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Topic: GOP - Rand Paul's Presidential Highlight Reel w/ his Libertarian Twist - page 26. (Read 205829 times)

legendary
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New Concerned American Voters Super PAC Launches to Support Rand Paul Presidential Bid

Super PAC launches with millions pledged, 40 full-time staff in Iowa

WASHINGTON, June 18, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Concerned American Voters, a political action committee supporting Sen. Rand Paul's campaign for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, launched today with millions of dollars committed and 40 full-time field staff in the key primary state of Iowa, President Jeff Frazee and Senior Advisor Matt Kibbe announced.

"Once in a while, you discover a presidential candidate who has the potential to change the political conversation, to elevate key issues in voters' minds, and disrupt and transform a tired Republican brand," said Kibbe. "Once in a lifetime, maybe, you will have an opportunity to support a transformative candidate who can do all of these things, and win. Rand Paul is that candidate."

Kibbe is the former president and founder of FreedomWorks, a national community-building and grassroots advocacy organization of more than 6 million Americans who are passionate about promoting free markets and individual liberty. Frazee is executive director of Young Americans for Liberty and previously served as the national youth coordinator for Ron Paul's 2008 presidential campaign committee.

Concerned American Voters launches with millions of dollars in funding pledged so far.

...

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/new-concerned-american-voters-super-pac-launches-to-support-rand-paul-presidential-bid-300101344.html
legendary
Activity: 1568
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Trail To The Chief: Rand Paul vs. The World

Rand Paul says the darndest things. Especially about privacy, government surveillance, ISIS and … himself. Three recent examples from last week: filibustering Patriot Act reforms; saying that GOP hawks created ISIS by sending arms into the Gulf region; and accusing his foes of wanting another terrorist attack in the U.S. so they could blame the carnage on him. That last remark was such a piece of grandiose self-pity that no one wanted to respond. Why play into the Kentucky senator’s martyrdom shtick?

Paul first became a Republican sensation in 2013, when he used a filibuster to raise alarms about the CIA’s drone program. This time around, Paul is a declared presidential candidate, and his filibuster this week against the NSA’s bulk data collection program elicited within his party a scattering of wan support, but mostly criticism, much of it from rival GOP presidential contenders.

None of his moves this week shifted his poll numbers one way or the other.

Paul managed to procure some measure of backing from his fellow 2016-ers, with the strongest support coming from Mike Huckabee, former governor of Arkansas, who has shed the nice-guy conservative approach that won him Iowa in 2008 for an edgier, to-the-right-of-everyone strategy now. As CNN reported:

Huckabee said that the original [Patriot Act] was "hastily passed" in the wake of 9/11 without extensive debate. Public opinion has shifted now, he said. "Fourteen years ago, we were worried about terrorists. Now we're worried about our government," Huckabee said, singling out controversies around the IRS and Justice Departments.

More...http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/08/rand-paul-vs-the-world_n_7519988.html
legendary
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Rand Paul Says He’s ‘Reagan Conservative’ in San Diego Visit

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul said if he was elected president, he would be a “Reagan conservative” in foreign policy, believing in “peace through strength.”

“I want national defense to be the priority in our country, but it doesn’t mean reckless intervention and it doesn’t mean war is always the answer, it means war is the last resort,” Paul told KUSI-TV in an interview before speaking at the Republican Party of San Diego‘s annual Lincoln Reagan Dinner Saturday at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront.

Paul told KUSI “we do need to repel” the Islamic State group, “but the boots on the ground need to be Arab boots on the ground.”

In response to a question about whether this week’s decision by President Barack Obama to authorize the deployment of up to 450 advisers to help Iraq fight the Islamic State group would put the U.S. on a similar path to the Vietnam War, the 52-year-old Paul told KUSI “the thing with Vietnam was the South Vietnamese never seemed to want it as much as the North Vietnamese.”

“Right now, the Iraqis don’t seem to want it enough,” Paul told KUSI. “They don’t seem to be willing to fight. Until they’re willing to fight and until the Iraqi army becomes a national army, with Sunnis and Shiites in it, it’s going to be difficult.

