Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., delivered his party's response to President Obama's State of the Union Address. (Photo: J. Scott Applewhite, AP) Story Highlights The Florida senator drank from a bottle of water near end of his State of the Union response 
 
 Twitter says there were 9,200 tweets per minute regarding Rubio's water 
 
 Rubio gets in on the joke by tweeting picture of the water bottle 
 
 WASHINGTON -- Sen. Marco Rubio's sip of water near the end of his response to President Obama's State of the Union was the thirst quencher that sent people flocking to Twitter. 
 
 The social media site blew up when the Florida Republican reached for a bottle of Poland Spring water as he was outlining the GOP's vision to help the middle class. His speech text ran for five pages, about half the length of Obama's remarks. 
 
 Abby Huntsman, the daughter of former GOP presidential candidate Jon Huntsman tweeted: "That water bottle shouldn't have been so far for him to grab. Too much awkwardness in one speech! #Rubio #SOTU." 
 
 Another from Ana Marie Cox, a blogger and the founding editor of Wonkette: "Speech with which Rubio stepped to the side to grab a drink inversely proportional to how long he wanted it. POOR GUY." 
 
 Paul Begala, a Democratic strategist who helped elect President Bill Cllinton, tweeted, "Marco Rubio, the man you want to have a desperate gulp of water with." 
 
 In recognition of his social-media moment, Rubio took to Twitter as well and posted a photo of the small bottle of water. It appeared to be drained of its contents. 
 
 Twitter said there were about 9,200 tweets per minute at about 10:43 p.m. ET, after Rubio's sip of water. For a short time, #watergate and Poland Spring were trending on the micro-blogging site. 
 
 Some Republicans sympathized with Rubio's plight. GOP strategist Mike Murphy said on Twitter that the incident detracted from the content of the senator's remarks. "Strong material but the trivial water bit will get endless attention. #LifeUnfair." 
 
 Garrett Jackson, who was GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's "body man" during the 2012 campaign, blamed the incident on poor staff work. "I would have had that water bottle closer, had it been the Gov," Jackson said on Twitter. "Haha. Marco needs an aide." 
 
 Contributing: Susan Davis 
 
 Read or Share this story: http://usat.ly/UcAqqG ||||| In May 2008, when Marco Rubio retired as Florida’s House speaker, he bid his colleagues farewell with a passionate defense of American exceptionalism. Standing on the floor in front of the speaker’s rostrum, Rubio invoked boatloads of refugees washing up on American shores, quoted John F. Kennedy and lauded political dissent. 
 
 “It’s honestly one of the greatest political speeches I’ve seen in my life,” said Republican operative Gregg Keller. “To this day, I can’t watch it without getting a lump in my throat.” 
 
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 But youthful charisma wasn’t the only aspect of Rubio’s delivery that has stuck with Keller. “He’s got this ice,” recalled the veteran operative. “He’s got this water in this cup that’s got ice and it’s making weird noises.” Indeed, video of the speech shows Rubio halting mid-delivery at dramatic moments to reach down to a table in front of him and take noisy swigs from a Styrofoam cup. 
 
 Rubio, of course, became famous five years later for diving for his water bottle and taking a sip in the midst of a roughly 14-minute nationally televised response to President Barack Obama’s State of the Union speech. He responded in good humor by tweeting out a picture of the empty bottle, and over the next week his PAC raised $100,000 off the sale of water bottles. 
 
 But the water tic has persisted and remained noticeable on the campaign trail this fall, drawing comment from those who have worked with and watched the Florida senator. Like Richard Nixon’s perspiring or John Boehner’s crying, Rubio’s need for constant hydration is a bodily quirk that impinges on his political life. 
 
 The 44-year-old senator takes care to ensure the availability of water at his public events and can be particular about how he takes it. His advance team has mandated exact requirements for the vessels he will drink out of: stemless glasses — not stemmed ones or water bottles. He reaches for it constantly during public remarks. Its absence has thrown off his delivery, and he and his campaign have acknowledged its presence by attempting to turn it into a joke. On the trail, he has even asked hecklers to time their outbursts around his breaks for it. 
 
