Embellishment or Liar: You Make The Call.

Senator Rubio, your 15 minutes are up. Adios.


During his rise to political prominence, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) frequently repeated a compelling version of his family’s history that had special resonance in South Florida. He was the “son of exiles,” he told audiences, Cuban Americans forced off their beloved island after “a thug,” Fidel Castro, took power.

But a review of documents — including naturalization papers and other official records — reveals that Rubio’s dramatic account of his family saga embellishes the facts. The documents show that Rubio’s parents came to the United States and were admitted for permanent residence more than 2 1 / 2 years before Castro’s forces overthrew the Cuban government and took power on New Year’s Day 1959...Rubio — now considered a prospective 2012 Republican vice presidential nominee and a possible future presidential candidate — mentions his parents in the second sentence of the official biography on his Senate Web site. It says Mario and Oriales Rubio “came to America following Fidel Castro’s takeover.” And the 40-year-old senator with the boyish smile and prom-king good looks has drawn on the power of that claim to entrance audiences captivated by the rhetorical skills of one of the more dynamic stump speakers in modern American politics.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/marco-rubios-compelling-family-story-embellishes-facts-documents-show/2011/10/20/gIQAaVHD1L_story.html?hpid=z4

 

Not fatal. He will continue to rise and be a leading GOP name for prez in 2016.

 

Stupid question: Is it possible he's just repeating a story his parents told him?

 

Is this why some birthers are targeting him now?

 

Of course they are targeting him -- he's not white, and his name ends in a vowel. Duh.

 

It will be interesting to see if this gets any coverage at all... I'm guessing it will not...

 

It's probably that. Plus, it's probably somewhat true.

They had permanent resident status, but that doesn't mean they couldn't go back.

Castro appears to be the reason they decided to stay.

 

Sounds like the most likely scenario.

 

He's not 12 year old. He's an elected official whose political life is based on the story of his parents. This isn't some off the cuff remark. This is his public identity. He lied, embellished and created the story to stand out and be noticed. Otherwise he's like 200,000,000 other Americans whose family emigrated to America in search of a better life. And his parents were able to do so while he fights to deny others the same chances.

 

The reason they're targeting him is because they claim that to be a natural-born citizen, you must not only be born in the U.S., but your parents (both of them) must be citizens at the time of birth.
They're basing this on the writings of some obscure Swiss philosopher named Vatell whom they claim the founding fathers relied upon when writing the Constitution.

 

I always thought you only had to be a citizen at birth. Hell, I could run for president.

 

of all the things to criticize Rubio for (and there are many) this isn't one of them. Even if his folks left in '57, the revolution was already underway by that point and they may have seen the writing on the wall and chose not to stay until the bitter, chaotic end.