chris christie depicts marco rubio as a truant schoolboy. jeb bush<u+2019>s top ally portrays him as a weather vane. ted cruz and his supporters characterize him as a nervous sellout who bowed to democratic demands for <u+201c>amnesty.<u+201d>









in commercials, interviews and face-to-face meetings with voters, rubio<u+2019>s 2016 rivals and their backers are waging increasingly personal attacks, using different words to say much the same thing: that the freshman senator from florida is weak and unreliable.









with their pointed attacks, rubio<u+2019>s rivals have essentially taken a page out of donald trump<u+2019>s playbook. after months of trying and failing to dislodge the brash gop front-runner, the field is now focused heavily on rubio, who is seen as a vulnerable and necessary target straddling the line between the conservative and establishment wings of the republican party.









thursday night<u+2019>s fox business news debate in north charleston, s.c., will put the new dynamic on display before a national audience with less than three weeks to go until the iowa caucuses. rubio advisers and allies are tight-lipped about his debate strategy, but in general they say that he will not endure attacks quietly. rubio tends to respond to criticism with specific, well-rehearsed policy critiques rather than personal jabs.









however, in a campaign where trump, christie and cruz have ascended on the strength of their belligerent dispositions and quippy broadsides, rubio<u+2019>s softer approach carries risks.









<u+201c>he<u+2019>s not as inflammatory [as] others, and those personal attacks tend to get headlines,<u+201d> said rep. jason chaffetz (r-utah), a rubio supporter. <u+201c>but marco rubio is that steady, responsible conservative with a message that<u+2019>s inspirational for a lot of us.<u+201d>









one of the most searing attacks on rubio yet came this week in the form of a web video from keep the promise i, a super pac supporting cruz. the 1 -minute spot splices together footage of president obama praising the immigration reform bill rubio once pushed and clips from interviews edited to give rubio a deer-in-the-headlights look.









to many republicans, rubio<u+2019>s youth is one of his best attributes. the 44-year-old candidate regularly talks about hip-hop, electronic dance music, uber and airbnb. he looks, sounds and sometimes dresses younger than most republican officials.









but where some see an appealing freshness, others see inexperience and weakness <u+2014> critiques similar to those leveled at barack obama by republicans in 2008.









<u+201c>marco rubio has never run anything. i<u+2019>m not sure he could run a bath,<u+201d> said roger stone, a longtime trump confidant who departed trump<u+2019>s political team last year.









right to rise usa, a super pac supporting former florida governor jeb bush, put out a video this week that kicked off a multi-pronged attack against rubio, including seemingly questioning his masculinity and accusing him of changing his position on cap-and-trade regulations, immigration and other issues.









<u+201c>these boots are made for flippin<u+2019> and that<u+2019>s just what they<u+2019>ll do. one of these days young marco<u+2019>s gonna flip, flop, flip on you,<u+201d> sings a woman in the video, which makes fun of rubio<u+2019>s well-documented fashion choice during a recent swing through new hampshire: a pair of stylish black high-heeled boots. right to rise also released a tv ad showing a rubio cutout spinning around on a weather vane.









in a wednesday interview with msnbc, bush <u+2014> who at 6-3 is at least five inches taller than rubio <u+2014> was asked whether he owned any platform boots. <u+201c>i don<u+2019>t have a height issue,<u+201d> he said.









[strategic or overconfident? rubio plays hard to get with voters]









trump, who also has a height advantage, said last week on a boston radio station that it <u+201c>helps to be tall.<u+201d>









<u+201c>i don<u+2019>t know what to think of those boots,<u+201d> he said, adding: <u+201c>they<u+2019>re big heels. i mean, those heels are really up there.<u+201d>









rubio has called the fascination with his boots <u+201c>craziness<u+201d> at a time when consequential events are unfolding across the world.









for most of rubio<u+2019>s competitors, finishing ahead of him rather than trump is a more realistic goal in the early states. it<u+2019>s particularly critical for those stuck in the middle tier to receive a boost with donors and voters in the first wave of contests.









christie, new jersey<u+2019>s governor, is a good example. since the last debate in december, the rubio-christie rift has deepened.









christie has said in recent interviews with the washington post and other news outlets that rubio <u+201c>turns tail and runs<u+201d> (a reference to him walking away from comprehensive immigration reform); that the <u+201c>truant officer is out looking for him<u+201d> (a reference to his many senate absences and perhaps his relative youth); and that democratic candidate hillary clinton would <u+201c>cut his heart out.<u+201d>









rubio and his campaign have hit back, but on policy rather than character.









<u+201c>i<u+2019>m sure he doesn<u+2019>t really want to have a conversation about the issues,<u+201d> rubio said of christie in nashua, n.h., last week. rubio dinged the new jersey governor as a backer of common core education standards, said he <u+201c>ran for office as a supporter of gun control<u+201d> and noted that christie once made a contribution to planned parenthood. days earlier, a pro-rubio super pac unveiled a tv ad campaign in new hampshire with similar lines of attack.









[<u+2018>he<u+2019>s cuban. i<u+2019>m mexican.<u+2019> can rubio and cruz connect with latino voters?]









on monday, rubio delivered a speech on taxes<u+00ad> in which he took policy swipes at christie and cruz. in a clear shot at the senator from texas, rubio said not to be fooled by advocates of a <u+201c>business flat tax,<u+201d> which he said acts like a <u+201c>value-added tax,<u+201d> widespread in foreign countries but not the united states.









much of cruz<u+2019>s anti-rubio rhetoric has been associated with his membership in the bipartisan <u+201c>gang of eight<u+201d> that pushed a comprehensive immigration bill in 2013. the bill included a path to citizenship that conservative opponents call <u+201c>amnesty.<u+201d>









rubio has fought back against cruz by pointing to an amendment cruz pushed offering legal status to undocumented immigrants. (cruz says it was a poison pill meant to foil democrats.) rubio has also sought to run to cruz<u+2019>s right on national security, hitting him hard over his vote to stop the government<u+2019>s bulk collection of americans<u+2019> telephone metadata.









recent polling shows rubio edging up to second or third place in each of the first two nominating states. there<u+2019>s a growing sentiment that party elites will eventually coalesce around an alternative to trump and cruz, who some leading republicans fear are too combative for the general election. rubio is trying fend off christie, bush and ohio gov. john kasich in that sub-contest.









even as he stresses his youth and next-generation appeal, rubio has tried to appear presidential as his rivals raise doubts about him. he is pitching himself as the strongest possible commander in chief. his events, even the small ones, have a formal feel to them, with a stage always erected at the front. his tv ads include several spots with dark themes and dire warnings about threats overseas.









rubio will have to adjust a bit to thursday<u+2019>s debate because rand paul, a natural opponent on foreign policy, did not poll well enough to appear on the main stage. in the last debate, rubio took am at the kentucky senator<u+2019>s libertarian-leaning foreign policy to tout his more hawkish views.









rubio has tended to do well in the debates, winning positive reviews in each of the previous five meetings.









after the debate, rubio will hit the campaign trail in new hampshire and then iowa, where some like evan sinclair, 20, are nervously watching whether he can blunt his rivals<u+2019> attacks. observing rubio shake hands in the des moines suburbs recently, sinclair said he hopes the senator can catch fire.









<u+201c>rubio had better shine a light so the republican party can exist,<u+201d> he said. <u+201c>people need to wake up and see a rational candidate is needed.<u+201d>
his rivals are saying the same thing in different ways: marco rubio is weak
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