Marco Rubio: Republican savior?

>>> rising republican star marco rubio is adding to his rapidly growing 2016 resume. he's been selected to give the republican response to president obama 's state of the union address next week delivering it in english and spanish. in a statement rubio says, quote, i look forward to laying out the republican case of how our ideas can help people close the gap between their dreams and the opportunities to realize them. while further fueling the 2016 feeding frenzy, this new cover from "time" magazine that reads, marco rubio , republican savior. let's bring in democratic strategist and former derry deputy campaign manager steve al man dorff and robert trayman. robert , after that bruising 2012 election season, is marco rubio the republican savior.

>> well, i don't know if i would go that far, but he's certainly a rising star in the party. here is why. he's coming to the idea thoughtful with a lot of ideas. he's young. he comes from a very good swing state , the state of florida . he obviously is a son of immigrants. he's a minority and he's relevant in people's live. people look at him and say finally someone is thoughtful. finally someone is reasonable. finally someone looks like me in the republican party and also he has ideas. not necessarily i agree with all of his ideas but i'm willing to listen. i'd say he's relevant but i'm not sure he's the savior yet.

>> when he was asked, steve , to weigh in on all this 2016 speculation, here is what he told "time."

>> i have always viewed politics the following way, if you do a good job at the job you're going, you will have opportunities to do things in the future, maybe things you never envisioned. would democrats worry about a marco rubio campaign in 2016 ?

>> not yet. i think we have to see what he does and what other republicans do over the next couple years to reposition the party, and it's not really a question of just a different face. it's a question of the substance of what they're doing. one of the reasons they lost the election was because of their positions and barack obama 's people greed with barack obama 's issues and not theirs. so if they're willing to move and change and compromise, if marco rubio is willing to help pass a comprehensive immigration bill and actually succeed at it, and a lot of republicans vote for, it then he will get a lot of credit. if he leads the way on immigration and a lot of republicans vote no, then he's not going to be a savior of the party.

>> to his point, robert , i don't know if you read e.j. deon's column in "the washington post " today, he said it's a question of whether or not the republican party is rebranding or rethinking, and he wrote, republicans are slowly realizing that the nation's priorities are not the gop's traditional priorities. what do you make of that?

>> i think it's a combination of both. i think it's rebranding but also rethinking. in order to rebrand yourself, tough rethink about your positions. in order to rethink your positions, you clearly have to rebrand them --

>> for example, you said you don't agree with all of rubio's positions. what are some of the things that would trouble you?

>> well, look, i am a gay american, and so i believe in gays and lesbians being able to marry. i believe women should be able to serve on the front lines of the military. people in my party obviously disagree with some of those positions, but my understand something if you rethink your position, you're going to rebrand it. mien my understanding is that the republican leadership is rethinking some of those positions. it's a combination of both. i keep saying the same thing but it really is a combination of both of those things.

>> how big an opportunity, steve , is this response to the state of the union for somebody like marco rubio ?

>> well, i think the history of people responding to the state of the union is very hard. people of either party who have done it, it's hard to compete with the president of the united states standing in front of the congress.

>> true, true.

>> i don't think it's that big an opportunity. again, what ultimately matters is will the republican party change some of the substance of their positions, not just change the faces that they're putting out there.

>> steve , robert , good to see you always, guys. thank you.

>> thank you.