Before he revealed himself to be a panicky cyborg, Marco Rubio’s principle liability in the Republican race was his support for immigration reform in 2013. And so many Trump supporters were taken aback when CBS presented the following graphic at last Saturday’s debate.
The graphic highlights three of Rubio’s hardline positions on immigration enforcement, while leaving his past support for a pathway to citizenship for the undocumented unmentioned. Odder still, the graphic was the only one of its kind broadcast during the debate, according to Breitbart and immigration blogger Mickey Kaus. While search and social-media graphics proliferated throughout the coverage, the Trumpen proletariat claims that no other candidate received a special box summarizing their policy positions, let alone one that highlighted only their most popular stances on a controversial issue.
Although the media mercilessly skewered the senator for his malfunction in New Hampshire, pundits have treated Rubio with kid gloves for much of the campaign, hailing his third-place showing in Iowa as a triumph. The top headline on Politico Tuesday afternoon read, “Rubio surges back to electrify South Carolina.” But the Florida senator is only “electrifying” 18 percent of the state’s voters, according to the most recent PPP poll, which puts him 17 points behind the GOP front-runner, Donald Trump.
