Almost every politician who aspires to statewide office brings along a staffer when meeting a group of reporters. Usually it’s the communications director or press secretary, or perhaps the chief of staff. Usually the staffer is there to drive the candidate around, keep him on schedule, monitor how he is doing, and perhaps kick him under the table if, while answering questions on the record, he starts straying off-message in a Bidenesque manner.
When U.S. Senate candidate Marco Rubio dropped by National Review’s Washington office to meet the editors in late July, he arrived alone — in fact, he traveled alone for his entire trip from Florida to the capital. You could take that as a sign of a shoestring campaign; but the more apt conclusion is that Rubio knows who he is and what he wants to say — there’s never a need to kick him under the table. Rest of article here.
