Rubio Fakes a Run From Tea Party to Center
Lizards who have been following the campaign are well aware that Rubio is the creationist candidate, hand hewn by the theocrats he’s the guy the Tea Party is most in tune with on social issues. The Tea Party is where the SoCons are, and that’s why “less government” always seems to manifest in actions that are anti-immigrant, anti-gay, anti-abortion, and pro-secessionist / anti-fed. Rubio’s stance for the 14th won’t foul him with the tea partiers, because in FL they have no place left to vote besides him.
Rubio seems to be having a tough time striking the right balance. Some of the stances that made him popular with the Tea Partiers—his support for a flat tax, his questioning of whether climate change is man-made—are out of sync with mainstream Floridians. And a couple of unforeseen events have made things worse. In the wake of the BP oil spill, his steadfast support of offshore drilling became deeply problematic. And the Arizona immigration law elicited a confusing and contradictory string of pronouncements from him. As PolitiFact laid out in May, Rubio first said the measure would create a “police state.” A little more than a week later, he said he would have voted for the measure, due to some tinkering by Arizona lawmakers (even though legal analysts considered the changes insubstantial). And now, we read in the Times that he doesn’t think other states should go the same route. Follow all that?
There are certainly more contortions to come.