National Review Slams Rubio By Jason Linkins | HuffPost | 05/02/2013 2:28 pm EDT Excerpts: As I've noted before, while a bipartisan "Gang" of eight senators are the prime movers behind the renewed hopes for passage of a comprehensive immigration reform bill, every play they run, in terms of persuading skeptics, goes through Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). Rubio is, essentially, the public face of the bill, and he's been consistently given the task of bringing the work of the Octogäng into various and sundry right-wing lions' dens, in the hope that he can use his stature and political capital to gain buy-in from critics. You really can't deny that Rubio has put in the time and the effort. As the Octogäng's bill comes closer and closer to a Senate debate, defending it from nativist skeptics has basically become his full-time job. But is the persuasion working? Based on the cover of the upcoming print edition of the National Review, I daresay it's not. Quite a reversal for the National Review, which once depicted Rubio on the cover of the magazine as one of the figures lighting the way for the GOP's future. (Fun fact: As McKay Coppins points out, the image the National Review is using for its latest cover has been altered in such a way as to keep Grover Norquist from appearing.) As noted pronunciation expert Mark Krikorian's name appears on the byline, you can expect the National Review's take to be pretty unsparing. Krikorian isn't simply opposed to providing undocu- mented immigrants with a "path to citizenship" - he's essentially negatively predisposed to Latinos in general, seeing them as innately (and unrescuably) liberal. Back in November of 2012, Krikorian made this antipathy clear: Steve Dinan at the Washington Times highlights the data on native-born Hispanics that point to their natural inclination to support the Left. The native-born, who account for the overwhelming majority of Hispanic voters, have higher rates of poverty, welfare use, single-parent families - none of which is suggestive of openness to a message of small government and moral traditionalism. That puts Krikorian at odds with the GOP establishment's "rebranding" effort, which involves the very Latino outreach effort that's renewed the drive for comprehensive immigration reform. (Krikorian also wrote that he's not contending that "Republicans cant get a share of the Hispanic vote," but he describes the outreach effort as something that's based in "sugar plum dreams.") On April 15, the day after Rubio mounted a modified full Ginsburg on the Sunday morning political programs to defend the immigration reform effort, Krikorian essentially wrote Rubio off: There wasnt any ambivalence in his performance; it seems certain he's going to stick with the amnesty bill expected out this week under almost any circumstances. He was not only aggressively making his case but, in addition to familiar talking points, he made a couple of new ones that were so obviously ridiculous that I can't see how he could possibly believe them. Unless he's an idiot, which I do not think to be the case, he's trying to fool voters, not persuade them. First, a familiar talking point: the bill doesn't provide amnesty. For crisssake, of course it's amnesty! Stop lying! read more: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/02/rubio-immigration-reform_n_3202412.html ....... IMO: Marco Rubio has made his full political career posing as an political refugee coming over from Cuba with his family to escape Castros extreme policies, but that was never the case. Rubio was born in America after his parents flew here in search of a new place to live. They made several trips back to Cuba and finally decided to permanently return to America where they lived in different places and then in Vegas where they lived as Mormons. Rubios mother never became an American citizen until Rubio entered politics. So you see Rubio is a weaver of dreams. Now he has aspirations to become president, so he is being strong on denying admission to the U.S. certain people with certain sexual preferences. This is strictly a political move for him in his new desire to become the first Latino president, and in order to achieve this, he must become super conservative in the established republican way, becoming ultra conservative in every waking thought in order to be the next republican presidential nominee in 2016. Watch for Rubio to become the republican darling as they groom him for another try at the presidency, and he is going to be in trouble explaining many instances of embellishing his childhood, false Latino loyalty, plus reasons why he is against immigration (which his own parents were) and with his best snake-oil- salesman-ship, explain to voters why he is against gays bringing their partners back to America.
You are worried about Rubio when we STILL don't know everything about Obama and all of HIS lies about his childhood? LMAO!
Don't worry- if Rubio ever becomes the Republican candidate, no one will ever doubt any of Rubio's childhood history or ever make ludicrous claims about Rubio's eligiblity.
The Left WILL try and bring up his eligibility. IMO he's NOT eligible. But that's just my opinion....
Rubio's entire political future should go down the toilet with this sell out bill. Good riddance, Marco. I had such high hope. Go away you phony POS.
Marco Rubio has lost his credibility with conservatives by his support of this immigration bill. The vast majority of the American people do not want to give a path toward citizenship to people who have illegally hopped the border. Not even most rank-and-file Democrats want to do that.
Rubio knows this bill won't pass. It'll never make it through the House. Meanwhile, he's being put into the position of spokesperson on it. When it fails, he'll still be in that position and he will be given the opportunity to re-write the legislation that will be more in line with what the GOP wants after the Democrats have ceded him their power over it.
Reagan got amnesty passed in 1987 and it had ZERO impact on the Hispanic vote. The whole immigration issue is a non-starter, Hispanics don't vote based on it. The reason George W. Bush got so many Hispanics to vote for him is because he spoke Spanish to them at his campaign rallies. Any Republican who can speak Spanish will also get a big chunk of the Hispanic vote, any Republican who can't won't.
Rubio's already tried speaking Spanish. Hispanic families will vote based on immigration reform. Not all of them, but those with families in other countries will. Democrats also have the advantage of not being filled with all white guys or people who look and act a lot like white guys. Democrats are simply more diverse. If the Republicans want to be more open to minority groups, they could start with actually being more open to minority groups. That means immigration reform and a softer stance than Romney's, "Make life such a living hell for immigrants they'll want to move back" policy.
