The highlight of CPAC's first day came from Marco Rubio with a speech entitled, "Is America Still An Exceptional Nation?"
"Unlike any leader in modern American history, we are led today by a president that has decided to pit Americans against each other. The basic argument that he's making to our nation is that the reason some of us are worse off than we used to be is because other people are doing too well, that the only way for some of us to do better is for other people to do worse, that the only way for some people to climb the political ladder is for other people to be pulled down. This is the argument that this president, unlike perhaps any figure in modern American politics is making. And he's doing it, because it's a calculated effort to win the election. Here's the problem. The words do matter, especially when it comes from the highest office in the land. And that idea, that the only way for some people to do better is for other people to do worse, that's what other countries believe. That's the kind of thought process that people come here to get away from."
