There are more than 3,500 news stories and counting on Google News about Sen. Marco Rubio’s brief encounter with a little bottle of water as he delivered the official Republican response to the State of the Union address.
The sip lasted a mere four seconds, but gleeful journalists and pundits spent hours cobbling together clever accounts of Mr. Rubio’s on-camera refreshment.
Politico framed it as “Rubio’s drinking problem.” Marketwatch suggested”Rubio’s water break stole the show.” CNN’s Wolf Blitzer simply said, “Uh-oh,” while the Twitterverse resounded with the insta-phrase Rubio’s Water-gate.”
The Florida senator, meanwhile, proved cheerfully nimble in the aftermath, Tweeting out a photo of the Poland Spring water bottle in question, labeling it the “GOP Response.”
He also told NBC, “I needed water. What am I going to do?” And to CNN en Espanol, he said, “God has a way of reminding us that we’re human, every now and then.”
So there. Just plain thirsty, a little humble, and that was that.
“It happens,” noted Fox News anchor Chris Wallace.
