Marco Rubio’s message coming out of his disastrous debate performance Saturday night is that he meant to do that and it’s the media’s fault anyone thinks it was a problem. At the debate, Chris Christie slammed Rubio for mechanically repeating the same talking point (“Obama knows what he's doing”), only to have Rubio respond by repeating it again. For a candidate who’s faced criticism that he can’t go deeper than talking points, it was not helpful, and it made headlines. But his campaign has apparently decided that the only way out is through further repetition:
“I’m going to say it again,” Mr. Rubio said in front of a crowd of about 1,000 people who packed a high school cafeteria here, one of his largest New Hampshire audiences. “Barack Obama is the first president, at least in my lifetime, who wants to change the country. Change the country — not fix it. Not fix its problems. He wants to make it a different kind of country.”
If I keep saying it, will you believe it’s just such an important point that it meant something all those times I said it in the debate? The thing is, this is an important talking point for Rubio’s presidential hopes. He’s faced criticism from other Republicans that he is what they paint Obama as being: too inexperienced for the job, a disaster waiting to happen. So Rubio’s oft-repeated answer that Obama isn't screwing up out of inexperience but is a crafty villain who knows just what he’s doing is a crucial answer to the inexperience charge. The debate debacle gave his campaign a choice: keep repeating the same damn thing and hope to convince people that shows it was never a mistake to begin with, or back off and admit Rubio screwed up while leaving him open to the inexperience charge. His advisers have gone with option A, and have added on a little media-blaming. A fundraising email repeats the “Obama is doing it on purpose” claims and then insists that “the media pounced” because “they are desperate to defend Obama’s legacy.”
Actually, Marco, it was Christie who pounced. The media just followed up with a chorus of “whoa, did you see that?” And, anecdotally at least, it gave some New Hampshire voters second thoughts about Rubio, at a time when he’s polling second but polls say that many voters are still open to changing their minds.