Rubio Not Winning the Establishment Because He's too Conservative

[100% pro-life no matter what]

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/why-arent-republican-leaders-rallying-behind-marco-rubio/

His ideology is actually to the right of the Freedom Caucus.

Some of his ratings:
Heritage Action- 96%
ACU- 98%
Club for Growth- 97%
Americans for Economic Prosperity- 100%
National Right to Life- 100%
NRA- A

[Phony Moderate]

If he didn't look vaguely telegenic then he'd just be a poor man's Cruz.

[HagridOfTheDeep]

Also he's like the Republican version of Obama. An ingrate who jumps in too early because he thinks he's special, wins on his youthfulness, and then surprises everyone when he turns out to be ineffectual, as if the writing hadn't been on the wall the whole time. The GOP will make tons of mistakes, but nominating their version of Obama won't be one of them.

[President Johnson]

I don't thinkRubio is really a moderate establishment guy. He's just moderate compared to hardline right wingers like Cruz. The Donald is more moderate on most issues (social issues, taxes, foreign policy- Trump likes to play the bully, but he's no warmonger and no neocon).

[Coolface Sock #42069]

I don't thinkRubio is really a moderate establishment guy. He's just moderate compared to hardline right wingers like Cruz. The Donald is more moderate on most issues (social issues, taxes, foreign policy- Trump likes to play the bully, but he's no warmonger and no neocon).

In rhetoric only. By most other measures, he is just as conservative as Cruz if not more so.

[MyRescueKittehRocks]

Rubio is more conservative than the establishment. Again, he will push the gop in a more conservative direction. But he is not all that conservative. He's less conservative than Cruz. He's in between Cruz and Perry. He's a moderate to me because he won't actually cut spending.

Especially on military spending.

[hopper]

Rubio is more conservative than the establishment. Again, he will push the gop in a more conservative direction. But he is not all that conservative. He's less conservative than Cruz. He's in between Cruz and Perry. He's a moderate to me because he won't actually cut spending.

Well Fiscal Moderate maybe?

[Hillary pays minimum wage]

Rubio has the ability to come across as more moderate than he is for the same reason Obama was early on in the 2008 primaries when he talked about the need for parents to be involved with their children.  A hardcore liberal would say "it takes a village to raise a child."  Having said that, he may have been better waiting til the next decade to run for president.  Obama thought he was something else too.  The guy practically ran uncontested in 2004 for the senate, served for two years and decided he should be the most powerful person in the world.  Two years after he decided to run, he became president after voting present in the senate.  Hopefully, Rubio gets another chance.

[Trapsy]

The Rubio-Obama comparison is so dumb because Rubio really sucks at being a politician.

[hopper]

The Rubio-Obama comparison is so dumb because Rubio really sucks at being a politician.

Well Obama does not like the sausage-making(i.e. dealmaking) as much as Clinton or even Reagan did. Obama likes to campaign and do speeches.

[SillyAmerican]

The Rubio-Obama comparison is so dumb because Rubio really sucks at being a politician.

Well Obama does not like the sausage-making(i.e. dealmaking) as much as Clinton or even Reagan did. Obama likes to campaign and do speeches.

Yes, Obama is a really good politician, but sucks at being a leader.

[IceSpear]

That's BS. The establishment cares solely about temperament (and winning elections), not ideology.

What happened was that the "new guard" of the establishment, with the help of the media, thought they could push Jeb aside and install Rubio as the heir apparent seamlessly. But Bush World and the old guard were a lot more stubborn than they expected and refused to take the hint. In fact, Jeb and his backers were so offended by the attempted coup that they are now dedicating his entire candidacy to destroying Rubio. Bushes are very vindictive, just ask McCain.

[IceSpear]

That's BS. The establishment cares solely about temperament (and winning elections), not ideology.

What happened was that the "new guard" of the establishment, with the help of the media, thought they could push Jeb aside and install Rubio as the heir apparent seamlessly. But Bush World and the old guard were a lot more stubborn than they expected and refused to take the hint. In fact, Jeb and his backers were so offended by the attempted coup that they are now dedicating his entire candidacy to destroying Rubio. Bushes are very vindictive, just ask McCain.

What's the hell is the new guard

The part of the establishment that isn't made up of Bush loyalists.

[AltWorlder]

I don't thinkRubio is really a moderate establishment guy. He's just moderate compared to hardline right wingers like Cruz. The Donald is more moderate on most issues (social issues, taxes, foreign policy- Trump likes to play the bully, but he's no warmonger and no neocon).

In rhetoric only. By most other measures, he is just as conservative as Cruz if not more so.

With Trump (and Fiorina, Cain, etc.) all we have is rhetoric. We don't have governing or voting history to go on.

[#TheShadowyAbyss]

The Establishment is for all intents and purposes dead. The Cruz's and Trump's will take over the party in due time.

[Reginald]

It always amuses me when the press implies the GOP establishment is this group of "serious" moderates who are horrified by super-conservatives. That's just not the reality.

[Figueira]

The problem is that Bush, Kasich, Christie, and Rubio are splitting the establishment vote close to evenly in New Hampshire (Kasich and Rubio are ahead, but the other two are still competitive), and none of them can really make a convincing argument that all the establishment types should support them over the other three. If, say, Kasich, Christie, and Bush dropped out, then Rubio might actually have a shot at winning the state.

[Mister Mets]

I think it's more the competition in the establishment lane.

If a Republican voter wants an uncompromising conservative, there's Cruz.
If they want someone who is viscerally opposed to things they don't like, there's Trump.

If they want a competent Republican lawmaker with generally conservative views, there's still Jeb, Christie and Kasich, in addition to Rubio.

[The Mikado]

It's not so much that he's "too conservative," whatever that means anymore, as its closely related statement: he's not one of them. Marco Rubio is a nobody in his early 40s who took advantage of the Tea Party to luck into a Senate seat that wasn't intended for him, has been absentee for most of his term, and one term into his national career in politics is running for president. Republican elites have known John Kasich, either personally or through reputation, since the Clinton Administration, and ditto Jeb Bush, or, through his father, back as far as anyone in this country is alive (Bush Sr. was a national political figure back to the Johnson Administration). Chris Christie has been a high profile national figure for quite some time now, as well. Rubio? Elected out of nowhere to the Senate in 2010, briefly nationally prominent in 2013 due to the failed immigration bill, and basically invisible ever since. Rubio's entire national career has been in the 2010s. Rubio's reputation outside of Florida is restricted to the Obama Administration years.

Rubio is one other thing in addition to that, also closely related: he's a young man in a hurry. Nothing irritates Congressional lifers more than these whippersnappers who are not even 50 yet who think that they should be President now. This also applies to Cruz, of course, but Cruz's tactic of burning every bridge in sight meant that he was never going to get any support from DC and in fact banks on not having said support as a talking point.