It looks like Ted Cruz won't be the sole contender for the GOP nomination for long. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) are both expected to announce their candidacy in the days ahead. Marco Rubio comes with a lot of questions. Does he lean more towards the establishment progressive wing of the party? Or is he a true, small government conservative?
The guys analyzed his potential candidacy on radio:
GLENN: So we were just talking about Rubio. Stu thinks that Rubio has a good chance of winning.
STU: I think he has a legitimate chance of being the Republican nominee.
GLENN: That's because he's Hispanic. He would have the establishment behind him. He has Romney behind him.
STU: He doesn't come off like Jeb Bush where the conservative establishment --
PAT: He's not necessarily repulsive.
STU: He's in the middle.
PAT: He said bad things on immigration and the NSA. But other than that, he's been good.
GLENN: Other than immigration and the NSA --
PAT: I know. That's why he's not my guy.
STU: The immigration one hurts him in the Republican primary. The NSA one, it could go either way honestly. That doesn't necessarily hurt him in the primary.
GLENN: That's amazing.
STU: He would say -- like, he would be the answer to Rand Paul on that particular issue maybe. He's more typical conservative when it comes to defense. However, look at this, he's a young guy. Good-looking guy. Hispanic descent. He's a very good -- again, he's a very good speaker. The guy is really good. He's a good communicator. He has --
PAT: Except for the water speech.
JEFFY: As long as he has enough water.
GLENN: How old is he?
PAT: Forty-two. Somewhere in there.
GLENN: He has lots of time.
PAT: Yeah.
STU: Right. The theory is, he's going to run for only president if he announces because they can't run for both. He's even said on record, he thinks that's the right law. You can't run for two offices. So the theory is that he would run for president. If he loses, he would run for governor in Florida. Which is the job he kind of wants anyway if he's not president.
JEFFY: He'll win that.
STU: I think he would win that. I think that's a legitimate chance. It seems as if the Romney people, when Romney decided he wouldn't run, have gone towards Rubio.
GLENN: Which makes me -- that's Rubio repellant.
STU: It's not a positive point for me on Rubio. Money. Some establishment backing comes from that. And Rubio has a better record than Romney by a pretty significant margin.
GLENN: If you think I ran for president, Mitt Romney would be running my way?
STU: No.
GLENN: Do you think Ted Cruz -- he's not running to Ted Cruz. He's not running to Rand Paul. He's not running to Mike Lee.
STU: You're right.
GLENN: That says something.
STU: Romney was a guy who was very moderate who said he was now a conservative. He hadn't done a lot of conservative things --
GLENN: But he wasn't.
STU: Right. Exactly. Rubio has done a lot of conservative things, he just hasn't been perfect by any means. But he's better than the alternative when it comes to the establishment.
PAT: Jeb Bush for sure. Better than Chris Christie.
STU: When it comes Tea Party versus establishment, I think Rubio has the chance to be the, quote, unquote, establishment guy that might the corner between the two.
GLENN: Have we heard from Scott Walker's people yet?
STU: He's the other guy I think in that area.
GLENN: We've invited him on the show for, what, a month. We're calling them every day, and they just keep losing our phone number. There's something wrong with that. There's something wrong with that. You don't ignore this audience for this long. What is the deal with Scott Walker?