Marco Rubio drew national attention for his win in the 2010 U.S. Senate race when he drove the heavily favored Charlie Crist out of the Republican Party to run with no party affiliation and started generating buzz that he'd wind up on a Republican presidential ticket in 2012 or down the road.
That buzz grew louder this week as Rubio announced that the publication date of his new book, "An American Son," will be moved up to June 19 -- leading to increased speculation that he could wind up on the GOP ticket in the vice presidential spot.
The book was originally scheduled to be published in October, but Politico reports that Rubios memoir is now being released early to deflect sales away from a critical biography penned by Manuel Roig-Franzia, the Washington Post reporter who had an article in the fall insisting that the Florida senator misled voters on his familys history.
But the new publication date for Rubios book has also raised speculation about his chances to end up on the ticket. Hailing from Florida, which appears once again to be the largest electoral battleground come November, Rubio certainly helps balance the ticket for the two leading candidates for the Republican nomination -- Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum. Despite the Sunshine State holding an early and important primary, Rubio has stayed on the sidelines so far in the election cycle and has not endorsed any of the Republican presidential hopefuls.
Rubio also showed signs this week of raising his profile for the future. CNN reported late Monday that Rubio will be heading to South Carolina -- which traditionally holds the first Republican presidential primary after Iowa and New Hampshire have their say -- to offer the keynote speech at the state GOPs Silver Elephant Banquet on May 19.
The event, which will be held in Columbia, ranks as one of the largest Republican events in the Palmetto State. Set up by legendary Republican strategist Lee Atwater, a native son of the state, to help his candidate George H.W. Bush during the 1988 election cycle, the South Carolina GOP primary has traditionally helped establish the nominee, though this year Newt Gingrich beat Romney and Santorum there. If Rubio runs for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 or further down the road, South Carolina will be a state that he will need to focus on.
Floridas junior senators increased profile has caught the attention of the national media. Chris Cillizza over at Washington Posts The Fix offered his own version of the Sweet 16 for 2016 on Tuesday -- with two prominent Florida Republicans in the mix for their partys nomination that year. Rubio starts off as the top seed, while former Gov. Jeb Bush is the fourth seed.
The top seed seems a little high for Rubio who has been, when all is said and done, on the national stage for only two years now. Obama won the White House after only four years on the national stage -- but that's not how Republicans have traditionally operated. Republican presidential candidates usually spend years in the political trenches before running for president and most GOP presidential nominees (besides George W. Bush, but then he had a pretty familiar name) ran for president in previous election cycles.
Even in 2016, when he will have had six years in the Senate, Rubio will have logged less time in political leadership than any GOP nominee since Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was a major military commander for more than a decade. Rubio is certainly charismatic -- and so was the largest political unknown to ever win the Republican nomination: businessman and attorney Wendell Willkie, who won the GOP nod in 1940 in a major upset. But then, Willkie was the only Republican hopeful that year to call for an end to isolationism even as Hitlers legions drove through Belgium, the Netherlands and into Paris.
If Rubio ends up on a Republican ticket -- either in 2012 or down the road -- he will be the first Floridian ever on one, though two of his predecessors who represented the Sunshine State in the Senate -- Bob Graham and Connie Mack -- made the short lists.
Reach Kevin Derby at kderby@sunshinestatenews.com or at (850) 727-0859.
