We've got two savvy heavyweights who are going to duke it out in the finals, and neither of them is named Chris Christie (more on him later). Marco Rubio is in Israel right now, and looking more presidential than Barack Obama has on his best day:
Marco Rubio, In Israel, Is Meeting Netanyahu And Becoming Rather Popular
According to a source with knowledge of the schedule, Rubio, who was in Jordan on Tuesday to meet with King Abdullah, met with Netanyahu Wednesday afternoon, a meeting followed by a small private dinner held in his honor that included “one senior minister from the Likud party.”
Rubio’s visit, while probably made in the spirit of it’s-never-too-early-to-start-campaigning, has nonetheless made him extremely popular among the Israeli press and politicians. His declaration on Wednesday that Jerusalem is Israel’s capital, a point that is hotly contested by the Palestinians, coupled with positive reviews of his visit in the Israeli media, have helped bolster his image.
Jen Rubin:
His Thursday press conference from Jerusalem was as solid an appearance (fluid, disciplined, informed) as any senator in recent memory and certainly more coherent than what we hear from the administration.
Solid? You betcha. But in the other corner, we've got Rand Paul, who went to Israel last month (with equal praise for his performance) and is currently showing how serious he is about domestic spending by putting his money where his mouth is. NPR(!):
For the second year in a row, Sen. Rand Paul, a Republican of Kentucky, is returning a large part of his office's operating budget to the Treasury.
According to a press release, Paul presented taxpayers in Louisville with an "oversized" check for $600,000.
"I ran to stop the reckless spending, and I pledged to the people of Kentucky that I would work to keep their hard-earned money out of the hands of Washington bureaucrats whose irresponsible spending has threatened our country's economic health," Paul said.
As we reported at the time, Paul wrote out a check for $500,000 last year. That means that during the two years that Paul has been in the Senate, he has returned $1.1 million.
The $600,000 represents 20 percent of the senator's operating budget.
Quite a comparison to President Chicken-Without-A-Head, who is currently flying around the nation on Air Force One (what's that costing us? Hello? MSM? ) warning us that doom is at hand if the policies he put forward (Obamacare? No, the sequester!) are faithfully executed. Attempting to save money, we are being told, is the root of all evil.
If by 2016 America is not ready and willing for a bit more gravitas from their leadership, then the end will really be upon us. But I don't think - I don't want to think - that is the case.
But we've nominated the most centrist Republican running in the past two general election cycles, and they've both lost handily. Given a choice between a Democrat and a Democrat lite, folks will take the real deal every time. Shoot, dollars to donuts (no pun intended) says Hillary would best Christie in his home state, proving that more and more, liberals want Republicans to govern their affairs close to home, but prefer to put a Democrat in the White House for symbolic purposes.
Stay home in Jersey, Chris, and kick ass in the 2013 election. Let Rubio and Rand duke it out to be the national standard bearer in 2016., and let the loser join the winner on the ticket.
Then bring on the Clintons....
No comments:
Post a Comment