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Senator Marco Rubio warms up GOP convention crowd prior to Romney
By Catholic Online (NEWS CONSORTIUM)
August 31st, 2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
August 31st, 2012
Catholic Online (www.catholic.org)
Freshman Senator Marco Rubio kept his introduction to GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney at the Republican convention short and concise. With only 15 minutes to speak, the Cuban-American opened with a biting remark aimed at U.S. President Barack Obama.
LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - "Our problem with President Obama isn't that he's a bad person," Rubio said. "By all accounts, he, too, is a good husband and a good father . and thanks to lots of practice, a pretty good golfer."The killing blow: "Our problem is that he's a bad president," Rubio said.
According to some analysts, Rubio's speech served three purposes. The speech branded him as a national Hispanic leader in the Republican Party, it played up the best parts of Romney's biography - and kept the focus on President Barack Obama. Peppering the talk with Spanish phrases, his speech was long on biography, rhetorical flourishes, references to God and the shared drams of all Americans.
The speech made clear Rubio's support for Romney, who almost chose him over Paul Ryan as a running mate. The speech came at the close of three days of re-branding by a Republican Party.
Rubio's presence was seen as a rebuttal to Democratic charges that the GOP's policies, chiefly over immigration are bad for Hispanics. Latino voters still overwhelmingly back Obama, polls show.
Rubio's speech didn't mention immigration, instead, speaking of the immigrant experience. Rubio talked about how he would sit and listen to his Cuban grandfather puffing on Padron cigars and holding forth on history, politics and baseball.
"I don't recall everything we talked about, but the one thing I remember, is the one thing he wanted me to never forget. The dreams he had when he was young became impossible to achieve," Rubio said.
Rubio said his father, a bartender, worked 16-hour days and that his mother, a maid and K-Mart stock clerk, often worked overnight shifts.
"My Dad used to tell us: 'En este pais, ustedes van a poder lograr todas las cosas que nosotros no pudimos,' 'In this country, you will be able to accomplish all the things we never could,'" Rubio said.
Rubio then compared and contrasted Romney's background with his own. "His family came to America to escape revolution. They struggled through poverty and the Great Depression. And yet he rose to be an admired businessman, and public servant," Rubio said.
"And in November, his son, Mitt Romney, will be elected President of the United States," Rubio said.
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