MIAMI — Marco Rubio declared for president Monday with two guns blazing and pointed in the direction of Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton.
The Florida Republican never mentioned either politician by name. But in televised remarks before an enthusiastic crowd, Rubio, 43, called for a new generation of leadership in the White House that could only be interpreted as as shots across the bow at Bush, the 62 year-old former two-term Florida governor that could be his biggest obstacle to the Republican nomination; and Clinton, the 67 year-old former secretary of state and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee who became a fixture of national politics more than 20 years ago as first lady.
Clinton kicked off her 2016 campaign, her second for the presidency, on Sunday. She was first lady from 1993 to 2001 and a New York senator from 2001 to 2008. Clinton lost her bid for the Democratic nomination to President Obama seven years ago.
“Just yesterday, a leader from yesterday began a campaign for president by promising to take us back to yesterday,” Rubio said, from the iconic Freedom Tower in downtown Miami. “But yesterday is over, and we are never going back. We Americans are proud of our history, but our country has always been about the future. Before us now is the opportunity to author the greatest chapter yet in the amazing story of America.”
Bush, son and brother to the two most recent Republican presidents, is expected to declare for the White House in the coming months. He is considered a political mentor to Rubio, and was governor during the senator’s tenure as speaker of the Florida House of Representatives nearly a decade ago.
Rubio and Bush live only miles apart from each other in South Florida, and rarely mention each other by name. By all accounts they still maintain a cordial, if increasingly competitive relationship.
But Bush supporters repeatedly argue that Rubio can’t win without Sunshine State Republicans squarely behind him — an assertion many GOP insiders believe to be true and why they assumed Rubio wouldn’t run. They have taken to arguing that Rubio, 43, should stand down for the more seasoned Bush, 62.
Rubio is having none of it.
“I have heard some suggest that I should step aside and wait my turn. But I cannot. Because I believe our very identity as an exceptional nation is at stake, and I can make a difference as President,” the senator said, before an enthusiastic room of 1,000 supporters inside downtown Miami’s iconic Freedom Tower.
Countered one Bush donor who contributed to Rubio’s 2010 Senate campaign: “The last good-looking, smooth guy who talked incessantly about the future sold the country a bill of goods called ‘hope and change.’ I suspect many Republicans haven’t forgotten that — which is Marco’s real problem.”
The charge that Rubio is Republican version of President Obama is a charge that could resonate for some GOP primary voters.
The president was first elected in 2008 at age 47, with his only political experience coming from a few years in the U.S. Senate and a few years before that in the Illinois Senate. Republicans often ridicule him as a “community organizer” who had never run anything before entering the Oval Office, and blame what they view as his clueless and incompetent leadership on that fact.
Should Rubio’s campaign gain traction and threaten for the nomination, the collection of sitting and former governors that are expected to run, are likely to try and undermine the Floridian’s candidacy by charges that he’s another Obama.
Bush is considered a frontrunner for the GOP’s 2016 nomination, should he run. Polling shows Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in contention as well. Other chief executives looking for a way into the top tier include Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, and former Govs. Mike Huckabee of Arkansas and Rick Perry of Texas.
Given the Rubio-Bush relationship and that they both hail from Miami, it’s hard to dismiss Rubio’s pitch for generational change as anything other than a looming collision course of one-time allies. But in delivering a broad case for fresh leadership in Washington, Rubio was following in the footsteps of presidential candidates that have come before him — most recently Obama but also President Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton’s husband, and President John F. Kennedy.
Bush is expected to have the advantage over Rubio in Florida with the GOP donor set and veteran political operatives. But Rubio is garnering his share of Establishment support.
Rep. Tom Rooney, R-Fla., who confirmed to the Washington Examiner that he is considering a run for Rubio’s open Senate seat, said he is drawn to Rubio’s pitch and he is backing him over Bush.
“I really believe in Marco’s message,” said Rooney, who was in Miami for Rubio’s launch. “What he was saying about our future — I’m not saying this as a congressman or because I know Marco personally; I’m saying it because I think that our country really needs to feel like that we are going to have another great American century.”
