GOFFSTOWN, N.H. — There was a time when Republican governors were not all that different from Democratic governors.
The politicians from both parties who ran the states tended to be a pragmatic lot. They were pro-business because they wanted their people to have jobs but they championed government spending in the areas that contribute to economic development, starting with education and transportation.
Democratic governors still largely behave that way, but many of their Republican peers have followed their national party to the right and now run far more ideological administrations. North Carolina, Kansas and Wisconsin are prime examples of this break from a longer GOP tradition.
But in a pivotal debate here on Saturday night, the old solidarity among Republicans in charge of statehouses made a comeback of convenience. Govs. Chris Christie and John Kasich and former Gov. Jeb Bush are competitors but they had no qualms about creating an ad hoc alliance that might be called Governors Against Callow and Outrageous Candidates.
They took on both Donald Trump and, indirectly, Sen. Ted Cruz. But their central target was Sen. Marco Rubio, who had a chance to put all three governors away with a strong performance. Instead, thanks to the pugilistic Christie, Rubio wilted.
In nearly every season, there is a media favorite whose standing with journalists relates not to ideology but to what reporters think a good candidate should look and sound like. For some time, Rubio has been that guy. Fresh and fluent, Rubio seems to bridge the party’s divides. He was nominated for the Senate as a tea party favorite, but was really an insider. You don’t get to be speaker of the Florida state House of Representatives by being a mavericky rogue.
On paper at least, he’s the potential GOP nominee who scares Democrats the most. A young Cuban-American (age: 44) would presumably have a nice edge on either of the Democratic candidates (ages: 68 and 74), and Rubio loves playing the generational card.
In practice, trying to be all things to all Republicans has often thrown Rubio off balance. His multiple positions on immigration reform make him both a target of the GOP’s anti-immigration hard-liners and the object of (mostly private) scorn from Republicans who were struggling to get an immigration bill passed.
All along, the question about Rubio has been whether he’s too good to be true. After Christie’s clinical takedown during their encounter at Saint Anselm College, this suspicion is now front-and-center in the Republican campaign.
“Marco, the thing is this,” Christie thundered. “When you’re president of the United States, when you’re a governor of a state, the memorized 30-second speech where you talk about how great America is at the end of it doesn’t solve one problem for one person. They expect you to plow the snow. They expect you to get the schools open. And when the worst natural disaster in your state’s history hits you, they expect you to rebuild their state, which is what I’ve done. None of that stuff happens on the floor of the United States Senate.”
Ah, yes, governing is about running a government, even if Republicans aren’t supposed to like government.
The real shock was that Rubio played right into Christie’s hands by repeating a canned attack on President Obama four times. Christie couldn’t believe his good fortune. “There it is, there it is,” Christie declared, basking in his eureka moment, and chopping five seconds off the prefabricated Rubio sound bite. “The memorized 25-second speech. There it is, everybody.”
Of course none of the three governors is like the moderate (let alone liberal) Republican chief executives of old. Kasich came closest when he insisted that conservatism should mean that “everybody has a chance to rise regardless of who they are so they can live their God-given purpose.” Bush had by far his best debate, for once taking on Trump without backing off, and he has looked comfortable, even happy, in his final town hall meetings around the state. But over and over, Bush made clear just how conservative he had been as governor, and how conservative he’d be as president.
Nonetheless, for one night, positioning, ideology and Obama-bashing wrapped in an attractive new package were not enough for Rubio. It’s not clear what Christie did for his own candidacy, but he performed a long-term service by reminding his party that running a government is serious work and ought to be respected. That this was revelatory shows how far contemporary conservatism has strayed from the essential tasks of politics.
E.J. Dionne’s email address is [email protected] Twitter: @EJDionne. (c) 2016, Washington Post Writers Group
Cartoon by DonkeyHotey – Marco Rubio – Caricature, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=46825615
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Have to wonder if this is going to be another flash in the pan candidate… they come and go so quickly. I didnt watch the debate so I have no idea how Rubio performed…doesnt sounds good.
He reminded me of his 2013 ‘Response to the State of the Union address’.
cracking under pressure probably isnt the best quality for a President.
We’ve probably all seen the Dan Quayle comparisons, and it’s not hard to see why they’ve been made. Rubio seems ok – on the surface, but if he can’t go off the script in any convincing way he isn’t going to last very long against seasoned players.
I was thinking the same thing about Hillary as well.
On the Hillary band wagon; Bill Clinton’s charge of sexism hurled at Bernie should be summarily dismissed // as should Gloria Steinem’s mercurial comments describing young women supporting Bernie as ‘looking for ‘boys’ via politics.
Talk about throwing gas on an anti-Hillary bon-fire that young women started ….
EDIT: sexism at some of Bernie’s supporters.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Rubio is a hack. I still can not for the life of me figure out why anyone would actually think he is a top tier player. As far as I can tell it’s from the fact he is young, looks ok on Camera, and the GOP frankly doesn’t have any other options. That is it. So the media give him undue cred, because otherwise they won’t have something to write about. He has done nothing either politically or even speech wise to give the impression he’s something special, in fact quite the opposite.
Manufactured relevancy I think is the best term I can come up with. But let me make another prediction as to who wins the GOP primary. Each of the GOP candidates is an empty suit. However one has to be riding highest in the polls at any given time regardless of their actual merit, and that one will get some good press, they’ll wax poetic about what it all means, but since the top candidate gets a spotlight on them, it will become obvious in short order how vacuous they really are, so they all have a pretty short shelf life. Trump’s was far far longer than I or I think anyone expected, but as things are getting serious, he seems to be going by the wayside.
But one will rise to the top, have their 15 minutes of being taken seriously, then go by the wayside to be replaced by the next hack, who will also last about 15 minutes. The candidate who is having their 15 minutes when the music stops, THAT is the one who gets the nomination. The key factor here is that the determination will have nothing to do with their actual qualifications and everything to do with the media cycle and who’s turn it is. That is my prediction.
Cruz is the same age and he can look you in the eye and say the sky is falling- with utter conviction. (So can Hillary, but not as well.)
Ah, but you forget, dduck, the sky IS falling (and rising at the same time, but we don’t need to mention that part).
So sayeth hillary Sillery.