Top 10 Reasons Rubio Will Be Republican Nominee [Picture]

It looks like republicans want to keep the bush in the bushes.  Jeb’s ‘hispanic credentials”–his wife– apparently doesn’t “trunp” a ginuwine Hispanic canndidate.  Even Republicans have had enough of the Bushes. MUCKRACKER

If you’ve seen the 2016 Republican Power Rankings list, you may wonder why Marco Rubio has been at the top of the list for over 2 months now. The answer is a simple one: Fundamentals. When you analyze what creates winners in the long run, Rubio has the best arguments for each time and again. Of course anything can happen. Campaigns can collapse with one wrongly-phrased sentence. But right now, Rubio is the least likely to fall in that kind of trap. Here are the 10 major reasons Rubio has the best shot, right now, at winning the GOP nomination.

Rubio is one of the few candidates with broad support within the Republican Party. He is well-liked by the more “establishment” wing of the party as well as tea-party Republicans. Rubio has been hit for his previous support of comprehensive immigration reform by “purist” commentators (many now backing Donald Trump without any sense of irony) but it hasn’t hurt him with tea party supporters like many erroneously assume. A September poll by CNN found Rubio’s support with tea party supporters greater than most of the field, including tea party favorites Ted Cruz and Rand Paul.

Who else? Bush, Kasich, and Christie all fill the typical “establishment” role, and all would be seen as a disappointment by grassroots conservatives. Carson, Cruz, and Trump all play to the grassroots but aren’t feasible to the establishment for a variety of reasons (the establishment is rightly concerned with winning, and will happily take a conservative who can win). Walker was once solid here, but is currently in a free-fall, while Fiorina is a wild-card. Her lack of electoral experience and a highly-attackable business record make her a little risky for many establishment Republicans. (But of the outsiders, she is the most acceptable as she does so many thing so well.)

2.  The Invisible Primary

The so-called “Invisible Primary” is the time between when candidates announce and when the primaries are held. This is where the candidates work to build state organizations, raise money, and prove they have what it takes to be the nominee. Rubio has done well raising money, even before his strong debate performances, and is building a healthy 50-state strategy. The invisible primary is where candidates rise and fade behind the scenes, and some candidates have unexpectedly fallen while other have risen. Jeb has been stuck in neutral, and Scott Walker and Rand Paul have been going in reverse. Expect a number of important fence-sitters to start to fall Rubio’s way sooner rather than later. Rubio is likely the front-runner for the more-important-than-you-think Romney endorsement.

Others: Jeb has the money to build an organization, but his stumbles have the non-Bush loyalists looking elsewhere. Carson and Fiorina will struggle to pull in the top support and have the ability to organize the state-by-state operations needed to win on election day.

3.  Generational Appeal

One argument Rubio loves to make is a generational one. He wants to be the candidate of tomorrow, as half of the Republican field and all of the Democratic one represent “yesterday.” Rubio hopes to connect with younger and minority voters, a point of struggle for recent GOP nominees. His top-notch digital campaign – and youthful persona in general – is well-suited for such a task. The field has many young candidates including Walker, Paul, and Bobby Jindal, but none have the Happy Warrior feel that made many candidates like Joni Ernst so successful in 2014.  source–more