Rubio Hospice

Marco Rubio spoke to about 300 people in a football stadium in Hialeah.

The event had the feel of a homecoming, a popular local boy come home to loving arms.   Perhaps half the audience spoke some English but I am guessing that 75% of the audience spoke Spanish as their first language.   The event had city council people, county officials, local state representatives, local dignitaries speak or be introduced.   Nearly all the names were Hispanic.

I saw a very different Rubio than I normally see on CNN and MSNBC and FOX and the other English speaking news sources.   In the context of the English speaking press Marco Rubio has switched from his Gang of Eight position in which he attempted to create greater integration of immigrants to America.  He sounds like someone who has essentially adopted the Trump-Cruz anti immigrant position that appears to be the required position for survival in this Republican primary.   

This is a different Rubio.   This is a Rubio who was home, among friends, someone who is not trying to block immigrants and limit their "damage".   He was with his people.    I can see why his Republican opponents question his authenticity as an opponent of amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Most of the talk from the stage was in Spanish.   Rubio gave two speeches: a ten minute speech in English, then a second one, which he began, in English, with,  "and now let me talk to you in Spanish."

The three women in front of me spoke utterly no English, but I was able to communicate with my hands that I would be delighted to use their camera to take a photo of them with them in the foreground and Rubio behind them.   Once they understood me they were thrilled as they saw me compose the photos so each of them were in the shot.   As I have learned, selfies are difficult.

The subject of the speech was that he was not giving up, that it was not too late, that everything comes down to Florida, that Florida changes everything, that he can win in Florida, that he is not dropping out, that he is not dead, that he is not even dying, have faith.  Bottom line: it was about survival and hanging on.

Rubio did not talk policy beyond saying that the past 7 years have been miserable and that Obama was a disaster.  Instead, the talk was about identity: the virtue of the immigrant experience of people who came to America to work hard, to improve their own lives and especially the lives of their children.  I am one of you, he said.

It was a valediction speech, and it was televised.   I had a hard time doing an actual count of the TV cameras because a few of them were hand carried and moved around, but there were at least 33 of them on the stage.   The people manning the cameras (yes, they were all men) were dressed scruffy.   There are a few people standing around in full makeup, the people you see on camera on your TVs holding a microphone and telling us what is happening at live events.    There were a half dozen giant media trucks with satellite dishes on 40 foot booms, up high enough to give the dish line of sight to some receiver.