Please consider any predictions of Rubio's forthcoming success which I made to be premature and wrongheaded blather.  Marco Rubio seems to have consistency in one area:  The inability to live up to what his paper accomplishments might suggest.  In all of his national outings to date, Marco Rubio either underperformed with a recitative approach or has notably, ineptly shifted from position to position to catch the tone of his party.  As husband noted after hearing Rubio re-introduce himself with a "I pulled myself up by my bootstraps, and stand here as the new generation rep" speech: We need not have been concerned about the entry, because he delivers as one trying to get through his speech.

When I hear about the call for a new generation of leadership--beginning with the forward-looking, full of energy JFK--I expect to see an individual who radiates that youth.  When President Barack Obama first announced he had that "passing of the torch" sense at the outset.  Even when a much older Reagan spoke of "Morning in America," he reflected that sentiment (whether good lighting, camera technique, or ?, he fit with the sentiment in terms of that brief appearance.)  What Rubio lacks is any of that sense of being able to have the energy, ability, or drive to steer the nation forward.

Maybe with enough takes, Marco Rubio can figure out where he is.  For now, talking about "new generation" while espousing outworn, discarded ideas in the same paragraph or speech managed to evoke the image of a grumpy, somewhat downcast man ... one far from speaking to the aspirations of youth or the expectations of a growing, evolving America.

I mean you can speak Spanish as much as you want but when you are the poster boy of betrayal for people who care about things like, say, immigration reform, well....

----
It's funny/sad though: Dean's wiki page says this:

In the 2008 presidential election, Barack Obama used the 50 state strategy as the backbone of his candidacy.

Scooby, a black GMC van, is familiar to residents of Clinton's New York hometown, Chappaqua. It's the vehicle she normally uses to get around town.

• Riding along with Clinton are "a couple of staff" as well as her small Secret Service detail.

• Clinton and crew stopped in Pittsburgh on Sunday night. At a hotel there, she ordered room service from a menu that had a section appropriately titled "Scooby Snacks."

• What kind of Chipotle order befits a presidential candidate? Well, at a stop in Toledo, Ohio, on Monday, Clinton got a chicken burrito bowl with black beans, guacamole and iced tea.

• She's a healthy snacker. Road munchies packed for the drive include almonds and cottage cheese.

My mention of Kerry came as a caveat against having work done, lest she end up looking like he did: like aliens took him apart and put him back together looking like someone else.  Seems like the goal of any plastic surgery should be to look better, not weird.

Where the real hypocrisy/double standard would come into play would be if she had had anything done, because it would be all-caps, neon-lit, "BREAKING NEWS" on every network, it would be used to prove she's too old to run, and none of the media twits would care that they didn't rip into Kerry for changing his face.  That would be the proverbial "different" and they would go back to dissecting her new look from every angle.

There's nothing wrong with the way Clinton looks; I'd be hugely disappointed if she'd given in to the pressure to look younger.  In fact, if I were Clinton, and someone asked me about it, I'd say, "see these wrinkles?  I got these when Seal Team 6 captured Osama bin Laden.  These over here?  I got them the night my granddaughter was born - they're from the smiling I couldn't stop doing I was so over-the-moon happy.  This face tells a lot of stories - some good and some not-so-good, but they are all part of who I am, and I wouldn't erase them for anything."