Rubio's Petard

There's a delicious irony in Marco Rubio getting pounded last night by Chris Christie over his "25 second memorization" critique of Rubios' super-scripted debate responses. The attack is a meta-critique of debate prep and process in the exact same way Rubio blasted Jeb Bush in a debate several months ago that criticized Bush not for the accusation he made but that his advisors told him to say it to score a political point. In both instances, the substance of the point isn't the issue but about how practiced and inauthentic the candidate really is. In the case of Rubio, it's a devastating line of attack since his biggest claim to fame during the campaign so far has been his supposed eloquence and ability to deliver a message - and not about the content of the message itself. That it was delivered by a governor against a senator is a bonus in that it reminds voters that Washington politicians (as opposed to state chief executives) talk a great deal but get very little gets done.