She Party
by Samantha Stone
Go ahead, say it! Marco Rubio is hot!
Marco Rubio has said that he’s the candidate who can bring his party together. He said it at the Iowa Fox News debate, where a moderator pressed him to elaborate, and he deflected the question. He said it again on the day after his better-than-expected finish in the Iowa caucus. This time, he made it a little more clear, but still didn’t spell it out.
It’s a statement packed with meaning. Rubio believes, but doesn’t say, that he’ll be appealing to Hispanic voters. The folks with the money think so too. They hear the rest of the message, which has been obvious from the beginning. Rubio can deliver Spanish-speaking voters, and others who identify with his immigrant roots and his up-the-ladder story.
But wait, there’s more. Rubio is a three-fer. He’s fluent in Spanish – the real deal as opposed to the tortured Rosetta Stone version. He’s young. And he’s damn cute. Oops. Make that “damn telegenic.” It’s not hard to imagine him in a tuxedo with a rose bud in the lapel and a martini glass in hand. This image is compelling to women – not all women – but it could be deeply and unconsciously compelling even to women who think hard about issues.
Republicans under perform with women. Rubio can flip that switch, and turn on the female vote, pardon the expression. If he said it aloud, he would sound a hundred times more egotistical than Donald Trump, and a thousand times crazier than Bernie Sanders. But it’s true, and he knows it. So do the political consultants, and so do the guys who write the checks.
All of these attributes are two-edged swords. Rubio leads with the story of his immigrant parents seeking the American Dream for their kids. I heard it in person, at one of his early appearances in Las Vegas. It was lump-in-the-throat moving.
His strategy, which is to symbolize immigrant success and assimilation, is also his Achilles Heel. Nobody is going to win future elections without Hispanics. It’s simply true, but for some voters, Rubio’s Hispanic cred doesn’t close the deal, and for a few, a turn-off.
Rubio has alluded more specifically to his youth as an advantage, invoking a forward-looking spirit as opposed to a backward-looking (Clintonian) one. Youth can be a liability, especially viewed in the context of 2008, when a youthful one-term senator from Illinois made it to the White House on a promise of hope and change.
But recall the energetic effect of charming baby boomer Bill Clinton in the crowded 1991 Democratic primary field, and ultimately against George H. W. Bush, who was pushing 70 when the general election arrived in 1992. Clinton’s relative youth was not decisive, but the boomers’ moment had arrived. He was the first of his generation to enter the Oval Office, and much was made of it. Recall also that young voters were a big part of Barack Obama’s big tent, and that they just now carried the Sanders campaign to improbable success in Iowa.
Back to the women. Without saying it, Rubio is telling GOP primary voters that he’s the only candidate who can compete with Hillary’s elect-me-because I’m a woman strategy. It’s a claim that can’t be made aloud, because it would invite endless mockery. Imagine what Saturday Night Live would do with such a statement. But unless you’re blind, it’s obvious.
