Blog Credo

The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.

H.L. Mencken

Sunday, February 7, 2016

The Rubot Blows A Circuit

So, Marco, how was your night?  The worst campaign gaffes are those that reinforce your negatives.  If you screw up in a way that hits on your positives, it's unlikely to hurt you nearly as much as one that drives home the thing that voters worry most about you.  Clinton's speaking fees are probably more politically damaging in this regard with Democrats.  The email stuff, Benghazi...I don't think they have a huge impact on her, since they are so clearly smears.  But the large fees she got talking to Wall Street is going to be a problem for her.

What Rubio did last night, though, could be really damaging.  He has three essential weaknesses: He's young, he was a squish on immigration and he seems overly programmed.  He reinforced the first and third weakness in a huge way last night in his exchanges with Chris Christie.  And the errors were entirely self-inflicted.  Even after Christie nailed him on the programmed speech and the youth, Rubio kept stepping on his own dick.  Just as his greatest asset is his youth, his greatest liability is that he's just not experienced enough.

Last night made that point really clearly.

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