If it isn’t already a cliche to label a non-white, non-Anglo GOP candidate “the Republican Obama,” then it will be soon. John Judis of The New Republic applies the tag to Marco Rubio. (Kathleen Parker did the same just the other day–as no doubt many other writers already have done and will continue to do until discriminating editors stop them.) Judis justifies the label by saying that Rubio, like Obama, “blended biography and political vision … in such a way that never really spells out what the specific agenda is.” Maybe this was true of Rubio’s CPAC speech (which Judis watched). Yet it’s a strange criticism to make given Rubio’s political history, which has included uncommon levels of specificity in his public-policy proposals. When Rubio became speaker of the house in the Florida legislature, he issued a book called 100 Innovative Ideas for Florida’s Future. Also, his campaign website makes it pretty obvious where he stands on a number of issues. “Does [Rubio] think global warming is a hoax?” asks Judis. Well, on his website, Rubio says: “At a time when our economy is struggling, a cap-and-trade scheme would further strain family budgets and destroy jobs.” He doesn’t get snared into the loaded wording of Judis’s question, but he provides the typical voter with a clear sense of where he stands on a key issue. If we can look past Rubio’s ethnicity–a very hard thing for the bean counters–and study the substance of what he says, we see that he isn’t “the Republican Obama” as much as “the Republican anti-Obama.”