Rubio off Romney VP short list?

>>> romney/ rubio ticket. a report this morning florida senator marco rubio you just on everybody's short list for vp hasn't been vetted yet by the romney campaign, which could be a strong indication he didn't make the cut. now, rubio 's senate office are and top political adviser had no comment to nbc news. rubio wasn't saying either on cnbc this morning, although he did seem to the criticism he doesn't have the experience to be vp.

>> i won't discuss the vice presidential process out of respect for governor romney . i get new experience every day. issues that i have not dealt with as a state legislator . however, some of these things we're dealing with isn't rocket science .

>> 64% support the president's new immigration policy . another poll shows a big jump for the president by latinos. bringing in " usa today " susan page and ken vogel. good morning to both of you.

>> good morning, chris.

>> let's start with the talk about rubio . i thought, susan , that maybe it seemed a little more likely after the president made his move on friday kind of as a way to counter it. what are you hearing about the possibility of rubio as vp, and did i hear too much when i thought maybe he was trying to explain away his lack of relative experience on cnbc this morning?

>> you know, i interviewed rubio the other day about his new book and he basically refused to engage on the kwef the vice presidency . but i am surprised i think definitely a scoop there by jonathan karl, because we assumed, rubio , a favorite of the tea party movement, can heb republicans reach out to latino voters, we thought at least on list. i'm a little surprised. let's hear what the campaign has to say about it maybe later today . i hope they come back and confirm, deny, whatever they'll do about this report.

>> kennedy's not on the list. is this a surprise?

>> absolutely would be a surprise. i think all of us assumed looking at his relative strengths that he's from florida , he could help whip his folk, he has a bit of foreign policy experience, where mitt romney is lacking, would make him an obvious selection or at least put him on the short list. i don't think we can necessarily rule at the possibility that he may still be 0en that short list and there may be early stages of vetting going on without his knowledge. in other words, doing the baggrounding before they go to him and request documents detailing his finances and personal history and the like. so i wouldn't be surprised to see this, the veep sticks circle bag around and include him again and a lot more speculation until mitt romney actually choosing a nominee here.

>> and producer adrian -- thank you, adrian. if rubio doesn't end up on the romney ticket, can he help them win still or do you think it's still a possibility?

>> i mean, i think he can definitely help them. it's florida , florida , florida . especially with cuban-american voters in florida . maybe can't help with other latino voting blocks in florida , an election much closer than people thought, could definitely help romney .

>> against a lot of social media buzz if not picked let alone just be on the short list. i read something on facebook . he's the big pick on facebook ?

>> it's not exciting to like a u.s. senator on facebook . he has over 273,000 fans. the best engagement out of the other nominees on the list. he is a social media domino.

>> and susan mentioned the book. actually competing book, one by him and one by brook porter. what don't americans know about marco rubio .

>> his grandfather an undocumented immigrant for a time. technically it's true. he returned to cuba, ran out of money and went back to the united states . an immigration judge said you're not a refugee. you cannot get your immigrant visa . undocumented at that time.

>> and secondly?

>> secondly, actually, in april 2006 , florida lawmakers were being criticized for not putting foster charon with parents and said what about the idea of expanding it to include gay couples? he said these are some of the most disadvantaged children in the state and shouldn't be part of a social experiment.

>> susan , talking about the book a minute ago. we know what a book helped to do for a young unknown senator, relatively unknown, named barack obama . will this book do the same for marco rubio ?

>> a great comparison. i don't think we've seen a figure in american politics rise as fast as marco rubio since barack obama . he's 41. he doesn't have to run for vice president. we to run for president in 16 years and only be 57. someone who will be around a long time. he's someone with a lot of promise and that's why people are paying so much attention to him.

>> and you know, let's say that if rubio is-of-does not become the vice presidential nominee and there are a lot of other people who you could make an argument for. does mitt romney have to do something to shore up the latino vote? at least, suggested by george wilford, he would need to get the same 31% latino vote john mccain got to in order at least hope to win in november?

>> i think in key states he's going to have to do better than that. places like florida , colorado, nevada, where we see the contestant, hispanic vote.

>> how does he do it?

>> certainly picking marco rubio would be one way. short of that, he needs to ramp up over the summer, come up with a better answer when asked whether schae ports the president's executive order . so far we haven't seen him. we've seen him go at the process of it suggesting that an executive order is temporary. he would like to do something more permanent but hasn't actually said whether he would repeal the executive order or continue it. that's a problem and i also think that just -- hispanics have been a reliable, democratic voting block when they haven't been is when there has been a realconcerted effort to reach out on the karl rove positions on it. in the last few years republicans largely turned away from that position. it's going to be tough for mitt romney .

>> are you surprised he doesn't have a answer? it happened friday. asked five times by bob schieffer on sunday and then asked on fox again and still didn't have a real answer. are you surprised that the campaign hasn't formulated something a little clearer at this point given the stakes?

>> you know, i think ken make as great point, because we haven't heard from mitt romney on whether he'll, would leave this policy in place as president. that might go a long way to reaching out to latino voters but put him at odds with core republicans who have extremely strong feelings about immigrants who are here illegally, whether they're children, young people or not. so it may be one of those situations where he is trying to pivot from the primary process to the general election and figure how to do that without reallyaple alienating two important blocks.