Des Moines Register Endorses Marco Rubio for President
"Rubio promises specific answers for the issues in these voters’ lives."
The Des Moines Register is endorsing Marco Rubio for the Republican Nomination. The Des Moines Register previously endorsed Joni Ernst in the 2014 Senate primary and Mitt Romney in 2012 presidential caucus and general election.
Endorsement: Marco Rubio can chart new direction for GOP
The Des Moines Register
Editorial Board
January 23, 2016
http://dmreg.co/1WFiQZt
Republicans have the opportunity to define their party’s future in this election. They could choose anger, pessimism and fear. Or they could take a different path.
The party could channel that frustration and pursue true reform. It could renounce its fealty to the economic elite and its fixation with tax cuts for the wealthy.
It could instead emphasize the interests of the middle class and promote policies, not just rhetoric, that champion workers, families and small businesses. It could be the party of opportunity and optimism.
It could be the party in which the son of an immigrant bartender and maid could become president.
Sen. Marco Rubio has the potential to chart a new direction for the party, and perhaps the nation, with his message of restoring the American dream. We endorse him because he represents his party’s best hope.
That hope rests partly in the electoral calculus of the country. Republicans should have learned from 2012 that they cannot win with Republicans alone. Recent polling shows Rubio has higher favorability ratings among independents than all candidates but Ben Carson, as well as positive ratings among Latinos.
Rubio promises specific answers for the issues in these voters’ lives. “It’s been a long time since the Republican Party has talked to a single mother raising two children who is struggling at $15 or $14 or $13 an hour. It’s been a long time since the Republican Party has had an agenda that talks to students,” he told the Register’s editorial board.
Our hope, however, does not rest solely on his ability to welcome new people to the party. We believe Rubio can inspire the base with his ideas on improving the economy, education system and social programs.
In two meetings with the editorial board, the whip-smart senator displayed an impressive grasp of public policy detail, reeling off four-point plans on foreign policy and other issues. He proposes overhauling higher education and promoting vocational training, helping workers threatened by automation acquire skills rewarded by a new economy.
Rubio would prime that new economy by embracing innovation. He would auction off portions of the wireless spectrum controlled by government, allowing freer flow of online traffic. He’d remove barriers to enable the next Uber to take off. He’d require a cost-benefit analysis of federal regulations.
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