Marco’s stump speech, which by all accounts is extremely effective, always revolves around the fact that his father was a bartender, and his mother a maid. I call this persona “Horatio Alger.”
Horatio Alger doesn’t tap into the obvious anger of the GOP electorate. As a result, Marco tried out a new character around the time of the New Hampshire debate. This version of Marco looks very grim, spits out his words too rapidly, and talks in apocalyptic terms about the state of the country. I refer to this persona, for obvious reasons, as “Cruz Lite.”
The whole point of the Trump campaign is to prove that he is a strong man and a winner; his obnoxious behavior during debates is intended to establish his dominance over his competitors. Cruz Lite wasn’t an effective way of dealing with that problem, so for the Houston debate, Marco morphed into. . . Don Rickles!
Rubio is actually a surprisingly entertaining Don Rickles, and he managed to hold his own with Trump, for whom this approach comes naturally. However, as they say on singing competitions, it’s out of his comfort zone, and it was damaging his image with more staid establishment voters. As a result, it was fairly clear from his doleful opening in the Detroit debate that Marco wanted to ditch Rickles and stick with Cruz Lite. As the debate got more personal and heated, however, Rickles reared his ugly head again, and Kasich was the primary beneficiary.
Cruz has had some success dealing with Trump’s dominance routine by being patronizing, and by cross-examining him. This would appear to be a logical extension of his actual personality, not an act. I think Marco needs to put an end to Cruz Lite and Rickles and find a persona that better fits his personality and permits him to maintain a greater degree of dignity. If I were in his position, I would start the next debate by apologizing for the lack of decorum at the previous two, and icily ignore any opportunities to jump in a ditch with Trump from that point forward.