There is no doubt in my mind that Marco Rubio is the most talented politician in either party’s field this year – by a quite substantial margin. I’ve said here numerous times before that he is the most gifted politician I have seen since Bill Clinton. His ability to answer questions, to convey emotion through a television screen, and to deflect hostile media questioning are without a doubt much more on point than Ted Cruz’s.

But I don’t see in Rubio the same ruthless desire to win that I see in Cruz, at all. I get the sense that Ted Cruz gets up every single morning and thinks to himself, “I am going to convince some people to vote for me today,” and I don’t see that in Rubio…

I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and observing both Cruz and Rubio in person over brief stretches of time throughout the years thanks to the generous way both have consistently lent their time to attend the RedState gathering. Rubio has always been perfectly generous with his time and I don’t mean to imply anything different. But what I have observed of Cruz is consistent with what is described here in this Iowa meeting. If you disagree with him about anything, even strenuously, he will go the extra mile to stay and talk to you. If you present him with new information he has not considered, he will consider it and actually allow it to possibly influence his thinking.