[ilgipper]

I like both. People here now want to tear Rubio down when he was the biggest Tea Party win in the nation just two years ago. His candidacy was DeMint and the conservatives vs the Senate ‘doing business as usual crowd’ who funded Charlie Crist in the primary.

Now, he’s suddenly terrible even though he’s been a good vote for us on nearly every issue the past two years. I have first hand knowledge of his staff in DC standing up for the right things during lobbying meetings. He’s the real deal, and he’s a tremendous voice for conservatism.

Rand Paul may be the closest person to me ideologically that I have ever seen in the Senate. He is courageous and standing for the right things most of the time.

I like both, and look forward to hearing both. If Rubio morphs into a DC politician, he will not be the nominee. There will be good conservative governors running in 2016 that will easily beat a first term Senator if he does not keep his independence from the Boehner-McConnell crowd. His position on immigration is not unreasonable if he does not cowtow to the leftist agenda and give in to a bad deal for the sake of ‘getting things done.’ I’ve said before, that issue will make or break him in presidential politics.

[Bryan]

Excellent post. There are way too many people here who want to tear down Rubio when he was the Tea Party candidate against the RINO Establishment’s Charlie Crist just two years ago. How quickly they forget.

I think the problem is that that RINO Establishment finally wised up and endorsed Rubio. To a certain strain of Freeper, that’s the kiss of political death.

I suppose if the RINO Establishment endorsed motherhood, apple pie and baseball, certain Freepers would start hating those things too.

[Ohioan]

I think you are wise to see the strengths of each man. We certainly need both in the desperate fight to preserve American principles & interests.

That said, I certainly deplore Senator Rubio's stand on amnesty--his letting his family ethnic identification interfere with his support for traditional American culture & heritage; his support for the America that allowed his family to come here and thrive. In this attitude, I have suggested how to handle Rubio's apparent defection on this issue: See Whither American Conservatism?

We should not run off those who are with us on most issues; yet neither should we cave on the basic need to preserve American culture & heritage.

William Flax