Clinton, Rubio and generational politics

The presidential campaign of Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) really should send the presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton (D) a thank you note.

There was a split-screen quality to the consecutive presidential campaign announcements of Clinton and Rubio earlier this week and the contrast could not have been sharper or more helpful for Rubio.

On one side, you have Clinton’s launch, first with a hasty email from the campaign chairman, followed by the release of a State Farm insurance commercial knock-off video with no substance whatsoever — just as the Masters golf tournament turned to the back nine. Clinton didn’t launch with a speech, a rally, a cause, a message or a vision. She did the bare minimum.

{mosads}Juxtapose that with Rubio, who announced at Freedom Tower in Miami, a sort of Ellis Island for Cuban refugees from an earlier generation, with a cheering and diverse crowd full of young people in the audience. Rubio detailed his family’s unique American story to a national audience and explained how we can make the 21st century an American century. He welcomed onstage his gorgeous wife and their four beautiful children.

Clinton is, to use a term that she appreciates, living history. Conversely, Rubio is the embodiment of the future of America.

I don’t know if Rubio will be the Republican nominee. He is a first-term U.S. senator, running from a state where another Republican candidate is earning more support, in a very competitive primary for the nomination against eight to 10 strong candidates.

The uncertainty in the Republican race is in itself exciting. It is also unusual. Republicans are known for primogeniture in presidential politics; Democrats usually have ugly intramural battles.

This year the roles are reversed.

But there is a delicious quality to the game of identity politics shifting like a boomerang back into the face of the national Democratic Party. The two highest-profile liberals in the country, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio (D), both pointedly refused to endorse Clinton in recent days.

Instead, Democrats are settling for Clinton, enthusiastic primarily for her gender, weary of her family’s political baggage, in the dark about her agenda and uncertain of her political skills.

There is no second tier for the Democratic nomination. There is a third tier, with a failed two-term governor; a failed, party-switching one-term governor; a bizarre, moderate one-term U.S. senator; and an avowed socialist likely running — and no one else.

On the Republican side, you have three smart, impressive, energetic, next generation U.S. senators, an innovative former two-term governor of Florida, a successful former 14-year governor of Texas, a dragon-slayer two-term governor of Wisconsin and many other strong candidates vying for the GOP nomination.

But set aside the political dynamic in 2016. The imagery itself earlier this week was powerful.

Rubio looks like the future of America: bicultural, bilingual, young, optimistic, blue collar and from an immigrant family.

Clinton was giving $300,000 speeches six weeks ago. Her daughter just bought a $10 million apartment in New York City. Her husband has earned over $100 million in speech income since 2001.

It is hard to appeal to “everyday Americans” when you have absolutely no experience with their lives. Clinton admits she hasn’t driven a car since 1993. They have two multimillion-dollar homes, in Washington and Chappaqua, N.Y. They’ve lived a jet-setting life of privilege for over two decades.

No one should be critical of the Clintons earning massive income through legal means. It’s capitalism. This is America. But spare us the phony “we were dead broke when we left the White House” fairy tale, when at the time you had just signed a book deal with an $8 million advance.

The Rubios were drowning in student loan debt until just a few years ago. His parents are Cuban immigrants and worked as a bartender and a maid. His story is both unique and American.

Clinton’s campaign will desperately try to convince us that she is the future. But our eyes don’t fool us.

The visual evidence was clear for all to see earlier this week.

Mackowiak is syndicated columnist; an Austin, Texas-based Republican consultant; and a former Capitol Hill and George W. Bush administration aide.