“There are things we can do though short of sending troops. We should directly arm the Kurds. They’re the best fighters over there and I think they will fight and I think they should be promised a homeland if they fight for it.”

More...http://timesofsandiego.com/politics/2015/06/14/rand-paul-says-hes-reagan-conservative-in-san-diego-visit/
legendary
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Rand Paul at Bat
Congressional Baseball Game

As  he stepped up to the plate at Nationals Park on Thursday, Rand Paul was distracted. Dressed in a cardinal-red Western Kentucky University jersey, he kept glancing back at the strange scene unfolding behind him in the fourth inning. The Kentucky Republican—a pro-life conservative, defender of gun rights, enemy of big government, and candidate for President—was batting to a standing ovation from thousands of Democrats.

Paul turned back toward the raucous third-base stands to spot the real object of their adoration, popping out of the opposition’s dugout. At a game where even the bench players are some of the most powerful lawmakers in Washington, D.C., only the town’s biggest all-star could turn this many heads. For the first time in years, the President was back at the Congressional Baseball Game.

Almost immediately from its founding, in 1909, the charity-benefit game pitting Republicans against Democrats in America’s national pastime was an event of great pageantry. In a 1926 pre-game parade, the Army and Navy bands marched behind a donkey and an elephant; in 1933, the comedian Al Jolson served as guest umpire. Commanders-in-Chief started gracing the stands in 1917, when Woodrow Wilson witnessed the Democrats pull out a 22-21 squeaker. In 1953, Joe DiMaggio and Lefty Grove were Dwight Eisenhower’s guests at the game, by then being played annually at the Senators’ Griffith Stadium.

More...http://www.newyorker.com/news/sporting-scene/rand-paul-at-bat
legendary
Activity: 1568
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Rand Paul Kills Patriot Act, Boosts Presidential Campaign—For the Moment

Presidential hopeful delivers on promise to shut down one NSA program. He never said it would last forever.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s victory over President Obama and most of his Senate colleagues Sunday was messy and almost certain to be brief. But by forcing key U.S. intelligence programs to go dark, he scored a clear win for civil libertarians and those backing his White House campaign.

The Kentucky Republican interrupted his Senate colleagues, threw up procedural roadblocks and even borrowed Democrats’ time to make his objections. He drew reprimands over Senate decorum and rules. Peers scowled at him as he smirked in his leather chair, and Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell called the scene inside the chamber he nominally controls “a totally unacceptable outcome.”

Yet, at the end of Sunday’s rare Senate session, Paul was able to claim victory: “I came here to defend the Bill of Rights, not to be popular,” he tweeted. The freshman single-handedly shut down intelligence agencies’ legal authority to continue collecting domestic phone records for a searchable database of who is phoning whom. The law that permitted the program, as well as several other techniques of the National Security Agency, was set to expire as the clock struck midnight Sunday, and Paul was unyielding in his effort to ensure there would be at least some temporary end to it.

More...http://time.com/3902801/rand-paul-nsa-phone-patriot-act/
legendary
Activity: 1568
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If Rand Paul wins, so does Labrador

Congressman Raul Labrador, the only member of Idaho's congressional delegation to endorse someone in the GOP presidential race, may have learned something about himself when sitting on the sidelines four years ago as candidates were posturing for the 2012 election.

First, he's not much of one for sitting on the sidelines. He went to Congress in 2011, promising to make a lot of noise, and not taking up space. He has kept his word - often blasting away at the political establishment of both parties.

The second thing he might have learned is that sideline sitting does nothing for him, personally or politically. Being a non-entity in almost anything, especially a presidential race, does not fit his personality.

So it's no surprise that Labrador has endorsed Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. And it's no surprise that Paul appointed Labrador to head his campaign in the western states. Politically, it's a match made in heaven - or in the other direction, depending on your political perspective.

But, what's Labrador's end game? Labrador says if Paul moves to the White House, he'd be able to pick up the phone and say, "Hey, Mr. President, I have an issue that's important ..."

