Ladra was only half joking about the tailgate party. Because I did spend Saturday following the Marco Rubio magical tour bus on two-thirds of his opening day. And what a trip it was!
First, I saw U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio — whose rising star is so bright he has a tour bus like a rock star’s — at the Barnes & Noble in Kendall just after 3:30 p.m. I didn’t get there early enough and went in right before him and he rushed by behind me before I could realize it. He went up the escalators in a cloudburst of cops and (probably) publishing people to greet a waiting crowd of hundreds of book buyers — and, many of them, voters. Local news crews trailed along with me — told ya it was a tailgate party — because, after all, this could be a historic moment in the life of our next vice president. Or something like that.
This was on the second stop of the first day of his U.S. book tour for An American Son, which started today in West Palm Beach and ended at venerable Books & Books in Coral Gables in such a celebratory atmosphere, where the majority of the crowd is convinced it’s basically inevitable that Rubio end up to the White House — in one way or another. Hours earlier, at the giant chain store on suburban Kendall Drive just west of the Turnpike, hundreds of people filed through a line upstairs that snaked through the self-help aisles — just like at Disney World — to get his tiny little scribble on the title page of their copy of Rubio’s autobiography — available for $26.95. While Ladra hopes the Senator got some muscular training in his hand in preparation for this John Hancock marathon, I couldn’t help but notice that the scribble got wider and less “tight,” if you will, as the line grew to the end at Books & Books. One of his handlers said he signed more than 2,000 books Saturday and would likely sign 10,000 by the end of the week. Better cuidarte against carpal tunnel, Senator.
Books & Books owner Mitchell Kaplan said the event rivaled the book signings by both President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton. Kaplan said about 1,000 books were sold Saturday, but there were people there who brought their own. Like Maria Ibarra, of Coral Gables, who was reading in the line that stretched almost to Ponce de Leon Boulevard.
“I’m on chapter five,” she told me as we chatted, awaiting Prince Rubio. Ibarra has always loved the legislator, who she has voted for since he was in the Florida House. “He is part of this community and he grew up with our values. His family has always been close to him. Everything was simpler, more beautiful in that time. I am living my past,” said Ibarra about the book, which she got for her 80th birthday.
“I’m the same age as Marco Rubio’s mother,” Ibarra beamed. “It’s in the book.”
People are practically hypnotized by him. It’s amazing — and fun to watch.
“He’s got this thing about him,” said Dottie Vazquez, who can’t put her finger on it either. “When he’s talking, his laugh. He mesmerizes people. Tiene algo. He has something.”
Ladra heard that over and over again as people came away from the Senator smiling. Maybe it’s some kind of Marco Mojo. But he ought to bottle that then. One woman who brought two books — one for her son, who she said was “an American son” like Rubio, and another for her Cuban-American husband — almost cried talking to me about the Senator and how she hoped he would become the President. Real tears.
Many people brought more than one book for Rubio to sign. The man in front of me at the Kendall signing had seven. Yes, seven. There was a very organized process, kind of like a well-oiled machine; we had to have our books open to the title page a few steps behind the person in front of him. Some staffer took a photo with your phone for you. There were four or five, maybe six, people from the publishing house with black shirts emblazoned on the back with three lines: “MARCO RUBIO, An American Son, 2012 National Book Tour.” Like if he was Prince or something.
Where can I freaking buy one of those?
The man that could be vice president — heck, some say more — was gracious and funny, charming and as charismatic as ever as he signed every last person’s book, even the scragglers, and posed for endless photos with people and entire families. At one point, a couple of women looked at the photo on their phone that a Rubio or book tour aide took — she took everyone’s photo for them and I can’t help but wonder if that’s a security measure. They either didn’t like the way they came out or it was blurry because one of them said something like, “Aw, it didn’t come out.” And immediately, the Senator didn’t miss a beat to say, “Well, c’mon, let’s do it again.” The TV cameras were gone already. It was not part of the roadshow. He really was exceedingly gracious, even with me. He knew that I had worked at the Miami Herald before VOXXI and Political Cortadito, I didn’t tell him, and its that kind of attention to detail that makes him stand out. It’s that mesmerizing thing.
