I have to say, I sort of admire the way new Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) shoots down the speculation that he might run for president:
"It's a circus. You guys are part of the circus," Rubio told a half-dozen reporters in a cramped temporary office. "This is stuff (running for president) they talk about. They'll talk about somebody else next week. I'm here to be a United States senator from Florida and the best senator I can. I mean that. That's what I ran for and that's what I want to be."
It is a circus! Among Beltway touts, the end of one presidential election cycle typically means that 1,461 days of crazy speculation over the next is set to ensue, and anyone who ends up with the stink of national ambition gets subjected to interviews in which they're asked "Are you running for president?" over and over again, in as many different ways as can be found to formulate the question. Nevertheless, there should be limits. That Barack Obama had only served half of his Senate term was seen by many to be a campaign liability in 2008. Rubio, on the other hand, has only been a U.S. senator for a few hours.
This report contains this sentence: "Our Gannett colleague Bart Jansen reports that Rubio, a Tea Party favorite and a rising Republican star, dismissed any talk of vying for the White House as he takes his seat today in the U.S. Senate." That line's existence signals that Rubio really should be spared these sorts of questions.
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