Iowa Third Place Finish Leads to Taking on Hillary
Buoyed by a strong third place showing in Iowa, Marco Rubio gave a stirring speech that touched on the “historic” nature of the election in November. And as a young, charismatic and mainstream candidate who had successfully positioned himself as the “sane” alternative to Trump and Cruz, Rubio took aim at whom he perceived to be his probable opponent in the fall:
“Hillary Clinton is disqualified from being the president of the United States. Because she stored classified and sensitive information on her e-mail server, because she thinks she's above the law. Hillary Clinton can never be commander in chief. Because anyone who lies to the families of people who lost their lives in service of this country can never be commander in chief of the United States.”
This speech stood out to me for a couple of reasons. First, Rubio is not calling for a hearing, or for jail or for prosecution. He is not claiming a criminal act has taken place. He is simply stating that Hillary Clinton is “disqualified” from being President due to her choices, her decisions and her conduct.
But most damaging I think is the follow-on accusation: “She thinks she is above the law.”
I think this type of attack will resonate with voters. Many people, while dismissing any notion that Clinton committed a crime, nonetheless think she used “poor judgment” in deciding to conduct ALL of her official business as Secretary of State using her own email. And while Hillary claims that her predecessors did the same thing, that is not quite true. Colin Powell kept two separate laptops on his desk: one for his personal email, and one for his official State correspondence. The fact that she used her special and unique position as an ex- First Lady to arrogate special allowances to herself regarding her correspondence will hit home for many.
Rubio also knows he cannot prosecute Hillary for any wrongdoing regarding Benghazi. That does not, however, stop him from accusing Clinton of mixing her messages about what really happened, giving the truth to her friends and family while providing another version of events to the families of the victims and the general public. Again, such an attack plays on the prevailing problem of Clinton’s perceived lack of “honesty” and “trustworthiness”.
Indeed, once the Republicans start pulling on that thread of “dishonesty” there is no telling where it will end. When solid majorities of Americans have negative view of Hillary Clinton, when the nu,bern one word used to describe her is “liar” it is easy to lob attack after attack that plays on those well-inculcated prejudices.
Bernie Under Attack Too — But in a Different Way
Rubio is also taking aim at Bernie Sanders. In the last debate, Marco Rubio was the only one to really mention Sanders in a substantive way, opining:
"Bernie Sanders is a socialist," Rubio told the audience, who laughed. "I think Bernie Sanders is a good candidate for president of Sweden."
So that’s it. All the Sweden-haters out there can now feel free to hate Bernie Sanders, because apparently he wants the US to be more like Sweden — which is exactly what Bernie says himself.