THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

A curious political creature named for his habit of having his mug on one side of the fence and his wump on the other. MArio Rubio, the wunderkind of the Republican clown car, ha adopted many of the postures of the classic mugwump.

It is a habit with Rubio, a candidate aiming at moderate and conservative voters who often seems to advocate two positions at once. He tells voters that he has a personal view on the subject — whether abortion, immigration, Syrian refugees or gay marriage. But he also has a view of what is politically possible. Which, usually, is not what he personally wants.

That tactic allows Rubio to offer two right answers to the same question, and lets him carve out wiggle room on topics where none seemed possible.

He did it Tuesday night in Las Vegas, talking about immigration in the fifth Republican debate.

“I am personally open — after all that has happened and after 10 years in that probationary status where all they have is a permit — I personally am open to allowing people to apply for a green card,” Rubio said, talking about his views on whether and how to offer legal status to immigrants who entered the country illegally. Then the caveat: He is also open to not following his own personal views. If that’s what people want.

“That may not be a majority position in my party, but that’s down the road,” Rubio said. “You can’t even begin that process until you prove to people” that border security is working, he said.

Such a strategy might guard him against being pushed too far to the right for general election appeal, but avoid riling conservatives during the primaries. But the extent of his equivocation on key issues has left many Republicans, including his supporters, wondering what he really believes.

Being so familiar with the absolute certainty of the modern Republican extremists, the moderation, equivocation or perhaps two faced attitude leaves many voters confused. While they may want to vote for the cute kid who says nice things, they really don't know why they like him. This may work during the scramble, but it could be a killer when the field is narrowed down.