Before the New Hampshire polls close tomorrow night, Marco Rubio should do two things — first, he should clarify his “robo line,” and second, he should move on from it.
Although Chris Christie hounded Rubio on Saturday night for repeating the same line about Barack Obama several times, Rubio had the right point but the wrong delivery. Rubio needed to clarify that it’s what separates him from Obama that voters should focus on, not what makes them similar. Yes, they were both first term senators when they decided to run for office — but President Obama has been operating off of his liberal values, and that’s what has taken the country down the wrong path for the past seven years. It’s Rubio’s conservative principles that he’s campaigning on, and those are the ones that will reverse the damage Obama has done. That’s the point Rubio was trying to make — he just could have done it better, and should do so for the next day and a half.
After you’ve done that, Marco (which should only take about five minutes), move on. The policy answers that he gave Saturday were solid. On the military, on abortion, and across the board on the issues, Marco Rubio brings a clear vision to the table, and that’s what he needs to continue capitalizing on. And maybe assign someone the role of coming up with a good “Robo Rubio” nickname, to steer into the skid.
Kevin Dawson is Deputy Operations Manager for the American Principles Project.
