GOP’s Rubio seeks aggressive approach to Russian Federation

“We are barreling toward a second cold war”, Rubio warned, while dubbing Putin’s moves a “power play” in the region. “With Jeb Bush getting no traction – in fact kind of stuck – people are looking around and giving Rubio more attention”. His past support for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, from which he has backed away, remains an obstacle in his path. So too does his personal profile, that of a youthful first-term senator with limited experience trying to become president – a profile not unlike that of President Obama when he first ran eight years ago. I can call them and his entire team good friends and it was an honor to work with them.

“You have a gangster in Moscow; Vladimir Putin, with an economy smaller than Italy and somehow he has positioned Russian Federation to be more influential than America is in the Middle East at this point”, he said.

In Cedar Falls, Rubio stumped on economic growth through business deregulation and tax reform, revamping higher education and taking a hawkish stance on foreign policy.

Rubio’s team sees crosscutting appeal as vital, a race that will favor a candidate who can best unite a fractured party.

“We are not going to cooperate with a Russian campaign to simply try to destroy anybody who is disgusted and fed up with Mr Assad’s behavior”, Obama said.

“He’s smart enough to keep all of his options open”, said Chris Galdieri, assistant professor of politics at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire.

Rubio says if elected, he would reject the Iran nuclear deal during his first days in office. “I’m all for it”. He’s the most consistent campaigner in the race, but he isn’t someone like Barack Obama in 2008, who inspired a rabidly devoted core following and drew large crowds long before he overtook Hillary Clinton in the polls. In the average of recent national polls, Rubio and Bush run fourth and fifth behind Trump, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and former Hewlett-Packard chief executive Carly Fiorina. “They’re upset with the status quo”. Already, each are struggling with new issues on the big stage, like Carson’s ties to the party’s fringe and Fiorina’s relationship to the truth and her business record.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found Trump leading the Republican field nationwide with 21 percent, followed by Carson with 20 percent. Adding to his difficulty, Iowa Republicans are considered especially conservative on immigration, which could make it hard for Rubio to gather momentum with a strong performance in the caucuses.

Rubio outlined his immigration proposal in a response to a question from the audience. At Cedar Falls, a voter asked him: “Do you agree with the pope or Trump?” on the issue”.

Then there are other issues waiting in the wings. On the Republican side, for a change, it’s a completely different story. As Trump has brought up, Rubio’s last brief polling bump prompted The New York Times to dig into his unusual relationship with Florida billionaire Norman Braman, who has not only subsidized his political career with millions in donations but employed Rubio and his wife privately as well.

Rubio is a disciplined communicator and he’s always on message.

Putin is involved for the objective of keeping Assad, or someone like Assad, in power; keeping Syria as a client-state for Russian Federation; and distracting from his actions in Ukraine.