Marco and Jeanette Rubio, sitting side by side on their brown sofa in their sunny house, could be any young couple musing about life: juggling four kids, a job that separates them, aging parents, their faith and whether or not to move.

Only they're not just any couple. At 40, he is the most prominent Latino in national politics today, and a widely touted prospect to be Mitt Romney's running mate. She is a shy, behind-the-scenes booster married to her high school sweetheart who has never given a speech and bristles when the media reduces her life to a brief stint as a Miami Dolphins cheerleader.

Whether Marco Rubio is on the 2012 ticket this year or not, he and his wife are moving into rarefied air in American politics; he'll be at the top of the 2016 list of GOP contenders if Romney loses. In an exclusive 90-minute interview with POLITICO — Jeanette's first-ever extended interview — the couple seems to believe they are ready for the invasive tsunami of press coverage and vetting that could sweep over them at any minute while at the same time realizing they can never truly be braced.

"I'm prepared for the idea that no matter what he does — especially when there's talk of him being the VP candidate — that (there) are things that are going to come out," says Jeanette Dousdebes Rubio, 38. "And through the Senate campaign, we already went through a lot. … That really prepared us, or at least me."

Story here.