Marco Rubio has been feverishly preparing himself to become the Republican nominee for vice-president, even as he goes through the motions of denying interest.

One has to suspect that his real interest is in being president in 2016, but that he sees the veep nod in 2012 as the best way to get himself in front of a possible Jeb candidacy that would vacuum away much of of his home state money and leave him a minor candidate.

He could run for president in 2016 as the ‘next in line’ by virtue of having been the veep nominee four years previously. While this would mean forgoing re-election to the Senate, with the 2018 governor’s race as a door prize, that might not be such a deterrent. And, of course, in the increasingly unlikely even Romney were to win… well, Rubio would be a sitting vice-president in 2020.

If Rubio is nothing but a junior Senator for the next four years though, well that has a way of sapping one’s star power pretty quickly. He’s not a real right wing rock star in truth, but someone who has recently played one on tv. He’s just a basic insider player, in truth,  and he’s smart enough to know that. Six years in the Senate will sap whatever enthusiasm people have for him and he’ll start 2016 behind a potential Jeb Bush candidacy.

By the way, I won’t pretend any of this is new or secret info. Adam Smith at the St Pete Times (still not going to call it the Tampa Bay Times) had this to say on the subject earlier.