 “Marco does have a water thing,” said one longtime Rubio associate who has been affiliated with his past campaigns. “I don’t know what it is. He says he just gets thirsty, but it’s clear it’s just a nervous tic. It’s something he just has to have around, like a security blanket or something.” 
 
 A spokesman for Rubio, Alex Conant, declined comment for this story, saying only that “POLITICO has lost its mind.” In a recent New Yorker profile, Rubio attributed his extraordinary need for water to unspecified allergies developed since 2011. “I said, ‘How come I’ve never had allergies before, and now, suddenly, the last four years I’ve developed allergies? And the answer the doctor gave me was: ‘Well, because you’re travelling to places that you never used to travel to before.’” 
 
 But the testimony of Rubio’s longtime associates and his 2008 speech belie this explanation, indicating that Rubio’s water tic predated his career in the United States Senate, even if it escaped notice before then. 
 
 Even during brief remarks — like his speech at CPAC in February 2010 and his Senate victory speech in November — Rubio has consistently had water at hand and snuck sips of it into his delivery. Its absence, meanwhile, has thrown him off balance. 
 
 When Rubio addressed CPAC in 2012, event staffers failed to stock the podium with fresh water for his speech. At an early applause line, Rubio — who had been visibly struggling with dry mouth and licking the inside of his mouth and his lips, as he often does during speeches — reached down for his water with his right hand, and coming up empty bent his knees and peered under the podium but did not find what he was looking for. 
 
 “I remember standing backstage and cursing out loud because there was nothing we could do,” said a person staffing the event. “It caused him some awkward pauses throughout the speech.” Halting his speech again for another applause line several minutes later, Rubio brought his empty right hand up to his nose, lowered it, brought it up again to his lips and rubbed them. 
 
 At some point, Rubio became self-conscious about the water breaks, and he began narrating them at several events later that year. 
 
 Speaking at a major Republican fundraiser in March 2012, the senator sipped from a glass of water and laid it down on the ground next to him. “I hope I don’t need a drink of water during the speech, that’s a long reach down there, but I’ll — you’ll forgive me,” he said. 
 
 Campaigning for Mitt Romney at an elementary school in Las Vegas in July, he took advantage of extended applause to reach for his bottle. “Keep clapping. I can drink some water while you do,” he said. “If you’re here to heckle me today, could you wait another five minutes, because that gives me the moment to get my water.” 
 
 When an attendee shouted “Marco for vice president” at the same rally and prompted the audience to break out in wild applause, Rubio went again to his water, and said, “Hey, that was not the kind of heckler I was expecting, but thank you for the water, I appreciate it.” 
 
 Taking the stage after Clint Eastwood’s memorable performance at the Republican National Convention in August, Rubio again took a swig. “I think I just drank Clint Eastwood’s water,” he said. “Thank you.” 
 
 AP and Getty photos. 
 
 But six months later, it was Rubio’s water, not Eastwood’s histrionics, that would steal the show. 
 
 On Feb. 12, 2013, Rubio delivered the official Republican rebuttal to the State of the Union, his highest-profile gig to date — and one meant to showcase the gifts of the party’s fresh-faced talent. But his turn in the national spotlight was overshadowed by his awkward break for water, which launched a thousand Internet memes. On Twitter, it was called #Watergate, and it has remained a defining moment of his career since. 
 
 Rubio took it with good humor. In one television appearance following the rebuttal, he ostentatiously chugged from a bottle. 
 
 The next month, arriving backstage at CPAC 2013, he asked for a five-gallon jug as a prop. No jug was available, so he took to the stage and, with both hands, scooped up three glasses of water from behind the podium. “Let me just say I love the hospitality, but this is an exaggeration,” he joked. The crowd loved it. 
 
 But 15 minutes later, water once again knocked him off his game as he reached down for a sip, and the CPAC audience broke into applause. “Thank you. Never in the history of the world has water been so popular; I appreciate it,” said Rubio sarcastically. “Never. Let me tell you. No,” he continued, but then paused, lowered his head, raised his hand to his face and took a deep breath before getting back on track. 
 
