Rubio is trying to be broadly acceptable to nearly everybody, and in a party as disrupted as today’s GOP, his challenge is much greater than what Clinton faced. Clinton had to stare down one wing, and once the left saw that he could potentially win the White House, they got on board. After the Democrats lost control of the Congress in 1994, Clinton turned to a Republican pollster, Dick Morris, who coined the phrase “triangulation” to describe how Clinton would be splitting the difference between Republicans and Democrats to find a common governing agenda.

Rubio is triangulating too, not between Republicans and Democrats, but between more Establishment conservatives and angry-as-hell hardliners on every social issue. On immigration (he was for it before he was against it), on climate change (he says it’s real but not man-made), and on abortion, his evolving position suggests some flexibility…

Rubio’s backers privately love the comparison with Clinton, who they credit with transforming the Democratic Party into a winning coalition. Rubio’s campaign pitch is that he’s the only one who is popular across the warring factions of the GOP, and that he can do what Clinton did, bring the party together and get the voters to give the GOP a fresh look, and bring Hispanics, Asians and young people into the fold.