That would be nice, of course. But Labrador is not one to be satisfied with collecting private cellphone numbers. He tends to look for bigger prizes, and a Rand Paul victory could provide the ticket. If Labrador turns out to be Paul's kingmaker in the western states, there are several possibilities within a Paul administration - including a cabinet position. Or, Labrador could have more leverage in the House as the president's chief ally on Capitol Hill. If Labrador is traveling to other states and speaking on behalf of the candidate, it only raises Labrador's profile. One thing he likes is a high profile.

More...http://www.cdapress.com/columns/my_turn/article_da47bf31-1c93-5928-be71-d4bb468cee6f.html
legendary
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RAND PAUL AND TED CRUZ MOVE TO THE LEFT OF LINDSEY GRAHAM ON TERRORIST RIGHTS

Earlier this week, the Senate passed an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that limits the entire U.S. government to only the interrogation and detention techniques outlined in the Army Field Manual. The vote was 78-21.

The Army Field Manual does not permit physical contact with detainees, not even a slap. The harshest method it permits the “Fear-Up (Harsh).” In this approach, “the interrogator behaves in an overpowering manner with a loud and threatening voice.” He “may even feel the need to throw objects across the room to heighten the source’s implanted feelings of fear.”

Hardened terrorists aren’t likely to crack under a “loud and threatening voice” and an object thrown across the room, especially when they know that no force can follow.

Three Republican presidential hopefuls voted on the amendment. Rand Paul and Ted Cruz voted in favor of limiting interrogation and detention techniques to what’s in the Field Manual. Lindsey Graham voted against doing so.

Thus it was that Paul and Cruz moved to the left of Graham, perhaps the Senate’s most outspoken critic (along with his pal John McCain) of enhanced interrogation techniques, on this issue.

More...http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2015/06/rand-paul-and-ted-cruz-move-to-the-left-of-lindsey-graham-on-terrorist-rights.php

Neocon bullcrap so no linky.
legendary
Activity: 1568
Merit: 1001
Rand Paul Says He Is GOP's Best Shot Against Hillary Clinton Due To Support Of Independents

Sen. Rand Paul, the Republican Kentuckian currently running for president, says he is the best positioned GOP candidate to take on presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in the general election because he has formed a tight alliance with the holy grail demographic: independents.


"I think in order to win these states that President Obama you got to attract independents and consistently in at least five states we're leading her - in states that were won by President Obama, we win the independent vote," Paul told Breitbart. "I think that's an important feature because people want so badly to have somebody who can beat Hillary Clinton. I think it's one of our strongest calling cards right now: We're the only one beating her in all five of these states."

A record high 43 percent of Americans identify politically as independents, according to a 2014 Gallup poll. When compared to the 30 percent of Americans who say they are Democrats, and the 26 percent who say they are Republicans, it's not hard to see why Paul believes he is the best choice to go up against Clinton.

More...http://www.hngn.com/articles/101704/20150617/rand-paul-gops-best-shot-against-hillary-clinton-due-support.htm
legendary
Activity: 1568
Merit: 1001
clip

He's right about Snowden. Too bad he couldn't leave it at that instead of going into the made-up Benghazi scandal that the right wingers used asone of their dog whistles.
There's nothing made up about Benghazi, Hillary oversaw an arms running outfit out of there along w/ the topple of Gaddafi which destabilized the region in favor of ISIS and Rand is "general election" calling her on it. She point blank denied any wrong-doing and said she didn't oversee the cables out of this troubled area which is dereliction of duty or worse. I vote worse. All the while she's been fleecing foreign governments for cash and access as SOS. If you buy that then, lol on you.
legendary
Activity: 1568
Merit: 1001
Rand Paul tries to court evangelicals while keeping live-and-let-live libertarian base

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, running for president on a platform of keeping the government out of people’s business, took a deep breath when asked at a recent stop in Philadelphia whether he’d make addressing abortion a part of his campaign.

“I didn’t run for office because of the social issues,” Paul answered. “It wasn’t what got me to leave my practice. I ran for office mainly because I became concerned that we’re going to destroy the country with debt.”

