My must read of the day is "Why Marco Rubio Should Be the GOP's Presidential Front-Runner," by Josh Kraushaar, in National Journal:
The leading contender for the GOP's presidential nomination is polling at a measly 3 percent in two new national surveys testing Republican primary candidates. He wasn't even included in Bloomberg's November poll of likely New Hampshire primary voters. He's been overshadowed by the media's obsession with brand-name candidates, like Mitt Romney and Jeb Bush, even though his profile is more compelling than either.
But Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida is as well-positioned as any Republican to emerge from the crowded scrum of potential candidates—and his strengths are significant enough that many are forgetting what made him a top Republican prospect in the first place.
Pieces on 2016 often have an uncanny ability to annoy readers simply by their existence. We think it's too early to be discussing a presidential election, and many of the articles seem repetitive. This is not one of those pieces, and if you only read one thing on 2016 until we make it to the New Year—it should be Kraushaar's article.
Rubio is one of the people in the speculative 2016 field that I don't think receives nearly enough attention.
For Rubio, it might not be a terrible thing. We are far away from the election and peaking a little later could be great—but he should be considered a much stronger contender than most pundits and analysts admit.
Some will argue he isn't a frontrunner among Republicans and won't be because of his previous support for comprehensive immigration reform. Others will say there are some red flags in his background—remember the credit card thing?
All of that, I would say, is fair to note, but Rubio is really the only candidate that has proven he can be embraced by the Tea Party and the Establishment. That's no small feat.
Not to mention his focus on policy—both foreign and domestic—adds the right amount of substance to the ideal image of a young, Hispanic man whose family immigrated to America for a chance at a better life.
Kraushaar outlines some compelling points in favor of the candidate Marco Rubio, and the whole article is worth a read.
On paper, Rubio looks like a well-rounded candidate—at the very least, he's not one that should be thought of as an outlier.