I saw Rubio this evening in Nashua, and I see Jeb! tomorrow morning in North Conway. I will report on the comparison.
The Rubio event was in a room that can handle about 200 people comfortably. There were maybe 400 people, plus a full complement of press, TV cameras on risers in the back. For comparison there were maybe 4,000 people at the Trump event, but the Rubio crowd was as enthusiastic as the Trump crowd.
We saw Rubio's extraordinary eloquence and fluency when he swatted down Jeb's--I mean Jeb!'s--charge about skipping out on his Senate duties. I saw him perform for a little over an hour and what we saw in the 3rd Republican debate is what I saw nonstop. He spoke extemporaneously, absolutely at ease in front of a crowd, saying appealing things in an appealing rapid fire way, communicating self assurance and easy command of the issues.
His response to questions from the floor--about the VA, Senate attendance, immigration, small business regulation, Obamacare--were just a polished and well spoken as in his opening narrative. What became clear to me is that by this point in the campaign there is unlikely to be any impromptu, unpracticed, unguarded answers. Each question could be answered with stump speech answers that have been tried, improved, honed.
Rubio is extraordinarily articulate. Standing next to Hillary he will appear very knowledgeable and confident.
The "oddball" questions asked in debates are attempts to get people to answer questions for the first time. It is the Freudian premise that the window to the real mind is the Freudian slip, an unguarded comment that reflects the real personality, not the constructed one created for public consumption.
The Rubio event was in a room that can handle about 200 people comfortably. There were maybe 400 people, plus a full complement of press, TV cameras on risers in the back. For comparison there were maybe 4,000 people at the Trump event, but the Rubio crowd was as enthusiastic as the Trump crowd.
We saw Rubio's extraordinary eloquence and fluency when he swatted down Jeb's--I mean Jeb!'s--charge about skipping out on his Senate duties. I saw him perform for a little over an hour and what we saw in the 3rd Republican debate is what I saw nonstop. He spoke extemporaneously, absolutely at ease in front of a crowd, saying appealing things in an appealing rapid fire way, communicating self assurance and easy command of the issues.
His response to questions from the floor--about the VA, Senate attendance, immigration, small business regulation, Obamacare--were just a polished and well spoken as in his opening narrative. What became clear to me is that by this point in the campaign there is unlikely to be any impromptu, unpracticed, unguarded answers. Each question could be answered with stump speech answers that have been tried, improved, honed.
Rubio is extraordinarily articulate. Standing next to Hillary he will appear very knowledgeable and confident.
The "oddball" questions asked in debates are attempts to get people to answer questions for the first time. It is the Freudian premise that the window to the real mind is the Freudian slip, an unguarded comment that reflects the real personality, not the constructed one created for public consumption.
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