Marco Rubio last night finally suspended his campaign. At the risk of sounding smug, I could have told you years ago that he was not a good presidential candidate. In the wake of Barack Obama’s re-election in 2012, Rubio went on a charm tour of London, where I met him.
He was sharp, no doubt about it, and agreeable in a way. His mind seemed to work very fast. But his speech and manner were weirdly automatic. It was as if a programmer had typed the following instructions into his head: ‘Visiting centre-right British magazine. Engage/deploy Thatcher-Reagan freedom rhetoric. Stress importance of Special Relationship. Attack Barack Obama.’
For twenty minutes or so, he mechanically went on. Reagan; Thatcher; Reagan; Freedom; Reagan; Thatcher; Freedom; America; Thatcher; Obama bad; Special Relationship good.
There was a strange moment towards the end of our meeting, when somebody asked Rubio about Obama’s attempts to cut a nuclear deal with Iran.
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