Riding Iowa momentum, Rubio consolidates support

MANCHESTER, N.H. - At times toward the end of last week, it seemed somebody had flipped a switch, and the hive mind of the Republican Party mainstream decided that Marco Rubio might be The One.

With his third-place finish in the Iowa caucuses Monday, Rubio rolled into New Hampshire with that fickle but powerful force - momentum - and began to consolidate GOP establishment support in the drive to stop real estate entrepreneur Donald Trump and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz.

Rivals, led by Gov. Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, honed their knives and slashed away at the first-term Florida senator. Both men and Ohio Gov. John Kasich also are vying to be the establishment dog in the fight and would face pressure to withdraw if Rubio finishes well ahead of them in New Hampshire's primary Tuesday.

Christie has mocked Rubio as the "boy in the bubble" protected by his staff from extensive questions from the public or press, "constantly scripted," and "the master of the drive-by town hall" who has been "giving the same speech for five years."

On Thursday, Rubio brushed aside as "silly" the attacks from Christie and Bush. "Look, when people are having a tough time in a campaign, especially near the end, you see some desperation set in and so they'll start saying things," Rubio told reporters in a brief exchange after an event. "But I'm not too worried about that."

Rubio has been rising in the polls here, to second place in the Real Clear Politics average of New Hampshire surveys. Trump averages 31 percent support of those likely to vote in the GOP primary; to 15 percent for Rubio, and 12 percent for Cruz.

Kasich averages 11 percent, Bush 10 percent, and Christie 5 percent.

The core of the criticism against Rubio: He is a gifted, inspiring speaker but has no executive experience or even many legislative accomplishments. It's a powerful line of attack in a party hardened against President Obama, who was also a first-term senator and fine orator when he was elected in 2008. Given the similarities, it's ironic that so many tout Rubio. And yet, he is a consultant's dream: moderate-sounding but conservative, a Latino from an important state.

"The question is how panicked is the establishment," said Fergus Cullen, a GOP strategist and former chairman of the New Hampshire party, who supports Kasich. "Do they need to coalesce now, or do they want to give this oxygen and room to play out until after the primary?"

In recent history, New Hampshire voters have not ratified Iowa's decisions. Candidates finishing fourth or lower on Tuesday will probably "get marginalized and pushed out," Cullen said. "Either Trump or Cruz would be a disaster at the top of the ticket here and in other swing states like Pennsylvania."

Steve Hunt, who attended a Rubio town hall Thursday at St. Anselm College in Manchester wearing an "Anybody but Clinton" T-shirt, said that goal was why he would vote for the Florida senator after his Iowa showing.

"We need the right candidate to beat Hillary Clinton, and right now that looks like Marco," said Hunt, 46, an independent insurance broker. "He's young; he's dynamic; he's the American dream."

In his remarks at the event, Rubio balanced dire warnings of the nation's character and power slipping away with optimism and his touchstone story as the child of Cuban immigrants. He said Obama views the Constitution "as an outdated document we need to figure out how to get around," for instance. And he also said, "This is the only country in the world where the son of a bartender and a maid can have the same dreams as the son of a president, the son of a millionaire."

Rubio took six questions from the audience, then stayed to shake hands, pose for selfies, and chat (one woman remarked that he wasn't wearing his now-famous high heeled boots).

Most places he went last week, Rubio seemed to make converts. Tom Wharton, a cardiologist from Hampton Falls, said at an Exeter event Tuesday that he was choosing among the top three Iowa finishers and was leaning toward Rubio.

"There's others I would pick, too, but I don't think there's a chance after their showing in Iowa," said Wharton, 70. "You want to pick one of the ones that seem to have a chance."

Cruz, a constitutional purist and favorite of evangelical voters, actually won Iowa, and as he campaigned in New Hampshire he was a bit annoyed at the Rubio buzz. Trump finished second.

"I understand that in the media newsrooms and in the Washington establishment circles, Marco is the chosen one," Cruz told reporters in the parking lot of Generals Sports Bar in Weare. "In the media's telling, bronze is the new gold."

In the final days before Tuesday's primary, Cruz has been telling crowds that Rubio agrees with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton that immigrants here illegally should be granted "amnesty" and allowed the chance to become U.S. citizens. That stems from Rubio's involvement with a group of senators who in 2013 tried to overhaul the immigration laws to provide a route to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants.

The bill, reviled by conservatives, collapsed, and Rubio now says he believes the borders should be controlled and monitoring of visa-holders increased before changes are considered. Cruz and others say that Rubio has flip-flopped and is soft on border control, a top issue for GOP primary voters.

"I've never seen the country in the mess it's in now - so much money controlling Washington," said Rodman Wilson, 89, a Marine veteran of World War II from Weare who came to the pub to listen to Cruz.

"They can't even control the border," he said. "I think, for the first time, we're in danger of becoming a third-world country."

tfitzgerald@phillynews.com

215-854-2718@tomfitzgerald

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Staff writer Maddie Hanna contributed to this article.