Rubio on Water Gulp: God Reminding Me I'm Human

Mid-speech sip sparks Twitter surge
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 13, 2013 1:42 AM CST
Updated Feb 13, 2013 8:47 AM CST

It's not unusual for the peanut gallery to ask if a politician was drinking after a speech—or if that drink was Kool-Aid—but it's Marco Rubio's swig of water last night that's getting more attention than his words. While giving his party's response to the State of the Union, he was forced to dive far to the side to reach a bottle of water, Slate reports, thus creating a distraction from the speech and fueling extensive Twitter commentary. There were 9,200 tweets per minute just after the sip, Twitter says, and #watergate and Poland Spring became trending topics, USA Today reports. "Strong material but the trivial water bit will get endless attention. #LifeUnfair," tweeted a GOP strategist.

Rubio himself has reacted to the snafu with good humor. Late last night he tweeted this photo of the Poland Spring bottle. "This tweet came straight from the boss. #staffisnotthisfunny," Rubio's research director added in a follow up tweet spotted by BuzzFeed. This morning, Rubio took a swig during an interview with George Stephanopoulos. "I needed water, what am I going to do, you know?" he said. "God has a funny way of reminding us we’re human." (More Marco Rubio stories.)

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