Forget Senate -- Marco Rubio for president?

This, in part, is how Republican Senate candidate Marco Rubio was introduced at a luncheon for the Latin Builders Association in Miami Friday:

"I think maybe, one day, maybe, he'll be the first Cuban-American president of the United States!" said Noelia Moreno, president of the LBA. (And she was not referring to a GOP presidential straw poll earlier this month that included Rubio.)

The former House speaker was among friends -- about 350 of them -- at a ballroom at the Big Five Club, where the crowd gave a warm reception to a candidate considered one of their own. In giving his usual stump speech, Rubio also took time to praise his friends, saying only his relatives and "a handful of people in this room" thought a year ago that he could win the Senate race.

"I am grateful and I thank God every day that I went through that," Rubio said of being way behind in the polls at first. That helped him focus on the question of why he is running for office, he said.

"Are you running to be somebody? Or are you running to do something?" he said, adding that if he were running to be somebody, he would have picked an easier contest. (Rubio has used this line before, but it still got laughs.)

Before and after the speech, Rubio took some questions from reporters, including several regarding his expenses using a Republican Party of Florida credit card -- though he did not directly address a report about spending on kitchen flooring.

"We’ve been answering questions about this for six months," Rubio said. "I’ve said it over and over again. The answer’s the same as it’s always been. Any time there was anything on there that was personal in nature, I identified it immediately, we paid for it out of my personal funds."

And when a PBS reporter asked him about the presidency, Rubio smiled and brushed off the question, saying he looks forward to serving the public and then returning to Miami to be successful in another field.

Comments

[Boycott Marco Rubio]

That's right !!! Any business that has a Rubio sign, refuse to do business with them. They have therightto their sign, and we have the right to take our business elsewhere. Tell your friends, neighbors and co-workers. Boycott Marco Rubio!!

REAL FREEDOM !!!!

[Kat]

Marco Rubio for President? Where do I sign up to volunteer?!! Kat =^..^=

[JCasey]

Rubio cannot bring Florida and its economy back, he'll certainly never achieve a viable presidential campaign and he hasn't removed the "hand-in-the-till" taint that follows him through his career, to date. Meek or Crist each offer Florida a surer hand in DC

[whatsright]

Rubio 2012!