Editorial The Washington Post, 14.04.2015
Marco Rubio formally entered the GOP presidential field Monday with an address at Miami’s Freedom Tower. The setting, a building through which Cuban immigrants transited in their escape from Fidel Castro’s Cuba, highlighted two core themes on which the Florida senator will base his campaign: an inspiring personal story and a promise to muscularly advance American values, particularly abroad. “When America fails to lead, global chaos inevitably follows,” he said to loud cheers.
His record is less clear-cut than those themes. A leading face of the 2010 tea party insurgency, Mr. Rubio has spent more time working with establishment Republicans than against them during his four years in the Senate. A first-term senator without executive experience, he is attempting to cast himself as a tough leader with experience in foreign affairs. A Republican who promotes tax cuts for the wealthy, he also supports a governmental role in alleviating poverty.
In some cases, Mr. Rubio has pushed his party toward better policy. He championed a bipartisan compromise immigration bill in 2013, even setting up a war room to rebut criticism from right-wing commentators. With his help, the bill passed the Senate, though it died in the House. Mr. Rubio favors expanding eligibility for the earned-income tax credit, an elegant anti-poverty initiative that deserves more attention, and he has warned his fellow Republicans against underfunding important safety-net programs. Combating an isolationist streak in the GOP, he has spoken out for strong U.S. leadership on behalf of human rights and democracy.
Sometimes, however, he has ducked when political courage has been needed. In the Foreign Affairs Committee, he voted against President Obama’s plan to strike Bashar al-Assad’s brutal regime in Syria after Mr. Assad had killed 1,400 civilians with chemical weapons, even though he had sharply criticized Mr. Obama for inaction in the conflict. (Mr. Obama later changed his mind.) As a leader in Florida’s legislature, he oversaw passage of climate change policy, but since rising into the national spotlight he has struggled to articulate a position on the basic science. His reform-minded tax plan would balloon the debt.
Mr. Rubio declared Monday that his campaign is about the future, setting the country on the right course at home and abroad so that it can live up to the ideals that allowed the son of Cuban immigrants to become a serious presidential contender. “The time has come for our generation to lead the way toward a new American century,” he declared. If his record has its share of contradictions, his status as a fresh face, relatively unknown to most voters, gives him a chance to define himself with greater focus and clarity.
