I used to hate the Chicago Bulls. In fact, I hated them so much I almost quit watching the NBA entirely due to how boring they made the NBA every year during Jordan’s reign. It was almost pitiful how little chance the other teams had when Jordan was in his prime. But that having been said, I used to watch them play sometimes just for the sheer joy of watching a once-in-a-lifetime talent do his thing. He was unstoppable. Once he had a halfway decent team assembled around him, he ran over everyone he wanted to beat. And even though I always rooted against him, there was a small part of me that would say, “I’m glad I got to see this unfold.”

Support [mc_name name=’Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’R000595′ ] or not, the man is good at what he does. It’s a pleasure watching the way he, with a smile on his face, torches opponents and the media alike. He never touches a sour note. He never lets anyone or anything get to him. He always sounds in command of the facts and he always manages to make his point connect with the listener. Watching him right now, he is at the top of his game, turning every attack aside pretty much effortlessly, especially in our soundbite world.

I don’t know if he’ll win or not (I think he will) and I don’t know if he should win or not (I think it’s between him and Cruz on that score), but it’s a pleasure watching him do what he does. And so, without further preamble, here are two clips of Rubio on FoxNews today, doing what he does, talking first about foreign policy:

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4AgFU4ENd0k&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]

Lee: [crosstalk] You know, Russia’s saying today, this is an unfriendly act, this is a stab in the back – if Russia actually takes measures and we don’t know what those are against Turkey, what does the United States do?

Rubio: Well, first, it’s the reason why I warned about having Russia in the Middle East, it’s so complicated. I warned that exactly, specifically this could happen, that there could be an incident with Turkey, a NATO ally, that they could have… could aggressively fly over their territory and be shot down. They do this to the Baltic States, and now they did it in this case when it comes to Turkey. So, what would a confrontation look like? Well, first of all, you’ve already seen it. And that is, what will the Russian response be? And this is a critical moment, because if Russia believes they can respond and retaliate against Turkey because NATO’s not going to do anything about it, what they are basically doing is they are making the argument that NATO is no longer viable, that it is feckless, uh, alliance. And so it’s important for us to be very clear that we will respond and defend Turkey if they come under assault from the Russians. Otherwise the entire NATO alliance comes into question.

And second about whether lack of experience will hold him back:

[youtube]https://youtu.be/ZHYzS7lSEkY[/youtube]

Lee: So, I just want to move on a little bit past some of the foreign policy… and talk a little bit about your experience. Because a lot of viewers have questions about that. Just want to point out that you’re part of the Foreign Relations Committee in the Senate, the Intelligence Committee, the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, and Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, so you’re a member of a lot of powerful committees in the Senate. Tiffany, though, has this question: “Many people say President Obama has done poorly because he is a first term Senator taking the job as President. How is [mc_name name=’Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’R000595′ ] any different?” How would you answer Tiffany?

Rubio: Well, if you were a liberal, you’d say President Obama’s been a very successful President from a liberal perspective. I mean, he got Dodd-Frank, he got the stimulus, he got Obamacare, he’s gotten two unconstitutional Executive Orders, he got the deal with Iran. The problem with Barack Obama was not that he was a first term Senator, the problem with Barack Obama is that his ideas don’t work. Barack Obama now has seven years of Presidential experience. That’s more than anyone running for President. And he’s still a failure, and he’s still making mistakes. So it’s not the experience; after seven years of Presidential experience. It’s that his principles and ideas do not work. His ideas of big government, more spending, more taxes, more regulations, they don’t work. They’ve never worked, but they’re especially disastrous in the new economy, and his idea that America is the cause of global chaos, not the solution to it, of weakening our national defense, that doesn’t work either.