MARCO – AT 10:31 A.M. ET:   Marco Rubio continues to rise.  He is now widely seen as the most articulate Republican candidate for president, and someone who can actually win.  What I particularly admire about him is his commitment to a strong national defense and a strong foreign policy.  He will not back down in the face of the trendies.  From Fox: 

WASHINGTON – Sen. Marco Rubio, the freshman senator from Florida and White House hopeful, defended his tougher rhetoric on foreign policy and said Americans “have to recognize the balance of power in the world is shifting.”

Rubio said on “Fox News Sunday” that the “rise of rogue states like North Korea and Iran,” as well as non-state groups like the Islamic State, have shifted the priorities for the U.S.

“They are all very different threats,” Rubio said.

And...

Rubio’s appearance on “Fox News Sunday” comes during the same week he delivered a key foreign policy speech in New York, where he defended the use of military power and called on the U.S. to aggressively confront China, Russia and other nations he said threaten American economic interests.

“We simply cannot afford to elect as our next president one of the leading agents of this administration’s foreign policy – a leader from yesterday whose tenure as secretary of state was ineffective at best and dangerously negligent at worst,” he said during his speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.

COMMENT:  He says it so well.  Nominating conventions don't nominate presidents, they nominate candidates.  And the first question we have to answer is whether a candidate can accomplish his first objective...winning.

From what I've seen, and barring any surprises, I think Rubio can go the distance.  But he'll be tested regularly throughout the nominating process.

May 17, 2015