Iowa Insider: Marco Not Putting in the Work

If Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wants to do well in the Iowa GOP caucus, he needs to start getting his hands dirty.

Craig Robinson, a former state Republican Party political director who edits a conservative politics website, said on “The Laura Ingraham Show” that Rubio does not seem to be making the necessary commitment to win the Feb. 1 caucuses.

“It’s almost like Marco Rubio ran to beat Jeb Bush,” he said. “Well, congratulations, you’ve done that. You’re now at 10 percent instead of 6. Who cares? So, we’re not seeing the commitment out of Rubio to actually campaign in Iowa in an aggressive manner that says, ‘Hey, I want to be president of the United States. I want to win this thing. I want to win Iowa.’

“He’s had this very awkward kind of approach to Iowa, and I think it’s killing him,” Robinson continued.

Robinson said Rubio has failed to connect with Iowa voters even compared to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie — not exactly a prototype candidate for the Midwestern, socially conservative electorate.

“There’s more buzz about Chris Christie in this state than there is about Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio, which is shocking,” he said. “I never thought we’d see that.”

So who is the beneficiary of all this? The same guy who is surging in the Iowa polls, Robinson said.

“I’ve always thought all along that Iowa was a perfect fit for someone like Ted Cruz”

“It’s more likely to hold for Cruz, and that’s because I’ve always thought all along that Iowa was a perfect fit for someone like (Texas Sen.) Ted Cruz,” he said. “Cruz has a lot of places to grow in Iowa.”

National front-runner Donald Trump has noticed. He hit Cruz hard over the weekend, calling him “a bit of a maniac” who lacks the judgment and temperament to be president.

Robinson said that is an ironic criticism, considering the source.

“I never thought we’d see Donald Trump lecture about temperament to another GOP candidate,” he said.

Robinson noted that polls show many Trump supporters name Cruz as their second choice, and vice versa. He said Trump, therefore, runs a risk in whacking Cruz too hard.

“It’s a little dangerous to flippantly go after Ted Cruz the way he goes after other candidates,” he said.

Ingraham noted that retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson nose-dived in the polls after a steady stream of attacks by Trump. Robinson said that had more to do with Carson’s inadequate response to new scrutiny his campaign faced after taking off.

“He’s been tested in this fire,” Robinson said. “And he’s just not going to have the same sort of easy mess-ups that Carson experienced once the cameras started following him and looking into his past and digging through all those things.”