 The water thing had not gone away — and it still hasn’t. 
 
 As Rubio’s standing in the 2016 nomination fight has improved, Donald Trump has seized on the senator’s bodily functions, repeatedly calling attention both to Rubio’s drinking and to his sweating. “Rubio, I've never seen a young guy sweat that much. He's drinking water, water, water,” Trump told ABC News in September. “I never saw anything like this with him, with the water.” 
 
 On Fox News, Rubio responded to the attacks, "I drink water. So what? And I only sweat when it’s hot." 
 
 But people who have worked with Rubio said sweat has also been a distraction for him. “You hear Donald Trump make fun of him for it. But he’s onto something,” said Rubio’s longtime associate. “I don’t think Marco sweats that much more. But Marco thinks he does. He’s always wiping, wiping, wiping sweat — even if he’s not sweating. It can drive you crazy if you’re watching him closely.” 
 
 The person who has staffed CPACs at which Rubio has spoken agreed with Trump’s assessment. “He sweats quite a bit, and when you sit down under television lights it gets very hot,” said the person, who recalled the issue arising when Rubio did not have water during his speech at the 2012 gathering. “Not only was he very thirsty, but he was under very bright lights. … Beads of sweat were just popping up on his forehead.” 
 
 In private, water remains a preoccupation of Rubio’s campaign. 
 
 At one stop along the campaign trail this fall, Rubio’s advance team miffed organizers who have hosted multiple presidential candidates by dictating accommodations down to the type of vessel the senator’s water would be served in: a stemless glass, rather than a stemmed one or a water bottle. 
 
 “Huckabee didn’t need water,” said an event organizer, who spoke on the condition that his name be withheld and the event not be made identifiable. “It was the first time that glassware entered into one of these events.” 
 
 In public, Rubio has continued to work to make water an endearing totem of his public persona — one that, if all goes according to plan, could occupy a place similar to Ronald Reagan’s beloved jelly beans in the American imagination. 
 
 At the second Republican debate in September, he found room for it in his opening statement. “I’m honored to be at the Reagan Library, at a place that honors the man who inspired not just my interest in public service, but also our love for country. And I’m also aware that California has a drought, and so that’s why I made sure I brought my own water,” he said, brandishing a bottle of it. 
 
 At the end of a September campaign video in which Rubio answers a series of personal questions while being tossed a football, he is asked, “Most important preparation for a big game or a big speech?” Rubio responds, “Make sure that there’s water nearby,” as he catches a bottle. 
 
 In a message that plays at the end of videos on his campaign’s YouTube account, Rubio speaks straight to the camera and says, “Make sure to click below to subscribe to my YouTube channel so you can get our campaign’s latest videos.” After a pause, the senator who has risen so quickly through the rungs of American politics says, “Go ahead, I’ll wait,” and reaches down for a bottle of water, taking a swig. 
 
 Marc Caputo contributed to this report. ||||| Sen. Marco Rubio, who's running for president in 2016, is known for his stances on immigration and tax reform. Here's the Florida Republican's take on Obamacare, the Islamic State and more, in his own words. (Julie Percha/The Washington Post) 
 
 What’s his name? 
 
 Rubio’s family calls him “Tony,” an Americanized version of his middle name, which is Antonio. Don’t confuse the Cuban American Sen. Marco Antonio Rubio (R-Fla.) with the Mexican middleweight boxing champ, whose name is — Marco Antonio Rubio. 
 
 One of the senator’s early political mentors, Miami-Dade County Commissioner Rebeca Sosa, calls Rubio “Markito” — pronounced Mar-KEY-toe. 
 
 Rah, rah, rah 
 
 Rubio, 43, is an obsessive football fan who played defensive back for one year in college. He’s married to a former Miami Dolphins cheerleader, Jeanette Dousdebes Rubio. One of the groomsmen at their 1998 wedding was Marco Rubio’s then-brother-in-law, Carlos Ponce, the Latin heartthrob singer and actor who played a randy yoga instructor in the film, “Couples Retreat.” 
 
