by Javier Manjarres

Fresh off his historic victory over Governor Charlie Crist and Congressman Kendrick Meek, Senator-elect Marco Rubio is ‘wheels up’ and on his way to Israel. Quite a few of the so-called ‘wizards of smart’ politicos seem to think that this is a calculated move by Rubio to position himself for a Presidential bid in 2012.  This may very well be the case, since Rubio has long been a supporter of Israel and has expressed his opposition to President Obama’s  foreign policy towards Israel. The world community acknowledges that Tel Aviv is the capital of Israel, and not Jerusalem. Rubio has openly defied the so-called conventional wisdom, and he went on the record in this video interview that was conducted several months ago indicating that he believes that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel.   

Senator-elect Rubio is also considered to be on the very short list of potential Vice-Presidential picks for several of the Republican hopefuls that have express interest in taking on President Obama in 2012. Picking Rubio for VP would be a smart move by anyone of the soon-to-be crowded field of future Presidential candidates because the thought of a young, articulate, Conservative Hispanic who can Florida’s 27 electoral votes has the Democrat party bosses scrambling since he took a commanding lead in the polls to try to counter such an obstacle to their plans.

But I say “not so fast” in anointing him a future Presidential candidate or Vice President. Rubio has made numerous campaign promises and has boldly express his intent to fix many of the problems, both foreign and domestic, that ails the country-one of these foreign policy problems being the illegal immigration issue- a controversial issue that has proven to be a bit problematic to Rubio this past year.  Rubio supports the Arizona immigration law, but stuck his foot in his mouth by using controversial language, like the term ‘police state’ to describe the initial immigration bill that he did not support- Rubio supported the amended version of the bill that later became law.

Rubio has stood steadfast in his belief that the illegal immigration issue is a federal one. Now that he has won his race, and has become a Federal elected official, Rubio will now have to face this issue head on-perhaps having to vote on a immigration bill or two while sitting in the Senate. Question is, will Rubio back up his strong language to fix the immigration problem by perhaps proposing tougher legislation that will address the illegal immigration problem, or will his detractor’s biggest fears come to pass by taking the position that Senator Mel Martinez took and embrace amnesty for illegal immigrants?