Glenn Reynolds says " I’ve got nothing in particular against Rubio except that he let Chuck Schumer snooker him on immigration, but I keep hearing what a great candidate he is, and he keeps sucking in the actual votes."
Yeah, being Snookered is enough. Add to that jumping on the eGOPs call to blame Trump for his rallies being attacked.
"I wouldn’t say Mr. Trump is responsible for the events of tonight," said Rubio, "but he is most certainly, in other events, has in the past used some pretty rough language, saying in the good old days we used to beat these people up, or I’ll pay your legal bills if you rough them up. So I think he bears some responsibility for the general tone."
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2016/03/11/cruz-and-rubio-criticize-trump-for-creating-environment-for-chicago-protest/)
He isn't responsible for 1000s of leftists disrupting his event, but he is responsible for his "tone" which incites 1000s of leftists to disrupt the event.
and then add this assertion that Trump "beats up" hecklers..
https://www.rt.com/viral/335553-rubio-heckler-florida-trump/But , but, but Rubio is the second Coming of Ronald Reagan.
http://www.rollcall.com/news/opinion/rubio-ranks-only-behind-reagan-as-a-conservative-communicator’ve always believed, going back to Reagan, that a true conservative could still win in our liberal culture and simultaneously persuade and teach non-conservatives that conservatism was the best philosophy to bring about human flourishing.
Reagan was tough and a populist but, paradoxically, he was conciliatory and cosmopolitan (the toughness was reserved for adversaries, not the public). He won over Americans by the force of his charm, and then persuaded them that his philosophy was correct. He was utterly decent, utterly defensible and utterly likable.
Why did this matter? You’ve got to understand that for my entire life, conservatism has had a bad rap. The perception has that we are mean, evil, or even racist. That’s not who I am, and that’s not what the conservatism I grew up with is. And that’s not who Reagan was, either. And I’ve always believed that dispelling this myth about the “evil, racist, Republican” was at least one of the important functions of a conservatism that wanted to grow..... Rubio, like Reagan, has the potential to not just win the election, but also to win the argument. He has the rhetorical chops and eloquence to teach Americans why conservatives are not defined by the negative stereotypes.
No. Moron. The left controls the Journalistic establishment- and far more now than they did with Reagan. You will ALWAYS be portrayed as mean, evil and racist - NO MATTER WHAT THE TRUTH IS, because the Left has given up even trying to maintaining the appearance they are reasonable people concerned with the truth. If you could resurrect Regan and run him now, he could probably win the nomination. Maybe even the Presidency. And YOU and HE would still be called mean, evil, racist, and stupid. There is no argument to win because the left won't engage the argument. And the 40% in the middle just want to get back to watching Cat videos and Kardashian rump. They don't care about the argument either. We do not need another eloquent quisling to pretend to be conservative.
Meanwhile Allahpundit is whining that if Trump controls the party then it might be destroyed!
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/03/14/rubio-there-will-be-a-reckoning-for-conservatives-who-support-trump/What he says here about a “reckoning” for pro-Trump conservatives is something I hear all the time from righties on social media, incidentally. “We’re making a list!” they cry, naming all of the so-called movement conservatives who have embraced their inner nationalist this year and clambered aboard the Trump train. Fantasies of recriminations against the traitors will keep you warm on those cold, solitary nights in the wilderness, but are they realistic? David Frum warns righties that if they’re thinking Trump will merely “borrow” the GOP this fall and then return it after he loses, they’re delusional.......A member of the RNC’s Rules Committee is already circulating a letter suggesting, contra all available evidence, that delegates are not bound on the first ballot and haven’t been in 40 years. The price of stealing the nomination from Trump after he’s supposedly clinched it would be sky high. It would delegitimize the RNC; it would vindicate Trumpists’ criticism that the establishment is corrupt and that the system is rigged; it would certainly doom the GOP’s chances in the general election as millions of Trump fans decide to stay home or vote third-party in protest;
and Frum says
A “true conservative” independent race for president may offer anti-Trump Republicans a way to vote their consciences without endorsing Hillary Clinton. But it may also expose “true conservatism” as a smaller factor in U.S. presidential politics than it’s been regarded as since the advent of the Tea Party.
Someone needs to send these guys a copy of the memo. The death of the GOP is what is desired. Trump is SMOD. He is the destroyer chosen to annihilate the lefty supporting group of quisling collaborators and traitors that is the eGOP. Trump isn't being embraced because of his "nationalist" message (there is a message?) but because he is NOT eGOP. He is establishment Democrat! - and if that doesn't destroy the party I don't know what will. And it needs to be destroyed , because we can't move forward without an organization that stands for traditional American values (rule of law, individual liberty, limited govt) to hold the line on Capitol Hill. It will probably come too late, or not at all, but for those holding out ope for a political solution, the dead of the eGOP is the only way forward. I may not be a Frum "True Conservative" -because I don't believe capitulation to the enemy is a virtue- but given the last 20 years of history, that is what the eGOP represents'. What - in their own minds, do the eGOP they think they stand for?
Vote GOP because we aren't racist! Vote GOP because sometimes we kinda sorta old the line on liberty when it isn't politically inconvenient or too much work. Vote GOP because sometimes we shake our finger and say tisk tisk at the blatant lies and cheating of the Democrats without actually, you know, doing anything to prosecute them for it.