It worked like a charm in the last debate.
Marco Rubio knew he’d be questioned about his personal finances. When members of the Senate co-mingle campaign and personal funds, face foreclosures on second homes and are forced to liquidate their retirement funds (and pay thousands of dollars in taxes), it gets noticed — especially if they’re running for president.
Rubio did not apologize or explain. He just blamed the liberal media for parroting Democratic talking points that he would not deign to address.
It was a very good response in the context of one debate, but ultimately useless, because Rubio’s answer will not stop the media from writing and talking about these facts, and pontificating about whether Rubio’s money problems “matter.”
This is the general line: If he can’t run his own finances, how is he going to run the national economy?
I expect Jeb Bush’s independent committee to be using that line in the primaries. I expect Hillary Clinton’s independent committee to use that line in the general election if Rubio is the candidate.
But I’m not sure that one thing has anything to do with the other. Consider the case of a young Illinois politician whose credit card got bounced when he tried to rent a car at the 2000 convention in Los Angeles. Four years later, he was the keynote speaker at the convention in Boston. Four years after that, no one paid much attention to the car-rental story, and he was elected president of the United States. Whether you approve or disapprove of his management of the economy, it’s hard to tie it to his credit-card balance in 2000.
The federal budget is a political matter. My issues with Rubio have nothing to do with his checking-account balance.
I defy his critics to find anyone not from a wealthy background (in other words, who didn’t have a cushion from parents or extended family) who has never overreached, racked up too much debt and stood at an ATM watching no money come out. It’s life — especially when you’re younger. And Marco Rubio looks young, as one friend pointed out to me, because he is young.
No, the problem with Rubio isn’t his personal financial trouble; more problematic was the way he responded to being questioned about it.
You need to be big to be president of the United States. You need to be somebody who even those who are not inclined to vote for you take seriously. The late Lee Atwater, George H. W. Bush’s campaign manager, came up with the concept of a “little boat” that held all the people who Americans, regardless of politics, could imagine in the role of president. The boat is little because not many candidates make it on. “Could Bernie Sanders, Donald Trump or Ben Carson be president?” It’s not simply a question about the electoral process. Can you really imagine Donald Trump as president, forced to court favor with members of Congress to accomplish anything? And he wouldn’t be able to tell them, “You’re fired.”
In this way (unlike so many others), Jeb Bush’s family name almost certainly helps him. Hillary Clinton’s, too.
So, for now, Marco Rubio has a great story to tell. At the last debate he was the best debater on the stage. He even had me feeling a little sorry for Jeb Bush.
But sooner or later, he’s going to have to stop blaming the media. He’ll have to take responsibility for misjudgments, and answer the questions. Character counts. Maturity and judgment count. How he addresses his money problems — and not the problems themselves — as a candidate will determine whether it matters and whether he earns his place on that boat.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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