No, not Saturday night’s debate: This is Marco’s moment.
Getting knocked-down in New Hampshire does not have to be the end of Rubio’s run for the GOP nomination. It could be the real beginning. It’s all up to the junior senator from Florida.
And that’s the key word: “junior.” As in “untested.” “Not ready.” “Too young.” These questions were always going to linger around Rubio. He was always going to have to prove them wrong. How?
By rising to the occasion, facing adversity, showing he’s smart, tough, and mature enough to take a punch (even a self-inflicted one) and overcome it. The fact is, Marco Rubio probably needed something like this—an interruption from the glide path of anointed establishment nominee with Tea Party credentials.
Adversity happens. If it didn’t happen today, it would certainly happen if Rubio were to take on Hillary Clinton and her media-flak army.
If Rubio can fight his way through this defeat and find a way to win, he could emerge as a stronger candidate than if he hadn’t blown a key debate on the eve of the New Hampshire primary.
And that’s what happened: Rubio blew it. Chris Christie’s attack—Rubio’s nothing but sound bites in an empty suit—was hardly new, and it wasn’t particularly tough. I assume many people watching the debate Saturday night were doing what I did—shouting at the TV for Marco to do something.
Instead, Rubio gave a gasp-inducingly bad performance, one that called into question whether he’s competent to serve as president. Christie didn’t do that to him. Rubio did it to himself.
So now Rubio has to do something to answer the question he raised. It won’t be easy, but it’s hardly impossible. Bill Clinton went into the primaries as a draft-dodging womanizer, lost Iowa, lost New Hampshire, and became president of the United States (with the help of Ross Perot, it should be noted) . George W. Bush never had a debate performance better than “meh” and managed two terms.
Marco Rubio has the innate political skills to do the same. How does he do it? I’ll leave that to his over-paid Bush-World-leftover consultants to figure out. I do, however, have one suggestion:
Own your mistakes. Rubio’s strategy has been to spin away from his errors. The “Gang of 8” is the biggest example—or at least was until his “Marco Moment” at the debate. Sen. Rubio’s insistence that “stuck on repeat” was a smart move, his claim that “I hope they show that tape over and over again,” all this denial adds to the problem. The same with the tap-dancing he does on his role in the immigration-reform compromise.
Want to prove to me that you’re ready for the job, Marco? Stand up, look in the camera and say: “I screwed up. I made a mistake, here’s what I learned from it, and here’s why it won’t happen again.”
I know Donald Trump would never do that (c’mon—he never says”I’m sorry” to the man upstairs), and as a former political flak I know there’s a theory that voters cannot bear weakness.
But the reason Trump doesn’t apologize is because he can’t. He truly is weak—a mirage, a fad. Trump the blustering bluffer is all empty suit.
Admitting the obvious, owning mistakes and then returning to the battle isn’t weakness. It’s strong medicine—perhaps strong enough to cure what ails Senator Rubio.
