Saturday Night Swoon: Rubio address

Via Hot Air:

Love. Him. I pray he and others are able to hold the GOP’s feet to the fire and make something of this conservative resurgance rather than squandering it a la Gingrich.

Ed Morrissey’s explanation of why the Democrats feared a Rubio win is spot-on:

If you want to see why Democrats feared Marco Rubio so much that they tried to stick a knife in the back of their own candidate to stop him, this video demonstrates just how powerful a figure he will become with a national platform on which to speak. The GOP may not have had a speaker like Rubio since Ronald Reagan, excelling at both the message and the mechanics of oratory — and even Reagan didn’t have this kind of compelling backstory. Rubio reminded listeners of his origins from a people exiled from their birthplace because of their desire for freedom, and the dream of a better life that is a “sacred duty” for this generation to deliver to the next, not to mortgage from the next generation for our own exploitation.

Is it too soon to hope for a Christie/Rubio ticket in ’12?  Heck, no one will be able to throw the “the VP candidate has no experience” canard given that he’ll have had the same experience (actually, plus quite a bit from his statehouse days) that Barry O had going in to the top of the ticket.  Just sayin’.  A girl can wish, right?

“This is our morning in America”

From my deck this morning: A glorious one

SarahPAC via Hot Air:

Question: how will liberals continue to abuse the “tea-partiers are racist” meme with Congressmen-elect Allen West and Tim Scott sworn in? It’s worth noting that the first two Indian-American governors are both Republican, and the first Hispanic female governor is a Republican.  Among myriad others.  (Um, RUBIO?) 

Just sayin’. 

Speaking of Rubio, did you hear his victory speech? 

We make a grave mistake if we believe that tonight these results are somehow an embrace of the Republican Party.  What they are is a second chance, a second chance for Republicans to be what they said they were going to be not so long ago. (cheers) You see, I learned early on in this campaign — in fact, it’s what propelled me to enter it — that what this race was about, was about the great future that lies ahead for our country, a future that Americans know is there for the taking.

I know America’s great, not because I read about it in a book, but because I’ve seen it with my eyes.  I’ve been raised in a community of exiles, of people who lost their country, of people who know what it’s like to live somewhere else.  By the way, a community that I am proud to be a part of.  A community — (cheers and applause)  A community of men and women that were once my age, and when they were they had dreams like we have now, and yet they lost all those things through an accident of history.  No matter where I go or what title I may achieve, I will always be the son of exiles.

No wonder he scares the bejeezus out of liberals, no?

Don’t fall prey to liberal traps.

UPDATE: linked by Pundette.  Thanks!

Laundry

Power of the people: conservatives get smart and send candidates money, circumventing the Scozzovafa RNC which fell short of its fundraising goals last month.  

Oremus:  will the Obami force  entice Kendrick Meek out of the Florida Senate race, thereby throwing (D) support behind Orangina Charlie Crist and throwing a wrench in Marco Rubio’s win.  Ace says no.

Calling Food Police 911: Nanny state New York wants to ban the purchase of sugary drinks with food stamps.   Allahpundit says:

Alternate headline: “Poor people to be deprived of one of few remaining simple pleasures.”

Heh.  Whiny New York post grads who buy organic salmon at Whole Foods won’t be able to fetch organic cane-sugar sweetened nouveau soft drinks, either, so I guess we’ll call it even.

Government “underestimates” job losses by 902,000 last year.  File under: had this happened under GW, the sky would have fallen.  But whoopsie! say the Obami: we forgot to subtract another million jobs we destroyed!  Speaking of jobs, there are none to be had.

More “common sense porn” from Chris Christie via Cubachi: we don’t have the money, so it won’t be built.  Hooah!

Castro on the Cuban model: Eh, not so much (SHHH, don’t tell Obama!)

Dude.  From Jeffery Goldberg:

I asked him if he believed the Cuban model was still something worth exporting.

“The Cuban model doesn’t even work for us anymore,” he said.

This struck me as the mother of all Emily Litella moments. Did the leader of the Revolution just say, in essence, “Never mind”?

I asked Julia to interpret this stunning statement for me. She said, “He wasn’t rejecting the ideas of the Revolution. I took it to be an acknowledgment that under ‘the Cuban model’ the state has much too big a role in the economic life of the country.”

Ya think?

