Marco Rubio finished third yesterday behind Donald Trump and John Kasich. And thirty Vermont GOP leaders may be a little red in face today after deciding at the last minute to back Marco Rubio for President “because of his uplifting message”.

Phil Scott briefly seemed to wiggle toward Kasich but followed that with a barely visible, embarrassed nod from a distance to conservative Marco Rubio.

History could have guided them. Had they given it any thought beforehand they might have looked back in the state’s Republican past: “What would Calvin Coolidge do?” Vermont’s famous taciturn Republican  would likely have kept his mouth shut .

Rubio’s supposedly positive message the VTGOP thought they heard quickly proved an illusion.The endorsement risks alienating centrist Vermont voters in the general election due to Rubio’s conservative positions on women’s issue and climate change.

Today the New York Times describes Rubio (and Ted Cruz) in no uncertain terms:

Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio — are not only to the right of Mr. Trump on many issues, but are embracing the same game of exclusion, bigotry and character assassination. That Mr. Rubio would make double entendres about the size of Mr. Trump’s hands and talk about Mr. Trump wetting his pants shows how much his influence has permeated this race and how willingly his rivals are copying his tactics.

Coolidge once said, “I have noticed that nothing I have never said ever did me any harm.”  

Vermont’s gang of Rubio supporters might update Silent Cal’s observation : “No one we never endorsed could ever do us any harm.”   Phil Scott, Kurt Wright, and Randy Brock failed history at Trump U.