This blog was originally published on Forbes as Marco Rubio, The Presenter, Version 4.0 on Friday, March 11, 2016.
Thirty-four minutes into the 12th Republican debate last night, Donald Trump said, “So far, I cannot believe how civil it’s been up here!”
And it was. The previous eleven were filled with personal attacks among and between the candidates that escalated from sharp contention to infantile insults. Most of those exchanges were prompted by Mr. Trump’s belligerent style to which the other candidates responded in intensifying kind.
Marco Rubio, who was consistently one of the main combatants in those exchanges, didn’t even mention Mr. Trump by name until nearly the mid-point of last night’s two-hour debate.
Even when he did tangle with Mr. Trump, he did so civilly and indirectly. In an exchange about radical Islam, after Mr. Trump said that he was not concerned with being politically correct, Mr. Rubio responded, “I’m not interested in being politically correct, I’m interested in being correct.” In an exchange about diplomatic relations with Cuba, after Mr. Trump expressed concern about Cuba being able to sue the United States for reparations, Mr. Rubio said, “If they sue us in a court in Miami, they’re going to lose.” The line produced loud cheers from the Miami studio audience.
Mr. Rubio’s performance style was actually a repeat of his performance in the second debate last September which CNN described:
Rubio proved Wednesday night why so many GOP elites have long considered him a top contender for the Republican nomination: He can weave his strong handle of policy with a compelling personal narrative…Rubio took on Trump differently than Fiorina or Bush, dispatching the front-runner without attacking him directly, instead steering the debate toward his strengths.
Unfortunately, the two versions that Marco Rubio presented between 1.0 and 4.0 were drastically—and devastatingly—different.
Version 2.0 took place early last month in a debate in New Hampshire where Mr. Rubio repeated the phrase, “Let’s dispel with this fiction that Barack Obama doesn’t know what he’s doing. He knows exactly what he’s doing,” four times. The fourth time prompted his opponent Chris Christie to exclaim, “There it is! … The memorized 25-second speech.”
The exchange generated a million tweets and a geyser of political cartoons that characterized Mr. Rubio as “Marco the Robot.”
Version 3.0 took place late last month at a rally in Dallas when Mr. Rubio decided to attack Mr. Trump with schoolyard taunts that mocked his “small hands” which he concluded, “And you know what they say about guys with small hands.”
That descent into the mud had an immediate effect: Mr. Rubio did not win one state on Super Tuesday.
The defeats made Mr. Rubio realize the error of his ways. In a town hall on MSNBC on Wednesday night he admitted, “In terms of things that have to do with personal stuff, yeah, at the end of the day it’s not something I’m entirely proud of. My kids were embarrassed by it, and if I had to do it again I wouldn’t.”
As politicians and political junkies have known—ever since the lessons learned from the iconic first presidential debate between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon—presentation counts.
By all counts—delegates, votes, and polls—the Republican primary election next Tuesday in Florida, Mr. Rubio’s home state, will be a do-or-die event for his campaign.
Which version of Marco Rubio will Florida voters take into the booth when they pull the lever?
This blog was originally published on Forbes as Marco Rubio, The Presenter, Version 4.0 on Friday, March 11, 2016.