine. As the father of four children, ages 10 and under, the former Speaker of the Florida House of Representatives said he worried that a Senate candidacy would take away too much time from parenting.
“It was, ultimately, my wife who reminded me that this election is about our children,” Rubio said during a speech at Harry Caray’s eatery.
A few staunch Conservatives were disappointed last week when Rubio, assessing Arizona’s recently passed legislation to control its immigration crisis, said, “I don’t think this law is the best way to do this.” He had more to say when I asked him about the Conservative principle of limited federal government as it applies to immigration policy.
His message Thursday: Don’t confuse measures passed in Arizona as forestalling the yet to be taken steps required of President Barack Obama and Washington lawmakers. Arizona is doing what it has to do to address an escalating crime problem, Rubio said, while receiving no media credit for softening the law’s language to allay concerns that it legalizes racial profiling. It does not.
“They are dealing with (Mexican) drug dealers and hit men,” the son of Cuban-born parents said, “not housekeepers and lawn men.”
Overlooked amid the frenzy is the that the federal government must take the lead on immigration controls because it bares the responsibility for homeland security, and the two are inseparable. “We can’t become the only country in the world that won’t enforce immigration laws,” Rubio said.
To remain a viable political party, Rubio warned, Republicans can’t become known as the one that won’t enforce its principles when in office, lamenting that they “became indistinguishable from the Democrats they were elected to replace” in the past decade. This, he said, “opened the door” to Obama’s opportunity to impose a radical agenda on the nation.
Rubio will be no less fallible than anyone elected to public office, if Floridians do the right thing in November. He will make mistakes, misspeak now and then. But an hour or so spent around Marco Rubio provides renewed optimism that the open door exploited by Obama can be slammed shut. Like some of his fellow young guns in the GOP (Paul Ryan, Eric Cantor, et al), Rubio evokes the “shining city on a hill” optimism that was Ronald Reagan’s signature. Rubio chuckled when mentioning how Conservatives are always chided for channeling the memory of Reagan.
“But you don’t hear Democrats claiming anyone as their Lyndon Johnson,” he said. “Not even Hillary wanted to be Bill.”