The Iowa caucus was very kind to Florida Senator Marco Rubio. He came in a very competitive third and was not far behind Donald Trump, who finished second after proclaiming for months that he would win Iowa outright. Instead, Ted Cruz got that honor.
After the results were in last night, Rubio stood before a roomful of supporters and gave a nice speech. Here’s a video of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9uzeFj2FkyU
What always bothers me most about listening to Marco Rubio is that he sounds so scripted, as if he’s nothing but a robot repeating lines that have been programmed into him by his controllers. Little did I know just how accurate that analogy would prove to be.
Consider this line from Rubio’s Iowa speech last evening:
“So this is the moment they said would never happen. For months, for months they told us we had no chance. For months they told us because we offer too much optimism in a time of anger, we had no chance. For months they told us because we didn’t have the right endorsements or the right political connections, we had no chance. They told me that we have no chance because my hair wasn’t gray enough and my boots were too high.”
Not bad. Not bad at all. But then take a look at this speech from President Obama, made in 2008, shortly after he won the Iowa caucus:
“They said this day would never come. They said our sights were set too high. They said this country was too divided, too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose. But on this January night, at this defining moment in history, you have done what the cynics said we couldn’t do.”
The man who wrote those lines for President Obama eight years ago fired a shot across the bow of the USS Rubio with this tweet:
He could've at least thanked Obama for the opening line https://t.co/meP627U6pv
— Jon Favreau (@jonfavs) February 2, 2016
Rubio may love to take cheap shots at President Obama, but then he turns around and lifts part of one of his most notable speeches. Imitation, they say, is the sincerest form of flattery. But if the GOP faithful find out that Rubio is studying Obama for applause lines and he does it again, he can kiss his chances of getting the nomination goodbye.
Time for Marco to head back into the lab for some new programming.
Featured Image by Flickr available under a Creative Commons license.
