Marco Rubio has experience, but is it the experience Mitt Romney requires?

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) speaks to the media before a town hall during a campaign stop with Florida Sen. Marco Rubio at Mustang Expediting, April 23, 2012 in Aston, Pennsylvania.

/ Getty

This post originally appeared on Slate.

Stephen Hayes in the Weekly Standard has written a typically thorough and smart analysis of Marco Rubio, who occupies the default spot at the top of most people's list of vice presidential nominees. In that article, Rubio defends himself against an argument I made a few weeks ago about his lack of executive experience:

I chuckled when I read an article yesterday. The guy wrote that the only experience I have is being on the city commission. I mean, I'm not telling you that I'm the most experienced guy in the Capitol, but I served nine years in one of the largest legislatures in the country. I was in leadership eight of my nine years. I was majority whip, majority leader, and speaker of the house. We had a $72 billion budget--which is larger than most states. I wasn't part of the landscaping crew until last week, either.

WeeklyStandard.com

Great point, senator! Indeed, as the guy wrote in the article, you've got more experience than Abe Lincoln had when he became president. The question isn't whether you've got experience -- you've arguably faced more political challenges than Barack Obama had in political life when he ran for president in 2008. The question is whether you've got the kind of experience the man who might be your boss thinks is crucial for the job.

How important does Mitt Romney think it is to have executive and not legislative experience? While I was looking through old Romney ads, I came upon this one which is about the centrality of executive experience. Talking about why Hillary Clinton would make such a terrible president, he said: "She hasn't run a corner store; she hasn't run a state; she hasn't run a city. She has never run anything."

If you've never run anything, Gov. Romney thinks you are disqualified from office. Marco Rubio falls short of the Romney standard. Does that matter? As Hayes points out, Rubio is a talented politician. What independent voter is going to think even for a second about the academic question of whether politicians have a certain kind of experience? Voters make their choice based on their gut and Rubio has a lot that appeals to that gut. Plus, nominees have picked running mates that contradict things they've said before. Heck, Ronald Reagan picked his opponent, George Bush. President Obama picked Joe Biden, who once said Obama wasn't qualified for the office. So no big deal.

But is there a different standard for Romney, since one of his weaknesses is that he's regularly reversed positions that he previously suggested were iron-clad. Romney has been attacked for this, but he's been talented enough at showing malleability and at shifting his emphasis on things to get himself the GOP nomination. Anyone who is so sensitive to these kinds of flip-flops that they would disqualify Romney has already done so. That means the political downside to choosing Rubio--and appearing to flip-flop once again--might be zero. Independent voters don't like rigidity. So, if you really wanted to push it, you could argue that by picking Rubio (who does not come across as doctrinaire) Romney might send signals to independent voters that he's not as "severely conservative" as he tried so hard to prove during the primaries.

It is a cliche of campaigns that a nominee's vice presidential pick is the first presidential-level decision he makes. Usually that is supposed to mean it's a furrowed-brow business, nonpolitical and all about the attributes required for office -- like executive experience. But contradicting what you once prized with a straight face is also a necessary requirement of the presidency. So even if Romney picks Rubio, his staff can still claim he passed the first presidential test with flying colors.

[cpjohn1]

Why do they ask questions they already know the answer to? Rubio is a freshman, so how could he possibly already have the experience Romney needs? Stupid question.

[USSAmerikan]

The Left should be really scared of Marco Rubio... He is the antithesis to the Axiom that all Latinos are Democrats. He is proof that Latinos thrive within the Republican party because they share many of the same beliefs, including the sanctity of life and marriage. Rubio is intelligent and articulate and just think how cool a Conga line at a campaign rally would look :-)

[myrhode]

You and the rest of the GOP prolly assume all Latinos look (vote) alike, and the electorate is dumb enough to fall for yet another token "Game Change" VP pick.

Here I thought the GOP was all concerned about who was a TRUE US citizen ?? Just proves what 'tea-baggers' will throw-up, but only for as long as it suits their nefarious purpose.

Rubio is prolly a good fit for Romney though, another guy willing to lie about his past (fleeing Castro, eh?) just to win office. Go back to watching FOX like a real AmeriKan.

[AOCGUY]

I don't think the left has anything to fear from Rubio. Cuban Americans have always leaned as a group towards the GOP but the overwhelming majority of Hispanic Americans are not of Cuban extraction. Cuban Americans may affect the results in Miami-Dade county but that is about it. Other than the Tea Party and knee-jerk republicans in this state Rubio generally pisses the rest of us in Florida off.

[democracy8]

In a word, "NO".

[mercury3424]

A recent Rubio speech was on a par with your typical college sophomore.

[luadda22]

That's good. That's really a step-up.

University of Minnesota ran President Obama's 2012 State of the Union address through a "readability formula" and reported that it scored as having been written at an 8.4 grade level.

[mercury3424]

Here's the difference: Obama's State of the Union address has to be WRITTEN at an 8th grade level so that the widest swath of Americans possible can comprehend it. (In short, not too many big words.) By comparison, Rubio DELIVERED his recent speech with all the pananche of a college sophomore, i.e., very amateurisly.

[Paul_I]

Time to shake the Etch-A-Sketch!

[Montana5]

Whoever! Lipstick on a pig. The Repubs have spent billions narrowing it down to a candidate who has no chance in November. Good job!

[lil1408]

If Rubio was the whip in the Legislature, we Floridians can thank him for enslavement laws now on the books. I think Congress should give Mexico the same opportunity to reject statehood that Puerto Rico got!

[AOCGUY]

I think it is unlikely that Romney will pick Rubio. Yes he is popular with the Tea Party but he just pisses the rest of us off. I would also find it fascinating should he get the nod how the Republicans that hammered Obama so hard on lack of executive experience could then ignore that in Rubio. Trust me the democrats will remember and will most likely bring it up.

Don't get me wrong, Rubio is smart, but he is also a polarizing figure. He has a lot of baggage from his time in the FL Senate and he was recently caught in a lie regarding how his parents came to the U.S., claiming they were refugees when they were anything but. I'm sure us Floridians will be stuck with Rubio for years to come but I do pray the rest of the country doesn't have to suffer that same fate.

[realist2010]

Republicans have done a good job kicking the TEA Party to the curb in the primary process. Don't screw it up now by bringing in Rubio.

[Bryon_Evans]

Didn't they just say yesterday that Romney wanted the Gay guy back? This getting as hard to keep track of as a soap opera.... "Who does Mitt really love? The boyish Gay assistant or the aged more manly Rubio? Tune in next week and find out. Maybe."

[marychgo]

Nine years in the Florida legislature, much of it in the Republican leadership? Seems to me there might be some interesting history to be explored there....

[Fox_Rush_Zombie]

EXACTLY!!

There is no place in America more corrupt than South Florida and no group of people more dishonest than 'Cuban-Americans'.

[AOCGUY]

Of course Rubios' experience in the Florida legislature was in Tallhassee - a long way from south Florida.