The recent, entertaining demise of Scott Walker has caused many to embrace Marco Rubio as the once and future king of the Republican Party, something I’ve been known to do myself. Well, not so fast, conventional wisdom. Let’s step back and take a serious look at the tea leaves.
It seems that Donald Trump, while lasting a lot longer, and a lot harder, so to speak, than anyone but he could have imagined, has peaked, and that beloved Republican tradition, sometimes known as “the freak o’ the week,” has begun to reassert itself. There’s no particular reason for Ben Carson to “surge”, other than the fact that, well, he’s pretty damn freaky and hasn’t had the top spot yet. Yet poor Ben had scarcely tasted the limelight when he was overtaken, in turn, by Trump-killer Carly Fiorina. Once all three have had their run, and have been exposed as woefully ignorant and unprepared for anything more substantive than “Fox in the Morning,” it’ll be time for the grown-ups to take over, and who better as a Hillary-killer than a handsome young Cuban who isn’t related to two former presidents, who will be able to exploit Hillary’s age, her name, and her ties to the invasion of Iraq. Sounds like a no-brainer, right?
Well, almost. I see two big problems with this scenario. The first is Jeb, who clearly isn’t likely to be a sport about this. Marco, after all, unlike anyone else in the Republican field apart from Ted Cruz, can afford to wait, for decades, if need be. He’s got a Senate seat for as long as he wants it (probably), and he’s young, young, young. Jeb, on the other hand, is not so young. It’s 2016 or nothing for Jeb. He’s got a whole lot of money, and a whole heap of connections, and, shockingly, with all his caterwauling, I don’t think he really feels that the USA would go to Hell if Hillary won.
The other problem is Marco’s age. He’s young, all right. Too damn young, if you ask me. Imagine Marco sitting across the table from, say, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and Elliott Abrams. Isn’t it all too likely for Marco to ask himself “Are these guys statues?” Marco was seven years old when Reagan was elected, and fifteen when he left office. Does he even know what “Win one for the Gipper” means? How can we have a kid like that living in the White House? The Republican Establisment consists largely of old, old men. I suspect they’d rather lose with Jeb than win with Marco. Whatever you want to say about Hillary, well, hell, she’s old too!
The Donald still lingers as a wild card in all this, of course. The official rap is that he didn’t distinguish himself in the second debate during the discussion of defense and foreign policy. It’s certainly true that he knows nothing about either subject, but it’s also true that his position on these issues–“elect me and I’ll be totally, absolutely, motherfuckingly awesome”–is precisely the same as all the “grown-ups,” even though they use fancier language. Which probably pisses him off.
