The Kind-Hearted Smart Aleck

Here's my latest Substack article, titled, "Drivel Marco." It can be found at the following link. -  https://craigrozniecki.substack.com/p/drivel-marco?r=5axds0

Following the recent Donald Trump rallies which have resulted in one cancellation and potential multiple criminal charges (against both Trump supporters and protesters), Florida Senator Marco Rubio, while laying some of the blame on the GOP frontrunner's rhetoric, as well as the protesters, also claimed that President Obama is partially to blame. He's not the first Republican politician to suggest this, for many have come forward and laid claim that Obama is the most divisive president in this country's history - some even blaming him for the rise of Donald Trump. I'm sorry, but the GOP calling President Obama divisive is so ironic Alanis Morissette is currently rewriting her hit song to reflect Rubio and many other GOPers' sentiments on the subject. Republican politicians can believe all they'd like that President Obama is divisive, but let's look back at Obama's tenure before casting him as such, shall we? - When he was elected in 2008, the GOP ...

I was fortunate enough to catch up with Denile High School basketball coach Marco Rubio at halftime of his team's homecoming game, where they found themselves down by 30. When inquiring about why his team was down by so much and what they needed to do in the second half to reverse their fortune, here's what he told me: "Look, this is kind of what we expected all along. Even before tipoff, we were all talking about how, no matter what happened before it, an early 3-pointer in the second half would be all we needed to get back into the game and start thinking about winning. Just think about it, if we get the first basket in the second half and it's a 3-pointer, we go from being down 30 to just 27, and it becomes a whole new ball game. That might sound ridiculous to some people, but the speech I'm going to use at halftime is going to motivate these kids to do something special in the second half; it'll make them believe we can do this; and it's going to happ...

During the tenth Republican presidential debate on Thursday night, Florida Senator Marco Rubio made me laugh. Yes, this was unintentional on his part, but at the time, I sarcastically thought to myself, "If this whole presidential thing doesn't work out, I think Rubio's found a back-up plan - stand-up comedy." Here's the quote which garnered a chuckle out of me: "The media has a definition of Hispanics that you can only be Hispanic if you're a liberal. The Obama economy has done enormous damage to the Spanish community. On this stage tonight are two sons of Cuban immigrants and an African American. We are the party of diversity, not the Democrats." Yes, because the final two Democratic presidential hopefuls are both white and three of the five remaining Republican candidates aren't, this obviously means Republicans are the party of diversity, not Democrats. That is if we don't look at the bigger picture, of course. Let's look a bi...

Florida Senator and GOP presidential hopeful Marco Rubio recently went to Liberty University to talk to students and try to provide them with one reason to vote for him, He closed the appearance by answering some students' questions. For the most part, the question-and-answer session went fairly well, as Rubio's responses were light-hearted, wanting to present himself in a fun and carefree way. With regard to the final question and answer, however, things got rather interesting, so interesting that the exchange is already trending on Twitter, not even a minute after it took place. For the final question, Liberty University Senior Christian Sirmixalot asked, "Senator Rubio, if you could go back in time, what's the one thing you've dreamt you could have done more than any other?" Senator Rubio paused at first, before smiling and saying the following:  "That's an interesting question. Usually when I get asked such questions, especially if I...

When GOP presidential hopeful Marco Rubio was recently asked who he'd like to have a beer with, he came back with three answers: 1) Ex-NFL star Dan Marino, 2) Russian chess master Garry Kasparov, and 3) underage Muslim Malala Yousafzai. No, this isn't an article by The Onion . Malala, an 18-year-old Pakistani Muslim, can't legally purchase alcohol for two reasons: 1) She's underage and 2) She's a Muslim in Pakistan. Yeah, when asked the question who they'd most like to have a beer with, here's how some of the candidates would likely respond: Donald Trump: "I've already had a beer with pretty much everybody." Mike Huckabee: "I'd like to have a drink with Kim Davis again." Ben Carson: "I only drink for Jesus." Chris Christie: "I'd like to have a beer with Joey, Tony, Tommy, Johnny, Donny, and Gus." Jeb Bush: "I'd like to sit down and have a drink with the smartest, bravest man I've ...

