Rubio continues to maintain his 11 point lead in the polls over Charlie Crist. Republicans are so confident that he will win that they have pulled $4 million intended for campaigning in Florida and moved it elsewhere. The three senators had yet another debate Sunday. The debate was characterized as Meek and Crist ganging up on Rubio. However, Rubio maintained and defended his stances on issues and looked like the confident winner.
If Rubio manages to win the election on November 2nd, it brings up an interesting question for Republicans: Where does he go from here? Rubio is a young (and he looks it), up-and-coming Tea Party-backed star for the Republican Party. Oh, and one other little thing, he's Hispanic. In a party that lacks any significant Hispanic figures, he could be a key piece down the road. There have been rumblings of him running for president one day, but first he actually has to win over the Hispanic voters. He is largely supported by Cuban-American voters who are historically conservative. However his support of the Arizona immigration law has risen eyebrows of Mexican-Americans and Puerto Ricans who are usually against the law and typically vote Democratic. Rubio is the son of legal Cuban immigrants and believes the U.S. must be more strict on illegal immigration.
Rubio is quoted as saying, “I am the only candidate who understands Hispanics. People who criticize me do not understand that for this community, economic progress is the top issue, and what any parent wants for their children is for them to do better than they did."
As with any Tea Party backed candidate, he is hearing the calls of "far-right" and "ultraconservative". If the Republican Party sees him as a plausible future presidential candidate, Rubio must shake these labels so he can appeal to independent, more moderate voters.
Along those lines, he made this statement: "My ideas are the same as those of most people in this country, who see that the economy is not growing, who are having to spend more money than they have, and they want the United States to be the most powerful country in the world because that way, the world is a safer place."
Marco Rubio's Star Rises
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