Editorial:
This past week the Republican Presidential candidate Mitt Romney went out on the campaign trail along with Florida Senator Marco Rubio in what could be described as a vice presidential trial run. Rubio received a warm welcome among the folks at this town hall meeting in Aston, PA. Rubio, of Cuban descent, was their number one choice as VP.
Sen. Rubio took another step along the VP trail Wednesday with a foreign policy speech at the Brookings Institution. At another event, he proposed a compromise version of the controversial DREAM Act for illegal immigrants, the biggest difference between his version and that of Sen. Orrin Hatch, his will not offer citizenship to the students, leaving them in a sort of limbo.
Rubio has been a Senator for only 15 months now, which gives him little national and international experience. He had served in the Florida State Senate for nine years, but he does bring three things to the Romney campaign that put him on the short list. He is a darling of the Florida Tea Party which Romney needs to court. Rubio brings youth and enthusiasm. But most importantly Rubio, who is Hispanic, generates a lot of Hispanic interest.
Would the addition of Rubio be enough to swing the Hispanic vote, or least the 35-40% they would need to win an election? That is the question the Romney and the Republican Party will have to answer.
For most Hispanics though, the Republican Party is still the anti-Hispanic party, which is dominated with politicians like Arizona’s Gov. Jan Brewer, the likes of Rodger Hedgecock and Rush Limbaugh, the Tea Party, and the minutemen. There is an old saying that putting makeup on a pig doesn’t make the pig pretty. Putting a Hispanic on the Presidential ticket doesn’t change the Republican Party.
But wouldn’t it be ironic that the Republican Party which is considered anti-Hispanic would be the first Party to put a Hispanic in such a prominent position, propelling Rubio from relative obscurity to national prominence? This would be something that the Democratic Party, the Party that is supposed to be the Party of Hispanics, has failed to do, to promoting a Hispanic in such a significant manner.
It has often been discussed that the Democratic Party has taken the Hispanic vote for granted! If the Republicans continue down this road of reaching out to Hispanics, and if they temper the anti-Hispanic sentiment, the Hispanic voter could begin looking at voting for a Republican Hispanic vice presidential candidate. It will only take 35% of the Hispanic vote to swing a victory over to the Republican side.
One last note: it has been suggested that Rubio is not your typical attack dog VP candidate and that all of this grooming and elevating of Rubio to national prominence is with one eye to the 2016 Presidential race, when Rubio could run for President!