Marco Rubio Loves Gangsta Rap, David Guetta's 'Sexy Bitch,' Fawning Feature Reports

​We know you've been wondering: How exactly did Marco Rubio stir the conservative fire in his belly before jumping onstage during the campaign? Reading George Will? Watching O'Reilly grill some hapless liberals?

Nope: Straight-up gangsta rap. Rubio liked to crank Tupac and NWA before his speeches, the Weekly Standard reports in an embarrassingly fawning feature. A reporter also caught him blasting David Guetta's "Sexy Bitch" before a key debate with Crist and Meek.

The Weekly Standard, the neocon's bible, got full access to Rubio's campaign for a couple weeks. They open their story before Rubio's CNN debate in late October, when writer Stephen F. Hayes asks what the candidate is bumping on his iPod over in the corner.

Take it away, Hayes:

I asked two of Rubio's top aides--Albert Martinez, who handled communications for Rubio during his rise in Florida politics and served as a consultant on the Senate race, and Alex Burgos, the communications director on the Senate campaign--what Rubio listened to in order to get himself in the right frame of mind for such a big moment. Burgos guessed it was probably Tupac. Martinez thought maybe NWA. Rubio, 39, like so many men his age, is a closet fan of gangsta rap.

Martinez picked up the iPod, glanced at the last tune played, and shook his head. "I don't believe this," he said, laughing. It wasn't gangsta rap, but club music. Rubio, who had spent three hours in debate prep the previous afternoon, had been gathering his final pre-debate thoughts to "Sexy Bitch," by French DJ David Guetta and rapper Akon.

Hilarity! But unless you're interested in a cavity-inducing sweetheart take on Rubio's rise to the Senate, you can stop reading the profile right there.

As the Atlantic points out this morning, the story is "breathless and laudatory," describing Rubio's preparations for the debates culminating in "perfect" answers and lavishing praise on his wife for looking hot after having four kids.

Just how much man-love do you have for Marco Rubio, Stephen F. Hayes? This much:

Marco Rubio has gotten as much positive national media attention as any Senate candidate since, well, Barack Obama. There is a natural inclination to think that he has been overhyped. That's certainly the assumption I took with me to Florida in late September for the first of two five-day stints with his campaign.

It was wrong.

If anything, Rubio is underrated ... No Republican in the country offers a more compelling defense of American exceptionalism and a more powerful indictment of the Obama administration than Marco Rubio.