But I have to try to look at him with an even eye (fighting the groupie urge), so I didn’t hound him again the second time at Books & Books, even though I have the book in Spanish as well and I could have had him sign that one. I just hung back, maybe by the bar, and watched how people reacted to him and how he interacted with people. They cheered when he arrived in his tour bus and got out. They all had out cellphones to document the historic moment. I would not be surprised if Facebook newsfeeds are packed with Rubio book tour photos. I spoke to some of the people there. Not all of them were the Senator’s stock voter base of the over 55 Hispanics (read: Cuban). Twins Adrian and Gabriella Cibran, 17, came with their schoolteacher mom because they wanted to, they told me. “We like the Senator,” said Adrian, who is going to intern in the district office. “We think he’s great and stands with our principals.” Said his sister: “We watch the news a lot. Fox and CNN are always on at our house.”
Fox and CNN. I want to hang out at that house.
Inside, the Senator didn’t stop smiling as he signed away and posed for more photos with all his adoring fans. I watched from the side wall, trying to get a fly’s perspective of this man who is becoming a huge national political force. He never once failed to say “thank you” or shake some kid’s hand. He’s very fino, educado. There’s some of that you can fake and some you can’t. That part is not faked. Maybe some of it is a political act, like some people say, but are we so cynical that we can never believe someone is just saying they’re real because they are real? When can we give the benefit of the doubt?
Ladra is giving Rubio hers — for now. Yes, I’m taking a lot of freaking flack for it, but everybody knows I am about defending the process, not the parties. And maybe I am more willing to hear what he’s got to say because he’s not a shrill voice echoing the extreme slogans on either side. He’s saying a lot more lately. And he’s making more sense. Maybe, like some say, he’s being more moderate because he has to. But he’s being more moderate. Don’t we want that? And so we are going to be disdainful when we get it? Don’t worry, I’m going to see where he goes with it.
And to all those who say he is anti-immigrant, I say I don’t believe it. You have to try to open your mind to what he is saying. He says there is no way that he would support deporting 11 million people but that there can’t be amnesty for all of them because the American people do not support it. Are you listening? He is saying that we need to get the American people to support it. He is smart. And he is right. I don’t want any more cheerleaders who say nice things that sound good and aren’t going to get us anywhere. Maybe we don’t agree on all the issues — okay, there’s no maybe about it, as he swore to repeal the Affordable Healthcare Act — but he knows we have to make immigration reform more palatable to the general public. My goodness, it is so damn refreshing to hear the ugly truth from a politician.
Say what you want about the man’s darker side — and I will read the other book, the unauthorized one that was in the works when Rubio decided to preempt it and write his version — and his willingness to accept Republican nominee Mitt Romney’s ridiculous positions on immigration, just for starters. He still makes more sense than a lot of people on the two extremes on this issue and I’d rather have him working on it from the inside than not.
In any case, like it or not, we better start accepting that Rubio — whether he becomes a running mate now or later — is a force to be reckoned with. This year, next year — and for years to come.
So that’s one reason why Ladra is following him around like I’m a puppy again, like I used to follow the Grateful Dead from town to town for a very short while. Very short. Yes, I’ve come a long way from wannabe deadhead and now I want to be the nation’s foremost “Rubiologist.” (Note to self: We have to trademark that.) I told him this as he signed my book and he laughed what seemed a truly genuine, surprised laugh. Not unlike he laughed throughout the day. I think he sorta got a kick out of it.
“We can help you do that,” he said, probably half joking.
But a girl can hope and dream, can’t she?
Trailing Sen. Marco Rubio like he was Jerry Garcia added by Ladra on
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