RUSH: Have you seen Marco Rubio? Marco Rubio is lighting it up, and there are two things that have happened here. The first thing that happened is that Larry Ellison of Oracle, worth something like $57 billion, is throwing a huge fundraiser for Rubio out in California where he lives. I was telling you about Ellison the other day. He had about 35 or 40 houses. That’s where he parks his wealth. He buys real estate, and he keeps it — and it’s not cheap. He buys massive estates. He owns whole islands.
Wealth people have all kinds of different strategies as to what to do with their money, and part of his strategy is real estate all over the world, yachts and this kind of stuff. I came to find out that Ellison was a big donor and supporter for Romney. So it’s not a shock. It is to people that didn’t know. Silicon Valley, the Left Coast, is assumed to be all-in for the Democrats. But Larry Ellison going public. Rather than be a quiet donor and a quiet fundraiser, he is going public with it, and it shook things up on the Republican side.
And then Rubio shows up on the Council on Foreign Relations and literally ran rings around everybody, including Jeb Bush. I read that Jeb Bush’s speech and performance, the Q&A at the Council on Foreign Relations was not inspiring. He appeared unprepared, a little halting and unsure of himself, whereas Rubio was conversant on anything that was brought up. He was able to answer any question that anybody asked him. His speech was all-inclusive.
In fact, he even corrected Charlie Rose a couple of times (who had incorrect information in a question that he asked) and did it with style and class and aplomb. But the question that is said to have set Rubio apart is based on a question and answer that Jeb got a day or two earlier. “Knowing what you know now,” they asked Jeb, “would you still invade Iraq?” And Jeb said, “Yes, I would.” Now, everybody should know that what Jeb was doing there was brotherly loyalty, family and brotherly loyalty.
One thing that the Bushes are, they’re tight.
They’re a very tight family, and loyalty is the coin of the realm to them, and I say that in a noncritical way. Just informative. Jeb is not going to throw his brother under the bus at the Council on Foreign Relations. But it still was not what people think and consider to be an informed presidential answer because, of course, the popular consensus is that the reason we went to Iraq turned out to be nonexistent; there were no weapons of mass destruction.
I know, I know. “There have been some found!” I’m just telling you that the conventional wisdom is that the reason we went turned out to be baseless, and for that reason alone, that basis alone, you can answer, “No, I wouldn’t go, knowing what we know now.” Well, that’s what Rubio said. Rubio said, “No, I wouldn’t now. Not only would I not invade Iraq, President Bush wouldn’t either if he knew then what he knows now.
Everybody said, “Yeah, man! Right answer.” It was really impressive, is the bottom line. And not just… You know, the Council on Foreign Relations crowd, it’s made up of all kinds of people and opinion. It’s made up of little despots that want to take over the world. It’s made up of journalists. It’s made up of scholars, corporate people. I mean, it’s a mix of all kinds of people. They all think they’re powerful, many of them are wealthy, and they do think that they do have influence over policy matters.
It’s an arm of the Trilateral Commission and so forth. I’m not gonna get into the conspiracy angles of it, but they are who they are. The important thing is that they think they’re important. They think they matter. I mean, their egos are huge, and Rubio impressed ’em. Rubio went in there and he did it in a very upbeat way. I’ll tell you, it was a stunning thing for a lot of people who think Rubio is too young, too inexperienced.
It was a massive, massive statement and massive move for Rubio this week, and he’s not alone. That’s not the only thing that Rubio has done that has begun to put some distance between himself and others in the field. Now, it’s still early, and it is why there aren’t really any momentous things happening right now. There are of the moment, but in terms of anything happening today that’s gonna sew up the nomination for somebody, very unlikely. And this was also not one of those things.
Related Links