Marco Rubio Steps Up to the Plate

Marco was a good soldier during the Romney campaign, speaking at over 60 events in states with big Latino minorities. Now McCain Campaign Chief in 2008 Steve Schmidt says

“He is without question a world-class political talent with the ability to lead the party into the 21st century … a party that has become synonymous with intolerance and loons to too many swing voters,” said Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who ran Sen. John McCain’s 2008 presidential campaign.

But there are pitfalls in rushing out of the box too early.

“You know the media and the party — everyone is looking at this lifeboat with Marco written on the side of it and everyone wants to jump in,” said GOP political strategist Alex Castellanos. “We better be careful or we’re gonna sink it. We’re going to take one of our greatest assets and pigeonhole and typecast him. We need to move the conversation to the next generation, and he’s one of the people who understand that we have to be the party of hope.” Rubio and his advisers are well aware of the risks: He must thread a needle as he tries to portray an open, tolerant party while not incensing the ultraconservative base who want tall fences, closed borders and nothing that looks like amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Not only will the Democrat Party try to outflank Rubio by offering another amnesty travesty like the Reagan affair of 1986, which Dems like the lying fatboy Teddy the Dead said would never effect America's demographics and would stifle further immigration. How'd that work out?

Rubio seems likely to approach potential immigration talks from a biographical standpoint. The son of working-class, Cuban-born parents, the bilingual senator often speaks of how his mom and dad toiled for decades as a hotel maid and bartender after moving to America, longing for a better future for their children. “He is well-positioned to be a leader on this issue — but it will take courage and he can’t do it alone,” said Alfonso Aguilar, executive director of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles.

And the Tea Party anti-immigration people are watchful and warn Marco about this: “This is a very, very dangerous area for Rubio if he has national aspirations,” said Roy Beck, head of the anti-immigration group Numbers USA. “You’ve had Republicans trying to do this in the past that really lost their status in the party once they did it.”

Another problem besides status if that the two biggest enchiladas in the GOP Senate are up for re-election:

Rubio also has a potential problem inside the Senate. Two of the top Senate Republicans — Mitch McConnell of Kentucky and John Cornyn of Texas — are up for reelection in 2014 and have to be worried about a tea party primary challenge if they fire up the base on immigration.

Rubio is savvy enough to have more than one egg in his Latino basket, however.

In an interview with POLITICO last summer, Rubio made clear that he would like to move past immigration reform so that he can relay a broader message to the Latino community about his party. “If we could just get past that gateway issue of immigration policy and what it means about us as Republicans, I think we have a very compelling story to tell about how our economic policies are better for the Hispanic community than the Democrats’ economic policies,” he said. “I think it’s a gateway issue, [which] in many ways, sends a signal about how a political movement, a candidate or a group of individuals feels about another group of people.”

The numbers behind the 2012 election tell the story of the party’s demographic challenge. President George W. Bush, who was a strong voice for comprehensive immigration reform, won 44 percent of the Latino vote in 2004 and 35 percent in 2000. Romney took only 27 percent Tuesday. “What I urge my Republican colleagues to do is to understand we have a demographic problem, the rhetoric around immigration has led to our reduction in Hispanic votes,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) told POLITICO. While Rubio will most likely be the GOP’s point man on immigration on the Hill, Bush’s brother, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, also is expected to help bridge the gap with Hispanics. “They both have the stature and the credibility, and they both have the messaging talents to deal with an issue that has been a difficult issue for our party to drive consensus,” said Al Cardenas, chairman of the grass-roots American Conservative Union and a close friend of both men.

And a quick anecdote: Salvador from Mexico who's been resident in the US 21 years told Rush that the Mexican illegals are simply used to an all-powerful government along PRI & PAN lines. This crushes their individual aspirations and makes them aspire simply for a place under the milk spigots of the huge tyrannical octopus of Mexico City even if it's only hind teat. Other Latinos come here with similar governments and their attitudes are the same, said Salvador. He thinks the GOP has a good antidote to the socialist poison of the Democrats and their tyrant-cousins in Latin America.