Jennifer Rubin has an item headlined, "Marco Rubio continues to impress," which gushes over Rubio's deep grasp of public policy. Here's the Rubio-authored passage she cites:
Approving free-trade agreements with Colombia, Panama, and South Korea would be a boon to our economy, create jobs for Floridians, and help solidify our alliances with these steadfast allies. The agreements with Colombia and Panama in particular would boost Florida’s economy, where over 1 million Floridians remain out of work. Unfortunately, the president has inexplicably allowed these golden economic opportunities to languish by not submitting the deals to Congress for up-or-down votes.
An unacceptable consequence of America taking our Latin American neighbors for granted is that China, among other nations, has capitalized on our complacency, signed their own deals, and made great strides to surpass America as the region’s leading trade partner. . . .
Our Latin American allies are not going to wait around forever for America to get its act together. During the president’s trip to Latin America, I hope his eyes will be opened to the reality that the void of sustained, proactive American engagement in Latin America is being filled by other nations who recognize the opportunities in the region. Although he is not even visiting Colombia and Panama next week, meeting face-to-face with their leaders and telling them what it will take for these agreements to earn his support, I hope the president understands the economic and strategic consequences of pursuing his job-destroying policy of trade inaction.
Maybe I'm missing something. This seems like pure boilerplate, something you get get by waking up any press secretary in the middle of the night and urging them to attack the free trade stance of a Democratic president. You could have gotten something like this in 1981, by telling the flack that in thirty years there will be a president named "Obama," and his job is to crank out a few paragraphs lashing Obama for failing to move quickly enough on free trade.
At by rising to the level of doggerel, Rubio's latest Corner posting easily surpasses the rock-bottom intellectual standards of his previous work. But it's pretty far from "impressive."
Is there some analytical twist I'm missing in Rubio's argument, or is the standard for Republican policy wonkery just that low?