What to expect in Rubio’s Republican response

>> bobby jindal failed miserably as the official republican responder to the first respond to to the presidential address. marco rubio will be the next republican to do the response next week.

>> the president has developed a strategy.

>> that includes gun, immigration and the looming budget war.

>> washington has to deal with its spending problem. sfwlt republican party just isn't there.

>> there are things the republican party can do.

>> trying to put some new paint on the brand.

>> they're going for a full makeover.

>> hi, i'm marco rubio .

>> marco rubio will be delivering the republican response.

>> makes sense.

>> we have to identify our principles.

>> the response to the state of the union .

>> that's hard work.

>> bobby jindal did it.

>> good evening and happy mardi gras .

>> he's still recovering.

>> health care , taxes, the economy.

>> that takes time to explain to people.

>> the republican party just isn't there.

>> washington has to deal with its spending problem.

>> that may take more than one election cycle.

>> i've had enough of it. it's time to act.

>> get used to this new word.

>> the sequester.

>> the sequester.

>> the sequester.

>> i don't like the sequester.

>> something so terrible.

>> dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria !

>> slow down.

>> we've got immigration, gun control , electoral changes.

>> it's time for them to exert a little leadership.

>> we have to identify our principles. that takes time to explain to people.

>> i've had enough of it. it's time to act.

>>> john boehner announced today that marco rubio will deliver the republican response to president obama 's state of the union address on tuesday. rubio aides are busy trying to spread the nonsense that he will write his own speech. senator rubio did an interview with buzz feed last night while drinking beer, a necessary proof to political reporters that you're a regular guy.

>> what we have to do is identify those principles and turn those into policies that speak for the 2 1s century.

>> marco rubio seems to think republicanism is so wicked complicated that it takes like years to teach.

>> to convince people that what we stand for, that free nt prize and limited government is the best way to create the condition for their dreams to be possible. that's hard work. that takes time to explain to people, it may take more than one election cycle.

>> it sounds like it's going to take more than 12 minutes after a state of the union address to teach america this very, very complicated thing that free enterprise is good for you.

>> they've been trying for a long time and americans just aren't getting it. that's the problem. i went back and reread mitch daniel's speech -- i'm not like guys, i don't just remember it word for word. i have o go back and read it. the problem is not the rhetoric. the rhetoric in his speeches very moderate, he said an opposition must offer not just criticism of failures but a positive and credible plan to make love better. it sounds a lot like the rebranding that they're trying to do now. the problem is not the things that they're saying. the problem is the things that they stand for and marco rubio in particular, i'm really pleased that he's putting himself out there on immigration, it is a politically courageous move but on every other issue, he's very far to the right. including he voted against the fiscal cliff deal.

>> but he is good about sounding reasonable. i want to listen to something else he said about a false choice about government.

>> it's the false choice that's out there. you're either for big government or no government. government all has a role to play. i believe government has a role to play in financial aid . i never would have gone to school without federal financial aid . can't have a vibrant free enterprise system if there isn't a safety net to catch people who have tried and failed and we're too prosperous a nation and too compassionate a people not to help people who can't help themselves.

>> no romney echo there.

>> they have learned one important lesson from the campaign, which was they got so caught up in the rhetoric of their own donor circle, as opposed to their own voters -- this is really troop. they actually thought this is what voters wanted it hear. the iconic moment of course is the 47% moment when mitt romney is talking to his donor class, but they actually embody that. a very small percent and of americans are small business owners. most people earn wages for a living. so they have learned and marco rubio i think is quite a deft politician. they have learned the lesson to not just listen to their donor class and tell the story their donor class wants to hear if they want to win national elections. the problem is people aren't totally easily hoodwinked. the question is what you deliver on and the votes right now i think are mostly the same. the whole idea that eric cantor and marco has is we can change the rhetoric, stop giving this blatantly offensive vision of america as makers and makers, which nobody likes. i think that will help at the margins but the deeper problem is there are actual interests at play, social benefits people care about and actual rights people want to defend that have to be delivered on.

>> there's the trick on the rubio statement, he speaks about federal financial aid for education but he and his party want to cut it and that's the part he didn't say.

>> and he talks about the safety net in general and how we have to protect it but you can't frank luns your way out of this. you can't call it a death panel or chang the way you're talking about these things without fundamentally changing the policies that you're talking about here and that's the issue. they have this sort of no-win situation where if they move too far from where they've been, they're in danger of losing people on the right, they're in danger of these ugly primary battles, they're trying to avoid that. at the same time, they're trying to piece back together a national coalition , which frankly right now they do now have.

>> the optic of tuesday night, bobby jindal got wiped out, it set back his career years, he is still trying to climb up to where he was back then. i think marco rubio run as very similar risk. the cosmetics on him are odd because it can read well some of of the things he has but there are times when he looks 12 years old and he could look like a very tiny character after a presidential address.

>> you don't ever have that problem, do you?

>> no, no, of course not. i know nothing about that. appearing without gravitas? that is completely alien to me. it's a fascinating institution, the state of the union response. on one level it's so high profile. on the other level, it's pretty much set up to fail. can you not compete with the pomp and circumstances of the commander in chief, of the president of the united states . everything always looks like an after thought, which is what it is. we didn't used to have these. this is a modern incarnation after lobbying for balance. i think marco rubio is a gifted politician. i think there's a fascinating investment in the personage of rubio. he's able to square a circle the republicans faced. they have to get right with latino voters and here is lo and behold marco rubio and he can be the one person and he is selling himself that way pipts the problem of the coalition. it's the problem of who are republicans and what do they stand for. one individual, however powerful his rhetoric and symbolism, won't be able to do what they believe they can.

>> a character cannot replace a policy.

>> thank you both for joining me tonight.

>> coming up, chris christie is now amazingly in day three of answering questions about his weight, questions that are getting tougher and stranger. and there is no evidence tonight that if chris christie runs for president, he will be running against hillary clinton . and are you afraid of ashley judd ? of course not. who are afraid of ashley judd ? turns out karl rove and mitch mcconnell are afraid of ashley judd . and the story of a politician who did the right thing, even though he knew it would cost him politically, even though he saw his father's political career end because his father did the right thing. the rarest thing in poll tex is in tonight's rewrite, political bravery. and be sure to like us on facebook, please. this is begging you're hearing right now. they told me to beg you about this. please like