Marco Rubio, 2012 Candidate?

Maybe not for the top job, but he could be a very attractive choice for VP, especially if paired with a quality presidential candidate like Rick Perry.  All you have to do is watch Rubio's floor speech and takedown of John Kerry from last weekend to see how good a national candidate he'd be.

And since the left loves to make everything about race, let's take a quick look at what effect a Rubio candidacy might have on the election.

Rubio is Hispanic, and to date no Hispanic has ever held either of the top two jobs in the U.S.  Remember the ecstasy in the black community over the first black president?  It was big, but Obama didn't really change the numbers among black voters very significantly at all.  More black voters went to the polls, but in terms of percentages, 96% voted for Obama, up only a point or two from historical averages for Dem candidates.

The Hispanic community is not nearly as monolithic as blacks.  Hispanics vote 67% - 31% for Obama in 2008.  Some of that vote certainly had to do with the whole "first black president" thing and the "rainbows and unicorns" promises, but in 2004 44% of Hispanics voted for Bush.  That tells me the Hispanic vote is very much up for grabs and can't be counted on to automatically support Democrats.

With Marco Rubio on the ticket a great many Hispanics would feel the same way about him that blacks felt about Obama - one of their own reaching for high position.  I think Rubio could swing significant votes toward the GOP ticket and possible make close races in highly Hispanic states that went for Obama like California, Nevada and Florida (Rubin being from Florida doesn't hurt either).

I'm not sure he wants the job since he's only been a senator for a short time, but that didn't stop Obama and if anyone wants to make Rubio's time in the Senate an issue, there's a ready-made argument in return about Obama.  Rubio on the ticket would sure make things entertaining, and wouldn't you just love to see a Rubio-Biden debate?