The sip heard round the world
Until last Tuesday,Florida Sen. Marco Antonio Rubio had been an up-and-coming, tailor-made, Republican “savior. “He’s no longer up-and-coming. He’s just another in a series of ex-future Republican presidential candidates.
On Tuesday afternoon, Rubio joined 21 of his fellow Republican Senators who voted against the Violence Against Women Act.
Whatever Rubio’s philosophical (read arch-conservative political) objections were to a piece of legislation that enjoys mainly bipartisan support — (it passed the Senate by a 78-22 margin) — it’s a vote that will haunt him if he seeks higher office. He should have stopped there.
The man who recently appeared on the cover of Time Magazine accompanied by the big, bold words “Republican Savior,” joined the growing list of “next Ronald Reagans” who aren’t up to the name.
“Bobby Jindal, the new governor of Louisiana is the next Ronald Reagan,” said Rush Limbaugh before Jindal’s now-famously hilarious rebuttal to President Obama’s first speech before a joint session of Congress back in February of 2009.
The overnight comparisons of Jindal to that character on NBC’s 30 Rock, “Kenneth the Page,” have never diminished. Jindal has been relegated to the role of calling the Republican Party, “The stupid party.” And Democrats everywhere are all the better for it.
Rubio had the same, difficult task. He’d been hand-picked to follow Obama’s State of the Union speech with a rebuttal of his own. He laid an egg the size of Florida.
In just under 15 minutes, Rubio fidgeted himself away from being the “next Ronald Reagan” to becoming hardly more than the next Ronald McDonald.
Appearing to be much younger than his 41 years, Rubio’s much-talked about gift for oratory was hampered because, well, he seemed really nervous, and he kept wiping sweat from his face. (I counted five times, which amounts to a wipe every three minutes). But Rubio’s flop-sweat was the least of his problems.
Much of his speech, while directly attacking Obama, was a restatement of what Obama said minutes earlier. While the president had spoken about opening up public lands for energy exploration, Rubio challenged that notion, with one of his own.
“Let’s open up more federal lands for safe and responsible exploration,” he said, sounding more like Obama-lite, than Reagan-like.
And since Rubio is the son of Cuban-immigrants, Republicans have somehow anointed him the “great Hispanic hope.” That means he’s supposed to be the point man for any and all matters that have anything to do with immigration reform. That way, Republicans just might be able to get more Hispanic voters than can fit inside a phone booth next election cycle.
Why, then, did Rubio only spend 23 seconds — just three sentences — on immigration reform, when he had the eyes and ears of the entire country to express his views about it?
All of this leads up to Rubio’s biggest problem — The Sip.
While Jindal’s 2009 rebuttal performance/audition was universally panned, his job, as the governor of Louisiana, prevents him from being the face of Republican politics nationwide.
Rubio, though, is being billed as the go-to Latino. So, when he awkwardly interrupted his own speech to sneak a sip of water, we’ll all be reminded of those five seconds every time he tries to add anything to the national political dialogue. Five seconds does not a serious presidential candidacy make. Yet it can destroy one.
For many of us, the junior senator from Florida will now only appear to be the junior senator from Candyland. Republicans will soon be seeking a brand new “Republican Savior” who can become Ronald Reagan re-animated. I wish them luck, but only because it will become an exercise in futility.
Democrats don’t have that problem. They aren’t looking for the next Bill Clinton or Barack Obama. They aren’t really plotting to get votes on the cheap. If Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden decide to run for president in 2016, they’ll just be who they are.
Edward A. Owens is a three-time Emmy Award winner and 20-year veteran of television news. Email him at freedoms@bellatlantic.net