Saturday, February 20, 2016

Marco Rubio runs scared from audience of South Carolina conservatives

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2016/02/19/1487688/-Marco-Rubio-runs-scared-from-audience-of-South-Carolina-conservatives?detail=emailclassic

LACONIA, NH - FEBRUARY 03:  Republican presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) talks to reporters before a town hall event at the Belknap Mill February 3, 2016 in Laconia, New Hampshire.  Rubio is hoping to gather momentum in New Hampshire after pl

Apparently being widely seen as a glitchy robot wasn’t enough for Marco Rubio. Thursday night, he decided to add “running scared” to the list of easy ways for his competitors to hit him. Rubio was supposed to appear at the “Conservative Review Convention,” but he just bailed.
After the event got underway, a Rubio aide informed organizers that the candidate was running late and would likely have to skip the event. According to an organizer who spoke to BuzzFeed News of anonymity, the event’s hosts tried to salvage Rubio’s appearance — initially informing the audience only that he was late due to an unforeseen “issue,” while they worked behind the scenes to reshuffle the speaking schedule for him.
But even as organizers repeatedly offered to accommodate Rubio’s tardiness, the campaign demurred. Instead, according to two sources in the Rubio camp, they said they wanted to give their allotted 20-minute speaking slot to their surrogates who were already backstage at the event: Sen. Tim Scott, Rep. Trey Gowdy, and Bobby Jindal.
So: “He’s going to be late.” “Okay, we’ll reschedule things to get him in when he gets here.” “Nah, how about having these other guys speak?” The organizers refused to allow Rubio’s surrogates to speak, having already told Jeb Bush’s campaign that it was the candidate or no one. And the Rubio campaign officially ditched the whole appearance. So 36 hours before voting started in the South Carolina Republican primary, a conservative audience was being disappointed by Rubio. That seems … unwise.
Rubio did have reason to believe it might not be the friendliest audience, packed with Ted Cruz supporters, and the event moderators have been critical of Rubio. But if you’re worried about hostile questions, why say you’ll go to begin with? And if you’re worried about the audience, why not turn out your own supporters to cheer you on? 
Promising to attend and then canceling after you’re already supposed to be there is not super smooth politicking. And it allowed the Cruz campaign to take a series of shots at Rubio as too afraid to show, while, according to the New York Times, “With Mr. Rubio absent, the event, hosted by Conservative Review, quickly became a de facto celebration of Mr. Cruz.”
So much for Marco Rubio, Establishment Republican Savior.
i'm a bit confused  south carolina aren't those southern states filled with evangelical haters i would think any republican who says something as simple as i hate it when a dog bites me would get a round of applause and a eye on for president but he has been alienating others and pissing off his own wow how does he wake up in the morning???????????  i guess turning on Hispanics to appease  White voter base was not quite enough nor selling your soul to the devil.