http://www.nationalreview.com/node/431004/print What’s Marco Missing?
By Eliana Johnson — February 8, 2016
Manchester, N.H. — 24 hours after Marco Rubio’s first real stumble on the national stage, he was back on script. A crowd of about 500 had packed into a sports facility covered in green astroturf to hear the Florida senator speak, but somehow he seemed diminished. His voice was difficult to hear, echoing into the space. He wrapped up without taking questions from the audience. These shortcomings weren’t Rubio’s fault, but they reinforced the impression that Chris Christie had dealt him a real blow in Saturday’s Republican debate by mocking his refusal to deviate from a set of canned remarks.
The view in the top echelons of the Rubio campaign has always been that debates can’t help candidates, they can only hurt. As he returned to his prepared remarks on Sunday, it was even more apparent in the wake of Saturday’s misstep that Rubio was playing to type in a way that voters may not even have been aware of before Christie pointed it out. “Now, every time Rubio does one of his ‘son of a bartender’ speeches, people are going to be like, ‘There he goes again,’” says a top Republican operative.
Rubio’s shaky performance Saturday is likely to cement the impression that he lacks an intangible quality, some part of that elusive amalgam that makes a candidate “presidential.” For months, reporters following Rubio on the campaign trail have labored to put their finger on it. Many have said he’s too sunny and too polished for the current Republican moment. Yet others have said that he simply looks too young. National Review’s Rich Lowry argued in January that Rubio has an “affect problem” — that he’s smooth and charming, sure, but he’s not angry, harsh, or biting when the moment demands it. When he’s tried to be, his attempts feel strained.
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