Florida Republican Senator and man voted most likely to become an elderly superhero by the name of Mr. Dry-Mouth - Marco Rubio - recently made the following remarks at Catholic University: "[While recognizing that] our history is marred by discrimination against gays and lesbians, traditional marriage has such an extraordinary record of success at raising children. Today, there is a growing intolerance on this issue, intolerance towards those who continue to support traditional marriage. And I promise you that even before this speech is over, I will be attacked as a hater, a bigot or someone who is anti-gay. This intolerance in the name of tolerance is hypocrisy." He also added this: "Supporting the definition of marriage between one man and one woman is not anti-gay, it is pro-traditional marriage. And if support for traditional marriage is bigotry, then Barack Obama was a bigot until just before the 2012 election." I've touched on this issue before, ...

I'm not sure why so many conservatives believe Florida Senator Marco Rubio is their politician of the future - the person most likely to win a presidential election for the party in 2016 or beyond. Maybe it's because he's fairly young, decent looking, and Hispanic. However, he's also a Tea Partier. He's further to the right than either John McCain or Mitt Romney were, and those two candidates had a difficult enough time winning over undecideds on election day. Senator Rubio has said that he's not a bigot, even though he continually showcases that he's against homosexuals attaining equal rights. He's now showing uncertainty about the immigration reform bill he himself constructed. On ABC's This Week , the Florida Senator engaged in the following back-and-forth with guest host Jonathan Karl Karl: "You are one of the primary architect authors of the bill that came out of the Senate Judiciary Committee, immigration reform. I have a basic question...

Remember when Florida Senator Marco Rubio was seen as the politician to watch out for on the Republican side of the aisle? Then he had his dry mouth and water bottle moment when rebutting President Obama's State of the Union Address. Today, he appears to be becoming progressively (or would it be regressively) more of a far-right Tea Party type on an almost daily basis. This has especially been the case with gay rights. When it came to marriage equality, Rubio said the following: "I respect people who disagree with me on certain things, but that means they have to respect me too. Just because I believe states should have the right to define marriage in a traditional way does not make me a bigot. Just because we believe that life, all human life, all life, all human life is worthy of protection in every stage of its development doesn't make you a chauvinist. In fact, the people who are actually close minded in American politics are people who love to preach about the cer...

I didn't know whether to shake my head in disgust or cringe and feel sorry for Marco Rubio last night when giving the State of the Union rebuttal. Granted, it is quite the difficult and awkward task for a person to follow the president's State of the Union speech. Since there's less time to give the speech, details tend to be substituted with generalities, slogans, and talking points. There isn't a great deal of time to go through one's notes regarding the speech, so this too can limit the number of specific details one can present in the rebuttal. Less people tune into the rebuttal than the actual State of the Union speech, and the overall presentation works against the person giving the rebuttal as well. Whereas the president hears commentary emanating from members of Congress' mouths during the speech, along with loud roars, and standing ovations at times, the individual giving the rebuttal typically appears to be in a room all by himself/herself, along with ...

It's being reported that prior to the election, former Texas GOP chair and current Texas Eagle Forum president - Cathie Adams - said the following: "...No. I'm telling you, Barack Hussein Obama has got to have a teleprompter because he fried his brain on drugs." The teleprompter joke and argument has got to be one of the stupidest thrown around by the Republican Party. I have to shake my head and softly chuckle to myself whenever I hear or read a Republican criticizing President Obama and his use of teleprompters. The sad (well, sadder) part is it seems many die-hard Republicans eat it up (not literally, of course). My question is why? While former Republican President George W. Bush wasn't fond of teleprompters, he did use them at times. Former Republican President George H.W. Bush has used teleprompters as well. Former Republican President Dwight Eisenhower used teleprompters. Believe it or not, but former Republican President Ronald Reagan used tele...

The final night of the Republican National Convention was hardly one to remember, well, besides one moment which I'll get to in a couple minutes. Newt Gingrich and his wife took turns reading from the teleprompter, auditioning to become presenters at the next Oscars. Strangely enough, when Newt opened the envelope, he said, "...and the winner for best husband to three different women with a first name resembling that of a salamander - it's me - Newt Gingrich!" The crowd went wild. Newt then thanked his first couple wives, before realizing his third was standing right next to him (he thought he was hallucinating at first and saw a ghost, but realized it was his wife), so he placed his arm around her and said, "Let Newt do to you what he did to all those other women. Pucker up, baby, and then go to the land down under!" After making out with his wife for a few moments and realizing she couldn't "go to the land down under" while on camera at tha...