February 13, 2013 10:57 AM UTC

You Can Lead a Guy to Water...and He'll Drink it On National Television

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• by: Colorado Pols

Poor Marco Rubio. The Florida Senator and a "rising star" in the Republican Party was selected to deliver the GOP rebuttal to President Obama's State of the Union speech. Nobody will ever remember what Rubio said because of an unfortunate case of dry mouth. You've got to feel for the guy. It's not his fault that his mouth was getting a bit pasty — note the ravenous licking of the lips just before he takes a drink — but the only thing about Rubio that anybody is talking about this morning is this sip of water:

This is a bummer for Rubio, but he does have plenty of company from recent years. As this video (after the jump) shows, Republicans have been all sorts of awkward in response to President Obama's State of the Union speeches. Our personal favorite is the long, loonnggg walk that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal took before his speech in 2009.