From Tampa Bay Times columnist John Romano:

Imagine a tightrope. Thin, taut and unforgiving.

It begins here, and stretches all the way to 2016.

Now welcome to Marco Rubio's commute.

A new year has barely begun, and already the Republican darling of Future Elections is precariously balancing between us-and-them, then-and-now, here-and-there.

It will be a nifty trick if he can pull it off. And the potential landing spot — an oval office in a white house — certainly makes the journey enticing.

But if the first few days of 2013 are any indication, Rubio will be in for a long and challenging haul.

Read the column.