OMG! That Marco Rubio is sooooo dreamy!
by digby
Good lord. I've seen beat sweeteners in my day but this is a flat out swooning man crush. Politico writer Eli Stokols:
Marco Rubio carried a message to South Carolina: He is “at peace” with his failure in New Hampshire.
He doesn’t mean it casually, as though he has simply come to terms with what happened Feb. 6, when Chris Christie commanded the debate stage and turned Rubio’s own rhetorical brilliance into a withering caricature of a robotic, scripted young senator that sent him spiraling to a fifth-place finish.
He means it, Rubio told a supporter shaken by the knock-down of his preferred candidate, as a Christian.
“The concept of peace in Christianity is not simply peace, like, no-war peace. It is the peace of being at peace with whatever God decides,” Rubio told Don Pendleton, a retiree who’d taken the microphone and told Rubio that he was disappointed after the 2016 contender’s dismal showing in New Hampshire until seeing the swell of support in the room. It was a heartfelt statement that gave the senator an opening to dig deep. “Here is what I am at peace with: Whatever happens next, God will either give me the ability to get around it or the strength to go through it. I think that is also true for our country.”
When he finished, Rubio basked in thunderous applause from a 2,000-person, standing-room-only crowd, roughly 10 percent of the town’s population.
His bruises from New Hampshire have healed — and not simply because of his faith. The 44-year-old senator was indeed humbled by the humiliation he suffered before heading to South Carolina, but his chances of capturing the Republican nomination haven’t completely gone south. Donald Trump sits high atop the polls here, but Rubio is positioned to finish either second or third. A poll Monday night taken entirely after Saturday's debate shows Rubio tied for second with Ted Cruz at 18 percent.
If Rubio simply finishes ahead of Jeb Bush, who is polling a distant fourth or fifth in some surveys, and emerges from this state, always critical to his chances, as the establishment’s comeback kid, it will be because of his campaign’s quick adjustment in the face of adversity — and its unwavering faith in the candidate himself.
You may have just seen a taste of the general election coverage if Rubio wins the nomination. He's such a total dreamboat!!!
Why will the press like him so much? Well, he's young. He's good lookin'. He's Hispanic so they can celebrate diversity without having to write a bunch of dull articles about policies that benefit them. (He doesn't have any.) And they think he's got the best chance of beating either of those horrible, boring old Democrats.
If Rubio really gets with the program and starts hanging with the dudes and dudettes of his press pack, passing out some good swag, playing some good tunes, giving them plenty of juicy access he'll have them eating out of the palm of his hand. Never forget, elections are all about reporters feeling awesome about themselves.
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