National Journal‘s Beth Reinhard encapsulates Senator Marco Rubio’s entire political career in one perfectly written paragraph.
“No matter that he’s only punched up the old script, swung back and forth on immigration policy, and never shepherded major legislation through Congress,” Reinhard writes. “What Rubio brings is the star power, adoring fan base, and command of the national media unmatched these days by anyone in Washington outside of the Oval Office. It’s the same aggressive product placement that has made the 41-year-old a top-tier presidential contender just two years after his swearing-in. Rubio is the GOP’s Barack Obama, minus the intellectual heft intimated by two Ivy League degrees and a law-school faculty post. A Generation X-er with a name that sounds like change. The author of an American Dream-laced memoir that, audiences are frequently reminded, helped pay off his student loans. A former state lawmaker and a Senate short-timer with a thin binder of achievements but perhaps blessed with the greatest rhetorical gifts in politics today.”