Marco Rubio joins ranks of possible 2016 hopefuls with new book

By Michael Schaub

Elections Marco Rubio Politics Paul Ryan Mike Huckabee Elizabeth Warren

Is Marco Rubio's book designed to bolster a presidential run?

On election day, Bloomberg politics reporter David Weigel tweeted, "Polls are now closed in Alaska, which marks the start of the 2016 Iowa caucuses." Readers who miss the (very slight) comic exaggeration can be forgiven -- the waiting period between the end of one campaign season and the beginning of the next is practically nonexistent these days.

You can't be a serious presidential candidate without a book, though, and possible 2016 contenders have already begun to step up to the plate. The latest is Sen. Marco Rubio, the Florida Republican, whose second book, "American Dreams: Restoring Economic Opportunity for Everyone," will be released in January by Penguin imprint Sentinel.

Rubio isn't the first potential Republican candidate to come out with a book, of course. In August, U.S. Rep. and former vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan of Wisconsin published a new treatise, "The Way Forward: Renewing the American Idea." Earlier this year, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush co-wrote "Immigration Wars: Forging an American Solution." (Note: politicians love subtitles.) And Texas Sen. Ted Cruz reportedly received a $1.5-million advance from HarperCollins for his forthcoming memoir.

Democrats have been keeping busy with writing as well. In June, Simon & Schuster published "Hard Choices," a memoir from former Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton. Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren released "A Fighting Chance" in April, and last month, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo came out with "All Things Possible: Setbacks and Success in Politics and Life." (The book itself might prove to be a setback for Cuomo; the autobiography sold poorly and received a number of unusually hostile reader reviews on Amazon.)

It's almost certainly too early to draw any conclusions about the 2016 election from potential candidates' books, but that's not stopping political junkies. At The Week, linguist Arika Okrent analyzed the titles of some of the possible hopefuls' books, including former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee's "God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy" ("Poetry points for alliteration and meter!") and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker's "Unintimidated: A Governor's Story and a Nation's Challenge" ("This title is almost a study in how to be carefully bland and sedate").