Barely an hour after Mitt Romney conceded the presidential election Wednesday morning, Marco Rubio laid down his marker for 2016: No, he wouldn't be the candidate of the tired old white guy.
"The conservative movement should have particular appeal to people in minority and immigrant communities who are trying to make it," the GOP Florida senator posted on his Facebook page at 2:16 a.m. "And Republicans need to work harder than ever to communicate our beliefs to them."
This is indisputably Rubio's moment, and how the 41-year-old senator and the most prominent Latino in national politics today carries his party's demographic burden will define not only his own future -- but the future of the Republican Party. He was the biggest Republican winner Tuesday, Republicans will tell you, as it became painfully clear that Romney would carry only 27 percent of the nation's fastest-growing demographic.
(Also on POLITICO: Immigration reform returns to foreground)
Now, as fingers are pointed and blame is assigned, all eyes are on Rubio to help lead his party out of the political abyss with Hispanic voters. As Rubio positions himself for a 2016 run, his advisers are adamant that he not become merely the Latino candidate but a conservative leader with a compelling voice who can articulate to Hispanics that the Republican Party's values are their values -- family, social conservatism, free-market entrepreneurialism.
"He is without question a world-class political talent with the ability to lead the party into the 21st century ... a party that has become synonymous with intolerance and loons to too many swing voters," said Republican strategist Steve Schmidt, who ran Sen. John McCain's 2008 presidential campaign.
