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Tags: Iowa | New Hampshire
OPINION

Marco Rubio Gets Full McCain from Mainstream Media

Michael Shannon By Friday, 05 February 2016 04:20 PM EST Current | Bio | Archive

I normally limit my tinfoil hat wearing episodes to significant occasions like the return of "The X–Files," but when a third place finisher in Iowa is universally hailed as the real winner and future GOP nominee, it’s time to dust off the Reynolds Wrap.

Otherwise overly trusting Republicans may fall for the mainstream media’s GOP nomination coup.

Here’s a sample of the media spin following the caucus:
  • The National Journal: “Rubio Rallies The Establishment After Strong Iowa Showing.”
  • CNN: “Why Marco Rubio was the real winner in Iowa.”
  • Vanity Fair: “Forget Ted Cruz. Marco Rubio Is the Real Winner of the Iowa Caucuses.”
  • Fox News: “After Iowa, keep your eye on Marco Rubio, not Trump or Cruz.”
The unspun truth is Marco Rubio finished third in Iowa, behind winner, Ted Cruz, and complainer, Donald Trump.

The list of third place finishers in Iowa that have gone on to win the nomination contains a single name: George Bush and he was vice president!

The rest of the list is Fred Thompson, Alan Keyes, Lamar Alexander, and Howard Baker.


Third place in Iowa is a leg up toward becoming a lobbyist.

Reuters is ready for a coronation: “Marco Rubio becomes early hope for mainstream U. S. Republicans.” Vanity Fair agrees: “ . . . contrary to polls and several op-eds . . . the establishment is alive, well, and very much pro-Rubio.”

This is like being picked to be Johnny Manziel’s next girlfriend.

“Moderate,” chamber of commerce, RINOs lost big at the caucus.

When you add the anti–establishment vote (Cruz, Trump, Carson, Paul, Fiorina, Huckabee, and Santorum) the total is 70.3 percent. And if you’re still impressed with thirds in Iowa, the establishment candidates totaled less than one third.

Even the latest New Hampshire primary poll — taken after Rubio’s “victory” — has the anti–establishment vote at 54 to 35.

While the USA Today national poll has a more Iowa–like total of anti–establishment 70 to RINO 20. The New York Times contends, “the Republican race has narrowed to a three–man contest.”

What the mainstream media and the RINOs choose to ignore is the race is also a binary ideology contest and their side is losing.

If you’re looking for a winner based on evidence, and not the wishful thinking of cultural Marxists, the victor is Ted Cruz.

Prior to the caucus the knock on Cruz was he failed to play the expectation game correctly. By boasting about his turnout operation and mistakenly mentioning he was leading in the polls, Cruz was heading for a big letdown now that Donald Trump was going to win. And “anchor baby” controversy worked to Trump’s advantage.

Finally, Cruz’ principles aren’t as flexible as those of Rubio.

He refused to say he was such a strong supporter of the ethanol scam that he was prepared to pour creamed corn in his gas tank.

Trump’s surge (where have we heard that word recently?) combined with the ethanol lobby’s evil eye was predicted to be the beginning of the end for the Texan.

Then lo and behold the vote was in and Cruz beat Trump. Cruz beat his predicted poll numbers. And Cruz beat the crony capitalists. Thanks to the Daily Caller we even know that Cruz carried the county that is number one in corn production and he carried the congressional district that has more ethanol–based jobs than any other.

Talk about your winning message!

Yet somehow Rubio has momentum and Cruz has "no–mentum." 

I never thought I’d see the day when I agreed with La Opinión, but I do this week. Rubio graces a cover with the headline is Rubio the Republican Obama? The answer is yes: Rubio is the same opportunistic, inexperienced empty suit. 

The media leftists talk about his electability, but what they really like is his gullibility.

Rubio arrives in Washington as a tea party darling and his first major policy initiative betrays the people who elected him. His enthusiastic support of the Gang of Eight amnesty bill was either prompted by breathtaking naivety or a Mitch McConnell level of cynicism.

The bill is the opposite of what conservatism stands for: It undermines the rule of law, rewards lawbreakers, hurts citizen workers, burdens the taxpayer, and distorts the labor market.

And Rubio has not repudiated any of it. Instead he now promises to “secure the border” before selling out again.

A Rubio administration would be a brief interregnum for the left.

Yeah, he’ll drop a few more bombs and invite fewer alternative lifestyle couples to White House dinners, but he will have no more long-term impact on the size and intrusiveness of government than George W. did.

That’s assuming there is a Rubio administration. John McCain can tell him how long mainstream media approval lasts after the general election begins.

Michael R. Shannon is a commentator, researcher (for the League of American Voters), and an award-winning political and advertising consultant with nationwide and international experience. He is author of "Conservative Christian’s Guidebook for Living in Secular Times (Now with added humor!)." Read more of Michael Shannon's reports — Go Here Now.


 

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MichaelShannon
Rubio is the opportunistic, inexperienced empty suit. Media leftists like his gullibility. A Rubio administration would be a brief interregnum for the left. He will have no more long-term impact on the size of government than George W.
Iowa, New Hampshire
845
2016-20-05
Friday, 05 February 2016 04:20 PM
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