This is something I've been wondering about lately. Rubio is charismatic, young, conservative, and seems to have come along right when the GOP needs him. On the other hand, his resume is even shorter than Obama's was in '06ish. Rubio's also more conservative than any recent Republican president (any Republican president ever?).
Possibly more important than any of that, though, is that he's Floridan and Hispanic. Is that enough to make him the (extremely) early presumptive nominee? Or is he Paul Ryan's VP? Are either of them even involved?
I don't vote with either party, but the Republicans' actions have me scared lately, and I don't really want to see them in the White House. So Rubio's charisma and youth, so reminiscent of Obama, worry me a bit.
Hillary will be tough to beat especially if the economy is in an upswing and the wars are at an end. If Obama can tie up his 2 terms with a nice bow and hand the baton over, she'll be very difficult. What do you think of Michelle Obama's future? You think she'll pursue office? [edit] I think a Hillary/Michelle ticket would make cliffelam spontaneously combust.
She is, at the moment, maintaining she won't run. Realistically, I'm sure she will, because if she didn't the Democratic Party would be left in the cold in 2016. If Rubio ran against Hillary, she would have the easiest time in the world painting him as inexperienced -- and she'd be right.
It would be Rubio over Ryan for the nomination. Ryan is going to be a hard sell. He already has an assailable record to attack and is extreme to independents, yet he can't claim to be 'more conservative' in the primary than Rubio. Rubio is all upside, -very conservative, less of a record to attacked on his very conservative stances, more charisma, more young energy, minority bona-fides, Floridian, etc. Ryan is just comes off as kind of dickish, weird looking, and extreme based on his submitted budget. Typical out of touch rich white man Republican. Come to think of it, Republicans have been remarkably great at shooting themselves in the foot with their primary choices. Maybe Ryan will get it after all.
I'm not sure how much sense that would make. An extremely conservative candidate with another extremely conservative candidate...usually the nominee will pair up with a VP that will help them expand their base slightly and peel votes off from demographics their campaign messaging wasn't primarily targeting. Two hyper-conervatives would leave independents and moderates behind in the general election. Strategy wise it would be quite a departure...
Rubio seems like a pretty intelligent guy to me. He is a deft thinker on foreign policy. I think if he runs someday he would give the Democrats a pretty stiff fight. I thought he did well at a CFR event I listed to a while back which I found on u tube, it's also available on iTunes. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSCgDVe5-BU The talk is a bit dated now. I'm sure some of his predictions could be picked apart in the face of events that have transpired as it was a delivered well before the election. The fact that I remembered listening to it shows that he left an impression.