“Like most things in politics, we are keenly aware of how fleeting this all is and how most news hype is all sound and no fury,” said Rubio’s senior strategist, Todd Harris. “You run the risk of becoming overexposed and overserved, not to mention the fact you might screw up.”…

“Marco Rubio has an unerring ear for how to frame a conservative argument,” said Republican pollster Whit Ayres. “Just listen to the way he frames an argument and you will hear a very different argument than we have heard in recent years.”

That is a quality people have seen in Rubio since the beginning of his political career.

“When I came back from my first session, I can remember saying, ‘He’s the pick of the litter.’ He really separated himself from his Republican colleagues,” said Dan Gelber, who was the Democratic minority leader in the Florida House of Representatives while Rubio was speaker. “He navigates nuance as well as anyone you’re going to meet in this world. He has very good political instincts.”