LET THE MEDIA-DRIVEN POLITICAL HUNGER GAMES BEGIN!

I know this may seem like I'm being a backseat driver but I can't help but wish that our up-and-coming political stars would be as thorough in their preparation for the tricks and traps so carefully laid out by the Establishment Media as Obama was in pandering relentlessly to his base voters.  Leave no stone unturned and be prepared for anything and everything! Even though the 2012 elections were only two weeks ago, hunting season for our hopelessly biased media has already started for 2016.  First target: Marco Rubio.

GQ: How old do you think the Earth is?

Marco Rubio: I'm not a scientist, man. I can tell you what recorded history says, I can tell you what the Bible says, but I think that's a dispute amongst theologians and I think it has nothing to do with the gross domestic product or economic growth of the United States. I think the age of the universe has zero to do with how our economy is going to grow. I'm not a scientist. I don't think I'm qualified to answer a question like that. At the end of the day, I think there are multiple theories out there on how the universe was created and I think this is a country where people should have the opportunity to teach them all. I think parents should be able to teach their kids what their faith says, what science says. Whether the Earth was created in 7 days, or 7 actual eras, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to answer that. It's one of the great mysteries.  

My first thought when I heard about this question was to assume that the point of it was to make Rubio look stupid.  Or, more specifically, to set him up to be portrayed as ignorant or gaffe-prone by other members of the hostile media. 

Marco Rubio may be the future of the Republican Party, but his views on science appear to be stuck somewhere in the seventeenth century. In a new interview with GQ, Rubio was asked how old he thinks the Earth is, and to anyone who believes that science is more accurate than the Bible in matters of geology, his answer is either amusing, depressing, or enraging — or possibly all three simultaneously. But parse it closely, and it appears that Rubio does endorse science, albeit subtly and perhaps accidentally...

Tee hee! So snarky! Rubio even merited a special hashtag on Twitter.

But as Allahpundit pointed out:

They want to put Rubio on the spot by seeing if he’ll risk alienating religious conservatives before the 2016 primaries by rejecting Young Earth creationism. If he does, then he may have a problem in famously evangelical Iowa. If he doesn’t, then the media can start hand-wringing over the next big Republican star supposedly pandering to creationists. The point is to discomfort him politically, not to explore the subject. As Bryan Preston says, it’s a small early effort in the project to destroy Rubio before 2016.

It's interesting to strip away Rubio's answers and just look at the sequence of questions asked, as depicted in the article:

• You're the first senator I've ever spoken to who had a transformative life experience at a South Beach foam party—committing to the woman who became your wife.
• How do you balance ambition and humility?
• Do you think you're moving too fast?
• We've seen people tend toward inspiring transformational figures. You know you had Barack Obama in 2004...
• Do you want to be one of those people?
• People often talk about how there are politicians and there are leaders.
• By that definition Obama would fall into that, right?
• The Republican strategy after Obama came into office was to make sure the president didn't have another term. The Republicans didn't have a plan and were just going to say no to everything the president put forth. 
• One of the poignant moments in your book is when you're hanging out with your grandfather on the porch. If he were with you now, what are some things you would ask him?
• You were obviously very moved by your grandfather's dignity and your father's dignity. What are the qualities that would qualify for a man to have dignity?
• How old do you think the Earth is? 
• You talk a lot to young Republicans. Recently I met a Republican who said, my kids are in high school and there's a prom. There's straight kids, gay kids. It's no big deal to them. And he says, my party, the Republican party, has to stop putting these social issues out there and talking more about stuff that effects people.
• Who's your best friend?
• Besides your wife.
• Your autobiography also has to be the first time a politician has cited a love of Afrika Bambaataa. Did you have a favorite Afrika Bambaataa song?
• Your three favorite rap songs?
• Is there a song you play to psych you up before a vote in the Senate?
• So, Pitbull's too cheesy? 

I suspect that Rubio was not expecting a random question about the Earth's age popping up in the middle of a series of personal questions.  What has the Earth got to do with getting to know Marco Rubio?  Nothing, of course.  It's a "gotcha" question.  And when I talk about being thoroughly prepared for these kinds of silly questions I mean war-gaming all possible scenarios and deciding how to answer them.   

Generally speaking, it should be a simple (if tedious) matter of the potential candidate creating an exhaustive list of issues and then solidifying in his or her mind what he or she believes and then crafting an answer that both accurately conveys that belief and minimizes the opportunity for ridicule from a hostile media.  Obviously this is something that Marco Rubio is quite capable of handling with ease.  He just has to understand that every media person asking him a question is a potential hostile and that nothing, absolutely nothing, can be taken for granted.  There is still plenty time to do this.  On the other hand, the time has already arrived.  Let's be careful out there!