Little Marco Never Had a Shot to be President

All I heard from my "professional" Republican friends in Harrisburg and Washington over the past year was how Marco Rubio was a great general election candidate. They talked about his youth, his "positive" demeanor, and even his ethnicity. He was the good looking, fresh face. That's what they told me. I told them all they were out of their minds. Marco Rubio was never going to be President. I told them so.

Marco Rubio had three main problems, none of which was money or support. Every Republican in Washington tried to will this guy onto victory, from defending him from Jeb Bush's totally fair attack on his no-show status in the Senate, to pushing every endorsement they could in his direction, to pumping money into his campaign. Marco had every ounce of establishment support possible. No one can say he lost for a lack of effort.

Little Marco failed for several obvious reasons. The first of which was that he never connected to voters out in the states, only to DC elites. The second reason was that Marco wasn't really all that smart, and Chris Christie laid that bare in the New Hampshire debate. The third problem was that Marco was immature, and he got down into the mud with Donald Trump and destroyed whatever positive image he had.

To be clear, had Rubio won Florida, and the establishment eventually pushed him through to the nomination in a contested convention, Marco Rubio would have lost the general election. Oh sure, you can show me a poll where he beats Hillary Clinton right now. The problem with that though, in the end, is that these polls don't fix the character flaws that Marco Rubio had. He would have had the same problems in the general election as a candidate that he has now. Nominating Rubio is about the only mistake the GOP could have made worse than the decision they are making now. The man is simply a dud of a candidate. If that wasn't clear when he was giving a "victory" speech for finishing third in Iowa, it should be clear and apparent to anyone watching now.