World events have swept immigration off the legislative table.
Mitt Romney’s donors are hinting they’re still with him.
And the home state press corps is calling his past week a “public relations coup.”
Is this the moment when Marco Rubio began to get his groove back?
It’s indisputable the freshman Florida senator has had a rough and tumble summer — taking heat from the right on his immigration efforts, falling in early state presidential primary polling — (Once the front-runner, he’s now dropped to third in our CHASE rankings) — and fanning whispers among Republicans that he’s not seasoned enough for big league politics.
But The Miami Herald’s Marc Caputo writes Wednesday that Rubio is regaining his footing due to the mostly positive mainstream press he’s gained over the past week.
The latest example: A sunny and mostly fluffy morning spot on CBS This Morning:
Pictures of him in the classroom and on the sidelines of a Miami Dolphins game with a parting shot a Hillary Clinton.
It’s no wonder CBS titled its piece “Rubio Reset.”
“Whatever Rubio might have lost on Breitbart or in Human Events, he has made up for umpteen-fold on CBS, PARADE and (in between) on CNN,” writes Caputo. ”If folks thinks he’s not going to be formidable in 2016, the past few days of fawning coverage should help put the lie to that.”
But Caputo also notes that Rubio wasn’t challenged on one claim he made in the piece: That he’s been consistent on the immigration issue. The record shows he’s changed his position considerably through time as a state lawmaker to Senate candidate to U.S. Senator.
But for now, that’s just a throwaway detail in the midst of a larger flood of positive press as Rubio returns to a safer spot: a critic of President Obama and a crusader for the conservative side of the aisle.
“Indeed, as immigration fades as an issue, the conservative criticism appears to be as well. And so has critical coverage,” Caputo asserts. ”Rubio doesn’t just command attention from the northeast media elite, he can command his own set of facts that aren’t quite true and that aren’t really questioned.”
Follow Dave’s blog at TheRun2016.com
