Matt K. Lewis in the Daily Caller

There is obviously a lot of time between now and the next presidential election, and many will surely say it is premature to even talk about it. But with Sen. Marco Rubio going to Iowa – and Gov. Bobby Jindal speaking out on the future of the GOP — the campaign seems to have unofficially begun...

Should he run in 2016, Rubio would have more DC experience than Obama, but probably not so much as to turn him into a Bob Dole, John McCain, or a John Kerry.

Still, in a post-Obama world, the experience question will be raised by some fellow Republicans. For example, Jindal has a richer resume. But Jindal hasn’t proven himself to be a terrific or inspiring communicator. And that’s vitally important.

You know you’re in trouble when you hear someone say: “We don’t need a young and exciting candidate who is charismatic. We had enough of that last time!”

Wrong. A candidate who is too charismatic is like a girl that is too pretty — something that doesn’t exist (not in the modern media age, at least).

Reagan was a star. Bill Clinton was Elvis. George Bush had that damn Texas swagger. And (as much as conservatives hate to admit it), there’s something about Barry that earned him the reputation as “the biggest celebrity in the world.”

Rubio has more star power than any of the likely GOP candidates, and — like it, or not — that matters. Rubio helps fix the problem with young voters. He helps fix the problem with college-educated voters. He would be equally as successful on “Meet the Press” as on MTV or “The View.”...

I’ve long advocated Thatcher’s maxim that “first you win the argument, then you win the vote.” Mitt Romney surely couldn’t win the argument. And though George W. Bush won elections and votes, he skipped winning the argument (a fatal conceit.) The best conservatives, like Ronald Reagan, can teach and persuade the American public to follow them. Rubio has this gift.

Now the Hispanic thing. The argument that Rubio’s Cuban background does not automatically guarantee Hispanic support is, of course, correct. I wrote about this years ago when I interviewed Carlos Eire, a Yale professor and author of “Learning to Die in Miami,”

“Marco Rubio is a white guy, and the Mexicans and Central Americans who love to think of themselves as ‘brown’ or as a separate race (La Raza), are not going to gravitate to Rubio just because his parents spoke Spanish at home,” Eire told me...

If the goal is to attract the most Hispanics based solely on the candidate’s race, and play “identity politics,” then a Mexican-American candidate would be a much better bet. But I don’t think that’s the goal — nor should it be.