I posted a column several weeks back in which I outlined the reasons that Rubio isn’t dominating his lane. Ross discusses the same question in today’s NYT, and reaches the same conclusions, with the exception of the most important one: Rubio’s lack of swagger.
The GOP electorate wants someone who projects simple-minded strength. They want a middle-aged or elderly man who will tell them in a convincing way that the world is a black-and-white place, and that he is the guy who will blow their enemies to smithereens. In short, they want Ronald Reagan. Trump and Cruz, in their separate ways, understand that, which is why they are leading in the polls.
Rubio, at least at this stage in his career, can’t pull that off. He looks like a college professor, and he makes complicated issues sound complicated, not simple. He can’t win the nomination unless he can somehow remake himself to look and sound more Reaganesque.
I know Douthat doesn’t want to hear that his party is pining for a strong man, but the results speak for themselves.