The Right Opinion
Rubio's Time Will Come
"Rubio, Rubio, Rubio."
You hear the chants all across the country. On talk shows, on cable TV, on blogs and in op-ed columns, everyone with a conservative bone in his body is urging presumptive GOP nominee Mitt Romney to choose the smart and dashing Marco Rubio as his vice president.
The conservative crowd's clamor for Rubio is beginning to worry me. It could backfire. For one thing, it's setting up Romney for a disaster.
If he doesn't choose Rubio -- and I would agree with that decision -- it's going to disappoint a lot of Republican voters who think Rubio is the key to de-electing President Obama. And when voters are disappointed, they don't show up to vote.
Don't get me wrong. Rubio is great, maybe the best young talent in the Republican draft pool. The first-term Florida senator is already a superstar and ready for the big leagues -- and that's the biggest problem I have with picking him.
When you're trying to get elected president, you don't pick a superstar for your running mate. You pick someone boring, someone who is not going to eclipse you the way Sarah Palin outshined John McCain just four years ago.
I admit it wasn't hard to outshine McCain. But if he hadn't been so desperate to put some life into his lackluster campaign, he would have done the wiser thing and chosen someone even more boring than himself.
It was Reagan and Bush I. Bush I and Quayle. Clinton and Gore. Gore and ????? Whoever it was, he or she was so boring I can't remember their name. Was it Kerry? Biden?
Just joking, but you get the point. In 2000, the Bush II-Cheney ticket turned out to be a mini-mistake. Dick Cheney was so experienced and such a strong personality that he acted like a co-president for eight years, which only caused trouble for George W. Bush.
There's only room for one star on the ticket. Romney doesn't need Rubio or Chris Christie or Condi Rice, or even Paul Ryan. He needs a Tim Pawlenty, a Rob Portman or a Bob McDonnell -- a non-star.
He needs someone who's a virtual unknown to the voting masses, but nonetheless experienced in governing and ready to do the VP's thankless jobs of attending funerals and waiting for the chance to break a tie vote in the Senate.
Nobody ever votes for a president because they like the VP. Romney has to be the only star. Period. He has to be the focus of the Republican ticket.
Unlike McCain, who had to appear with Palin most of the time just to draw a crowd, Romney needs to have a VP who can campaign for him elsewhere without attracting all the media attention or showing him up.
That might be hard. Mitt is not exactly known for his star power. But he doesn't need to be exciting to win the White House. He needs to show voters that he has the ideas and the governing skills to pull the economy out of the deep ditch Mr. Obama's got us stuck in.
Rubio will have his day. So will future Republican all-stars like Christie, Ryan and Bobby Jindal. The GOP has a deep bench.
But Mitt's the GOP's QB now. He's got to ignore the crowd of conservatives who want him to throw the long bomb to Rubio. He's got to call his own play for VP -- and make it good but boring.
©2012 Michael Reagan
10 Comments
cornell in Canada
Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 9:05 AM
Allen West for VP!!!
sfj in Alabama
Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 10:19 AM
Not to mention Rubio's questionable "natural born" citizenship....just sayin
Joe in Texas
Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 2:53 PM
That's incorrect. He was born in Miami, FL. And Cuban immigrants have a deal with the US granting political asylum. This means that Rubio isn't "subject to the jurisdiction" of Cuba, but the US. He's allowed, under the Constitution, to be president.
Paul in Sacramento
Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 5:18 PM
A "natural born citizen" is somebody born in a country to parents who are citizens of that country at the time of the child's birth. If his parents were not US citizens at the time of his birth in Florida then he is simply a citizen...not a "natural born citizen". Unless there is an actual statute that you can show me that states that "children born in the USA to Cuban Exiles who are not US citizens shall be natural born citizens at birth" or something to that effect I don't see how he is eligible. For all I know there is such a statute....and I just haven't seen it!
wjm in Colorado
Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 10:34 AM
I thing Allen West would be a great choice, but then again he would outshine Romney. How about Gary Johnson? Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha, hee, hee, hee, hee! Rand Paul would generate some interest, and he just endorsed Romney over his relation. In the long run it doesn't matter, but that CONGRESS is won by those who believe in the rule of law and the Constitution. Get rid of the marxist statist traitors trying to tranform the Republic.
Orvis in SeaR
Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 2:14 PM
Rubio does not meet the constitution requirements for President of a natural born citizen. Obama doesn't meet it either. We need to impeach Obama, and do away with all of the judges that he picked, and on and on.
Gwen in Michigan
Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 9:55 PM
Marco Rubio is a "natural born citizen" because he was born here. His parents birth place is not relevant. The first seven presidents were not even born here, let alone their parents.
Adrien Nash in Crescent City, CA
Thursday, June 28, 2012 at 11:59 PM
A natural member of any group is one born to a native of the group. One is not a native unless fathered by a native and born of a native mother. Outsiders cannot produce insiders. Foreigners cannot produce natives. Alien parents cannot produce natural domestic members of any group, including nations. Only citizens can produce natural citizens.
Immigrant parents can only produce citizens via the naturalizing power of the 14th Amendment. It produces constitutional citizens, not natural citizens. Any citizen whose citizenship is derived from any law is ineligible to be President because natural born citizens do not derive their citizenship from any law. It's aresult of natural law, -by which all off-spring are the same as their parents, biologically and politically. See my commentary: A MAN CALLED HORSE & A MAN CALLED PRESIDENT. http://patriotpost.us/commentary/2012/01/05/a-man-called-horse-a-man-called-president/
BNgranny in MO
Friday, June 29, 2012 at 10:51 AM
Michael's 100% right on this one. Rubio is not ready -- heard his speech at the hispanic leaders conference, his stance on immigration sounded pretty much like 'o's and libs. Other times he's sounded pretty conservative. What do we know about Christy other than he stood up to the teachers' union in NJ? Not enough.
I've heard Romney say in interviews that he'll pick someone who would be ready to be Pres. if the need arose. That's a pretty sensible qualification. We don't need an American Idol pres or veep. Just wish Romney was a bit more conservative -- do we need Obamacare replaced?
QJG in Queens, NY
Saturday, June 30, 2012 at 1:32 PM
The first seven presidents and their parents were born on the soil of the original 13 colonies of Great Britain, but certainly proved they were not "subject to the colonizer" -- would you hold that a person born in the British Crown Colony of Hong Kong and his parents, were not natural-born to that place, no matter that an oppressive foreign power was in control? No, I bet you would give liberal leeway to call a South Asian Indian, a person born in Hong Kong, a person born in Haiti to become presidents of those countries some day after shaking off the colonizing foreign power, "natural born," than you do to your own country's revolutionaries and their long suffering under a foreign power. That was precisely the reason the FF put such a prohibition into the Constitution as to who could become the U.S. President, the only elective office cited thusly...so the POTUS would not likely have competing loyalties--to the U.S. and to a foreign power. That's why dual citizenship is such a bad idea, in my opinion as well -- when you start with U.S. citizenship -- the greatest jewel.