Rubio on a Presidential Bid, and Climate Change

WASHINGTON - Senator Marco Rubio on Sunday said he was ready to be president, becoming the second potential Republican candidate recently to drop big hints about 2016 as he vies for early attention in a crowded field of maybes.

Mr. Rubio of Florida said on ABC's 'This Week' that while he was waiting until the end of the year to consider the decision, he thought he had a 'vision' for the nation's future and a strategy for achieving it, among other qualifications that he said he shared with other potential candidates.

'I do,' he said when asked whether he thought he was ready for the presidency. 'I mean, but I think that's true for multiple other people that would want to run.'

Mr. Rubio's assertion came a week after Gov. Rick Perry of Texas offered perhaps his clearest indication yet that he was considering another run, talking about his 'botched' campaign in 2012 on NBC's 'Meet the Press' and emphasizing that Americans believe in 'second chances.'

With Mr. Rubio and Mr. Perry trailing other potential candidates like Jeb Bush, a former governor of Florida, and Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, in recent polls, the remarks could be interpreted as a (very) early attempt to stand out in a field where there is no front-runner.

A Tea Party darling who drew fire for working with Democrats on immigration reform, Mr. Rubio appeared intent on shoring up support among conservative voters. As House Republicans assemble a panel to further investigate the 2012 attack that killed four Americans in Benghazi, Libya, he took a shot at another potential 2016 candidate: Hillary Rodham Clinton.

'If she is going to run on her record as secretary of state, she's also going to have to answer for its massive failures,' said Mr. Rubio, who generated very early buzz for a run.

After the Obama administration's release of a recent study saying that the effects of climate change were already being felt, Mr. Rubio said he disagreed with scientists that humans were having an effect on the 'always evolving' climate.

'I do not believe that human activity is causing these dramatic changes to our climate the way these scientists are portraying it,' he said. 'And I do not believe that the laws that they propose we pass will do anything about it, except it will destroy our economy.'

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