Rand vs. Rubio

[DonViejo]

POLITICS

Rand vs. Rubio

Whether either senator will become a presidential contender depends on how much the Republican Party is willing to change.

By John Dickerson

Posted Monday, Mar 25, 2013, at 03:25 PM ET

The fascination with Sens. Rand Paul and Marco Rubio is understandable. Both are young and ambitious Republicans in a party looking for its next leader. They are charismatic risk-takers who can talk to the media beyond just Fox News. Also alliteration may be destiny. Headline writers cannot resist writing Rand and Rubio combination. (See examples, here, here, here, here, and above.) Both men are also considering running for president.

We should leave them to their hobbies. It's three years until the next primary and it's silly to assign too much presidential weight to anything they do now. (Though it's not crazy to imagine people returning to the Rand Paul filibuster of 2013 the way they did Barack Obama's convention speech in 2004). But even now, the presidential jockeying of these two men is interesting in another context. It tells us something about the Republican Party they would hope to lead. The GOP is going through a molting period. The route each man charts and how successful he is in capturing arguments of the moment—on immigration, drones, and whatever else comes up—will tell us something about what the emerging Republican Party values and what it might look like as it tries to get in shape for the next national contest.

If the Republican Party of 2016 embraces either of these two senators it will be a radically different party. If either is elevated into a serious national candidate, it would reverse two old truths about ...

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[BlueStater]

1. "embraces either of these two senators it will be a radically different party"

Oh, bullshit. Rand, maybe, but Rubio is the same sort of asshole they've always ran. He's just Cuban. That's all there is to him.

[COLGATE4]

2. You're 100% correct. Rubio is the Repuke's

token Hispanic but believes all the standard RW bullshit. Another empty RW suit. Rand is just a pretentious asshole.

[Jamaal510]

3. Rand could probably be more of a threat.

He has pretty respectable support among young people who think he is anti-war and pro-drug legalization.

[Cartoonist]

4. Anti-war BS

You're right about people being fooled by the Rand's opposition to war. I know some progressives that supported Ron Paul believing he was a man of peace. Their only opposition to war is the funding of it. Neither one has the soul of a compassionate human being who is opposed to war based on the horror of it and the loss of human lives. It's not the same thing. If the oil companies order more war, than you can bet Rand will declare it.

[mimi85]

5. I don't think

I could ever use the word "charismatic" to describe Rand Paul. My fish has more charisma than him.

[AlinPA]

6. Both will have trouble with Santorum who has the religious right-wing vote

and IMO that is most of the republican base. The so-called "republican establishment" is not a factor anymore; the crazies have the party by the throat and they make up most of the republican voters now.

[David Zephyr]

7. Karl Rove and the Bush-Government-in-Waiting will clear all GOP competition for Jeb.

Including Christie.