Marco Rubio's "3-2-1" strategy for winning the Republican Party nomination for president turned out to be a countdown to the end of his campaign.

Florida's junior senator had calculated on finishing third in the Iowa caucuses, second in the New Hampshire primary and first in the South Carolina primary, creating "Marcomentum" to slingshot him into Super Tuesday. He then expected the Sunshine State and its winner-take-all 99 delegates two weeks later to put him in the driver's seat for the nomination.

Instead, he wound up in the ditch.

That 3-2-1 became 3-5-2. Rubio stalled on Super Tuesday, finishing a distant third to Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in most contests. The coup de grace was dealt most brutally March 15, when Trump pummeled Rubio in Florida, winning 46 percent of the vote to the senator's 27 percent — including 66 of Florida's 67 counties.

Home, bittersweet home, where judgment was rendered by those who supposedly know Rubio best.

The polls heading into Florida had accurately foretold the scope of Rubio's demise. Nevertheless, his swift fall was even more shocking than that of his fellow Floridian, Jeb Bush.

In his concession speech to supporters, Rubio employed soaring, Reaganesque rhetoric promoting conservative ideas and American greatness. But he conceded that an electorate consumed with anger toward its leaders and anxiety about its economic present and future wasn't receptive to his message of optimism.

It's true that Trump has successfully tapped into the voters' passions. But that doesn't absolve Rubio of responsibility for his loss.

He was flawed from the beginning. Taking the lead on immigration reform in the Senate in 2013 as a member of the "Gang of Eight," which included working closely with liberal Democrat Chuck Schumer and conservative apostates like Lindsey Graham, was deeply unpopular with the Republican grassroots. It put him in a hole from which he could never recover. He spent much of his presidential campaign trying to spin excuses for it.

Rubio's political career, often noted for its rapid rise, has suffered a precipitous fall. It will be interesting to see if a man whose potential was eclipsed by his ambition has the patience required to rebuild.

REPRINTED FROM THE NORTHWEST FLORIDA DAILY NEWS

Photo credit: Max Goldberg