Marco Rubio was certainly composed in his speech tonight, but the real tall cool glass of water was resting off-camera. Rubio is generating some positive instant reactions for his rebuttal to President Obama’s State of the Union address on Tuesday night. But there was one undeniably unusual moment that is sure to be remembered: Rubio awkwardly reaching for a bottle of water and making a grimace face in the act.
About midway through his roughly 10-minute speech, Rubio moved to grab a drink of water from a plastic bottle resting just off-camera. He then leaned at a stretched angle as he attempted to grab the water while struggling to stay within the camera’s frame of view.
After taking a quick drink, Rubio then made a constrained facial expression, in a seemingly self-conscious moment.
Though it was far from a devastating “2Pacalypse” development for the Florida senator, the candid moment showcased the competing pressures on figures like Rubio during a televised address: to appear both relaxed and entirely composed at the same time. But even the most polished speakers are only human and need to pause for a quick sip of water from time to time.
And give the man some credit: He certainly has a sense of humor. Or, at the very least a quick social media team. Just moments after completing his speech, Rubio posted a link to his personal Twitter account that takes readers to a photo of a bottle of Poland Spring water.