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Marco Rubio’s Boat vs. John Kerry’s Boat
Marco Rubio once bought a fishing boat and the New York Times is on the case. Fresh from their scoop that the Florida senator had four (FOUR!) speeding tickets in the past two decades, the Gray Lady has revealed his shocking financial record.
“For years, Senator Marco Rubio struggled under the weight of student debt, mortgages and an extra loan against the value of his home totaling hundreds of thousands of dollars.” (Boo, poor people! — ed.) “But in 2012, financial salvation seemed to have arrived: A publisher paid him $800,000 to write a book about growing up as the son of Cuban immigrants.” (Boo, rich people! — ed.)
And what did Mr. Rubio do with his dirty, filthy publishing fortune? He bought a BOAT. And not just any kind of boat, but a “luxury speedboat.”
[H]e splurged on an extravagant purchase: $80,000 for a luxury speedboat, state records show. At the time, Mr. Rubio confided to a friend that it was a potentially inadvisable outlay that he could not resist. The 24-foot boat, he said, fulfilled a dream.
Twenty-four feet of White Hispanic privilege. So what if Sen. Barack Obama got a book advance of $1.9 million and Hillary Clinton got $14 million? They didn’t go frittering away their well-deserved windfalls on frivolous aquatic transportation.
To prove that Rubio is an out-of-touch nouveau riche spendthrift, I have compared his opulence to that of an everyman, salt-of-the-earth recent Democratic presidential candidate.
John Kerry’s Humble Yacht | Marco Rubio’s “Luxury Speedboat” |
Friendship 75 | Edgewater 245cc Deep-V Center Console |
Length: 75.95 ft. | Length: 24.5 ft. |
Beam (max): 19.08 ft. | Beam (max): 8.5 ft. |
Displacement: 108,676 lbs. | Displacement: 3,500 lbs. |
3 sails | 0 sails |
Harbored in Rhode Island to avoid taxes | Located in Florida according to state tax records |
Made in New Zealand | Made in United States |
“She is the largest size boat confidently handled by two, yet sacrifices nothing towards interior volume and finish which are unmistakably the essence of luxury living.” | “Safety-minded family boaters and avid anglers will love this boat’s deep v hull, perfect for those choppy seas.” |
$7,000,000 list price | $80,000 list price |
And those fat-cat Republicans think they can win over long-suffering middle class voters. Tsk, tsk.
It’s the Rubioyacht of Omar Sulzberger!
Core Clinton donors use boats bigger than Rubio’s just to transport underage girls from the dock to the main yacht.
Like.
(Even Politico is making fun of the Times on this one.)
Wow.
What nobody is saying is just how shocking it is that this maritime version of a Skoda retails at $80,000. One could purchase a ludicrously fast car for a fraction of that price. Shocking.
Excellent!
Reminds me of Dexter’s (also in Miami). Not to suggest Rubio is disposing of bodies. Dexter also used his to to take the kids fishing. But it looks like the same general class of boat.
Observation: the Dems and the MSM (pardon the redundancy) undertook demonizing the milk-drinker of the 2012 election cycle.
This nonsense was inevitable. The difference, this time, is that the absurdity-factor is now totally over the top. Consequently, all NYT has accomplished is attracting ridicule.
My son is a plumber and has a nicer boat than Marco and it’s paid for. He does not have one of those blow boats like severed in Vietnam Kerry. It will take my son a while to ketchup up to blow dry John in the wife department.
That was my first reaction. Maybe we don’t want Rubio in charge of Treasury :)
Kerry (or his wife) can afford a much more expensive boat btw. I guess he is not that into boating, only $7m into it.
It certainly raises questions, like “senator, who precisely did you imagine you could impress with this… er… vessel”.
A Boston Whaler with similar options would be even more expensive.
Lest one justify Kerry’s yacht over Rubio’s boat on the grounds that the former is purely a wind craft, the specs (here) for the Friendship 75 point out that it has 250 hp diesel engine (not to mention another generator).
Oh, and the yacht has a 542 gallon fuel tank. When that baby’s running you can make a heck of a carbon footprint.
One more thought. According to the NYT, Rubio is too poor and Romney was too rich.
I suppose that means that Kerry and the Clintons are just right.
The NYT is exposing itself yet again as the northbound end of a southbound horse.
Not only that – Kerry, a Massachusetts resident, saved $437,000 in sales tax and $70,000 a year in excise taxes by keeping the boat in Rhode Island! I believe the NY Times would spin this by claiming it shows that Kerry’s financial acumen is better than Rubio’s.
I want a Boston Whaler. Thanks for reminding me I still can’t afford it :(
What’s the difference between the NYT and Marco Rubio’s boat?
The boat will still exist in ten years.
True, the only real scandal here is that Rubio does not seem to much of a haggler.
That $80K could have gone a long ways towards buying a decent RV for their senior years. Instead he splurges on a boat, with no thought for the future.
PJC,
Amen.
Regards,
Jim
Does Rubio’s boat have a name? For nostalgia’s sake, we must recall the name of Demoncrat candidate Gary Hart’s boat.
This is not quite up there with the NYT’s very serious investigation into traffic tickets but it’s close shave to tell the difference.
Clearly the best and the brightest.
I think this and reporting Rubio was forced to go to traffic school shows a complete lack of understanding how people live when they don’t live in New York. who the hell would call that a speedboat?
Gone Fishing.
Regards,
Jim
So according to the NYT:
-A F150 is a luxury SUV
-4 tickets in 18 yrs is excessive
-Going to traffic school to avoid points on your driving record is unheard of.
-It’s a bad thing when a public official DOES NOT use their influence to get out of tickets.
-A modest center console fishing boat is now a luxury speed boat.
Where do I pull the lever for Rubio???
Mark: “Not only that – Kerry, a Massachusetts resident, saved $437,000 in sales tax and $70,00 a year in excise taxes by keeping the boat in Rhode Island! I believe the NY Times would spin this by claiming it shows that Kerry’s financial acumen is better than Rubio’s.”
Isn’t Rhode Island the state that had a thriving yacht building industry? And then they decided that the buyers of those yachts were so rich they wouldn’t mind contributing a hefty sum to goverment, so they added a luxury tax? And killed an industry that included many middle class craftsmen?
If I have the state right, they revoked the tax the next year, realizing it’s better to have a vibrant industry, even one that serves the rich, than luxury taxes on an industry they have driven away. Just goes to show, even the rich care about taxes on themselves.
The NYT writers aren’t doing a lot for my opinion of New Yorkers and yankees in general. :)
I’m loathe to approve of anything Kerry does, but the Friendship 75 is a great boat.
Senator Rubio should send the Times a thank you card for their diligent reporting.
I think we can agree on that, although in practice Rubio’s “luxury speedboat” is probably better if you’ve been on a failing-to-come-to-a-complete-stop crime spree and need to get away from the cops/coast guard in a hurry.