Rubio Pins Presidential Hopes on Foreign Policy Focus
NEWSMAX
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio is pinning his presidential hopes on the
prospect that Republican voters will have the troubled world on their
minds in the 2016 primaries — and that they'll see a 43-year-old
freshman lawmaker who argues for an aggressive U.S. posture abroad as
the best candidate to take on global crises.
For Rubio, who remains unknown to many Americans, it's a gamble of
necessity as he searches for a way to break through the GOP pack.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Rubio said tumult in the
Middle East, Eastern Europe and Latin America may drive voter interest
in foreign policy higher than at any point in the last decade, despite
the fact that international issues barely registered for voters in the
last Republican primary and general election. He also previewed a
campaign message that links U.S. economic prosperity to stability around
the world.
"We're 4 to 5 percent of the world's population," Rubio said. "So for
us to grow our economy robustly and provide more economic opportunity
to more people, we need to have millions of people around the world that
can afford to trade with us, that can afford to buy our products and
our services."
Foreign policy often isn't a winning formula in presidential politics, however.
Even in the 2008 election, when worries about terrorism and weariness
with the long, expensive and deadly conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan
were elevated in people's minds, the economy was by far the biggest
concern of voters surveyed in exit polls, cited by 63 percent as their
main issue.
But William Galston, a former policy adviser to President Bill
Clinton and Democratic presidential campaigns, said current crises,
combined with improvements in the economy, could make Rubio's bet on
foreign policy a wise one.
"Changes in the world over the past year or two have been pretty
alarming," Galston said. "There isn't much that's gone right for the
United States but there are a fair number that have gone wrong."
If voters do care about foreign policy, though, there's a risk for
Rubio that they may not consider him seasoned enough. President Barack
Obama faced that criticism in his primary and presidential campaigns as
he sought the White House in his 40s while serving his first term in the
Senate.
Whoever wins the GOP nomination may face Hillary Clinton, who served
four years as secretary of state and has no serious rivals for the
Democratic nomination as yet, if she runs as expected.
Rubio is expected to announce his presidential campaign within weeks.