In case you need a refresher, the AP handily summarizes the extent of “the state” in Cuba:

The state controls well over 90 percent of the economy, paying workers salaries of about $20 a month in return for free health care and education, and nearly free transportation and housing. At least a portion of every citizen’s food needs are sold to them through ration books at heavily subsidized prices.

In other words: an Obama wet dream.

Trouble in paradise:

President Raul Castro and others have instituted a series of limited economic reforms, and have warned Cubans that they need to start working harder and expecting less from the government.

Americans would do well with the same message, eh?

Allahpundit posits the theory that maybe this is ol’ Fidel’s way of reaching out and hinting that a few well-placed American dollars wouldn’t be a bad idea, i.e. loosening the embargo, and wonders if Rubio could advance the idea further.  Something to consider, no?

UPDATE:

The comment thread at Hot Air is too good to pass up.  Selected gems:

Reagan Smiles down from the clouds.

Hollywood collectively craps its pants.

And millions of unwashed asses in Che t-shirts are too stoned to notice.

♥ Rubio

Flying

What could be more fun than sitting on a plane for three hours with a suddenly-sick toddler on your lap?

Sitting next to a DNC staffer. 

Her calm discussing Rubio’s polling numbers, the rise of the Tea Parties, and the dismal polling for the Obami in the wake of the passage of Obamacare impressed me.  She was fully convinced (deulsional?) that Democrats would be able to hold the fort in the House and Senate in the midterms because she thought the Republicans were “so divided” that we’d tear ourselves apart from the inside out. 

Sounds more like the Blue Dogs.

She spoke of the DNC’s “better message” (I guess that means “Socialism: it’s good for what ails you!”) and sang the praises of Dean’s 50-state strategy that dramatically revitalized the party and facilitated Obama’s election.

And I don’t claim to have my finger on the pulse of the American public any better than the next mom, but I sure as heck think I have a better idea of what average people not infatuated with Obama think.

I think they’re ready to vote.

I can’t wait for November.  And it looks like there are more out there like me than her.  Via The Weekly Standard, How Bad Could 2010 Really Get For Democrats?

So how bad could 2010 get for the Democrats? Let me say upfront that I tend to agree with analysts who argue that if we move into a “V”-shaped recovery and President Obama’s job approval improves, Democratic losses could be limited to twenty or twenty-five seats.

That said, I think those who suggest that the House is barely in play, or that we are a long way from a 1994-style scenario are missing the mark. A 1994-style scenario is probably the most likely outcome at this point. Moreover, it is well within the realm of possibility – not merely a far-fetched scenario – that Democratic losses could climb into the 80 or 90-seat range. The Democrats are sailing into a perfect storm of factors influencing a midterm election, and if the situation declines for them in the ensuing months, I wouldn’t be shocked to see Democratic losses eclipse 100 seats

Consider that Democrats typically lead in the generic ballot, even if they do not gain control of Congress. In 2004, for example, Democrats led Republicans in 63 out of 72 generic ballot tests taken that year. Yet Republicans picked up a handful of seats in 2004 and won the popular vote by three points.

This year, five different polling companies have put Republicans in the lead for the generic ballot in the last two weeks alone – one reason why Michael Barone calls this the worst polling environment for Democrats “during my 50 years of following politics closely.” The RCP Average has Republicans leading Democrats by 2.8 points on the generic ballot test. That should equate roughly to a 225-seat Republican majority (Republicans won the national vote by 5 points in 1994), which would almost represent a 50-seat pickup.

But many of these polls survey registered voters. Polling among likely voters, such as Rasmussen Reports, shows Republicans up by about 8-10 points, which would probably represent a seventy-seat pickup.

Read the rest.  More on the DNC staffer to come once pjToddler and I arrive home safely.

Typo o’ the day

Try not to giggle. Ben Smith of Politico regarding Rep. Kendrick Meek (Democrat Socialist) in Florida’s Senate race:

Meek is often seen as a relatively week nominee and hasn’t gotten much attention amid the hard fought Republican primary.

The article from which the spellcheck-won’t-always-save-you-oopsie is taken is, however, a worthy read and rather illuminating regarding the whispers of a Rubio for President run.  Unlike my Petraeus fears, Rubio has a record.  A solid one.  And our Dear Leader eliminated the use of relative youth or inexperience as arguments against a Rubio run.