 He can 'spit' 
 
 Young staffers on Rubio’s 2010 Senate campaign marveled that he could “spit” lyrics of hip-hop songs. He has praised N.W.A., Tupac Shakur, Eminem and many others. In 2013, Rubio quoted Jay Z during a filibuster over the Obama administration’s drone policy: “It’s funny what seven days can change. It was all good just a week ago.” 
 
 In an interview with GQ Magazine, he said his three favorite rap songs are “Straight Outta Compton” by N.W.A, "Killuminati" by Tupac Shakur and "Lose Yourself" by Eminem. Rubio told TMZ that he’s “the only member of the Hip Hop Caucus.” 
 
 He’s got an inconvenient friend 
 
 Rubio co-owns a rental house in Tallahassee with his longtime friend, scandal-plagued former U.S. Rep. David Rivera (R-Fla.). They lived in the house together during legislative sessions while both were serving in the Florida House of Representatives. Foreclosure proceedings were initiated in 2010 after Rubio and Rivera failed to make mortgage payments, an embarrassing turn of events in the midst of Rubio’s U.S. Senate campaign. They averted foreclosure by making the missed payments. 
 
 In 2012, Rubio hosted a Washington, D.C. fundraiser for Rivera, even as numerous publications were reporting that he was under state and federal investigation for a variety of possible campaign and financial violations. But the two have been seen together far less often as the 2016 campaign approached. And now they’re trying to sell their house in Tallahassee. 
 
 His family immigration nightmare 
 
 In speeches, Rubio often talks about drawing inspiration from long talks on the porch with his maternal “abuelo,” or grandfather, Pedro Victor Garcia. He has been less likely to discuss Garcia’s immigration troubles. 
 
 Garcia immigrated to the United States in 1956 but went back to Cuba after Fidel Castro took power. He had hoped that economic conditions on the island would improve, but become disillusioned and attempted to return to the United States in 1962 without a proper visa. 
 
 Shortly before the Cuban Missile Crisis, an immigration judge ordered him deported, but it appears that he evaded the order and remained in the country without proper documentation. Five years after the deportation order, Garcia became a naturalized citizen. 
 
 Rubio’s own 'Water'-gate 
 
 Many Americans less attune to national politics might best remember Rubio as the guy who awkwardly paused and took a quick sip of water while delivering the Republican response to the State of the Union Address in 2013. 
 
 Jokes about the liquid gaffe quickly flooded the Internet (sorry, we couldn’t resist), with all sorts of memes and gifs quickly assembled to call out the senator’s water break. 
 
 But Rubio's team seized the moment and made lemonade out of lemons (or maybe an ocean out of water?). His decision to do so earned him plaudits from colleagues and the press. 
 
 For example, Rubio teased himself, via Twitter, just moments after the speech: 
 
 Within days, his campaign operation also started selling special Rubio water bottles, urging supporters to pay $25 in order to “Send liberal detractors a message that not only does Marco Rubio inspire you… he hydrates you, too.” Poland Spring – Rubio’s water of choice the night of the gaffe – also got in on the action, posting this humorous Facebook photo the morning after: 
 
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– It's not unusual for the peanut gallery to ask if a politician was drinking after a speech—or if that drink was Kool-Aid—but it's Marco Rubio's swig of water last night that's getting more attention than his words. While giving his party's response to the State of the Union, he was forced to dive far to the side to reach a bottle of water, Slate reports, thus creating a distraction from the speech and fueling extensive Twitter commentary. There were 9,200 tweets per minute just after the sip, Twitter says, and #watergate and Poland Spring became trending topics, USA Today reports. "Strong material but the trivial water bit will get endless attention. #LifeUnfair," tweeted a GOP strategist. Rubio himself has reacted to the snafu with good humor. Late last night he tweeted this photo of the Poland Spring bottle. "This tweet came straight from the boss. #staffisnotthisfunny," Rubio's research director added in a follow up tweet spotted by BuzzFeed. This morning, Rubio took a swig during an interview with George Stephanopoulos. "I needed water, what am I going to do, you know?" he said. "God has a funny way of reminding us we’re human."