The libertarianism that launched Paul’s political career can be a tough fit with the religious right, which plays an outsized role in the primary elections to select the Republican nominee for president. In the latest Fox News poll, Paul ranked seventh in the Republican field in support among white evangelical voters, with 7 percent of them saying they’d back him.

Winning over Christian evangelicals is a dilemma for Paul as he struggles to grow his support beyond libertarian-minded voters, of whom there aren’t enough to make him a contender.

Polling during the 2012 presidential election found half the voters in the early Republican primary and caucus states identified themselves as evangelical or born-again. Paul is running against evangelical favorites such as Ben Carson, Ted Cruz, Scott Walker and Mike Huckabee.

Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2015/06/17/270254/rand-paul-struggling-in-his-presidential.html#storylink=cpy
hero member
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Rand Paul: Snowden triggered surveillance reforms
Presidential candidate appeared at San Diego GOP dinner

Sen. Rand Paul said Saturday that former national security contractor Edward Snowden changed the political climate and helped open doors to government surveillance reform.

The GOP presidential candidate stopped short of saying whether Snowden should be prosecuted for leaking documents about secret government mass surveillance programs.

“I don’t think that’s really up to me. I think he did break the law and I think that we can’t have people making their own mind up to reveal secrets,” the Kentucky senator said in an interview at the Hilton San Diego Bayfront hotel. Later, he addressed more than 700 people at the Republican Party of San Diego County’s annual Lincoln Reagan Dinner.

Paul added that Director of National Security James Clapper should also face scrutiny. Clapper misled Congress when he told members that the government wasn’t collecting bulk phone records, when it was, Paul said.

“You can’t have either one,” he said of the acts by Snowden and Clapper. “I’ve kind of flippantly said that they should share the same cell.”

More...http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2015/jun/13/rand-paul-snowden-triggered-surveillance-reforms/

He's right about Snowden. Too bad he couldn't leave it at that instead of going into the made-up Benghazi scandal that the right wingers used asone of their dog whistles.
legendary
Activity: 1568
Merit: 1001
GOP presidential hopeful Rand Paul's wife stops in Bluffton

Kelley Paul said Wednesday she’s not afraid to be out on the front lines while on the presidential campaign trail stumping for her husband, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky.

“I enjoy it. I tell people sometimes it’s actually easier to be out in front of the camera and speaking and engaging one-on-one with people,” said Paul, whose husband is one of 12 current Republican hopefuls vying for the party’s 2016 nomination.

Paul was in Bluffton Wednesday for an event at Okatie’s Mi Tierrita restaurant hosted by the Republicans of Sun City and Hilton Head to promote her recent book, “True and Constant Friends,” and to field questions from a group of about 25 people about the presidential race.

She said her husband’s willingness to engage voters and other politicians openly was a key reason he should be the GOP’s nominee next year.

“After only a year or two in the Senate and being very new to politics, he was one of the most well-known faces,” Paul said of the freshman senator. “He tries to enlarge the debate, tries to include more people in the debate and tries to talk about things that perhaps we haven’t talked about before.

More...http://www.blufftontoday.com/bluffton-news/2015-06-17/gop-presidential-hopeful-rand-pauls-wife-stops-bluffton#.VYJYaPlViko

She definitely is his secret weapon.
legendary
Activity: 1568
Merit: 1001
It's been obvious to anyone who lingers in the comments sections that Rand Paul's base has disappeared. I'm sure long time Atlantic commenters remember how just the inclusion of his name in the headline guaranteed 1000 comments about Freedom!™ and Liberty!!™ and Let's Take Our Country Back!!!™.

Among my left leaning friends who saw the potential for a new kind of foreign policy (best described by me as "Not Drones") he's been outed as a two faced fraud in a bed head hair piece and they find his flailing attempts to court F undies alarming.

So, you know, good riddance Aqua Buddha. Thanks for letting me say to my friends, one more time, "Told you so."


Rand Paul's problem is that among my right leaning friends who saw the potential the Rand wasn't an anti military isolationist kook , he's been outed as a two faced fraud. IOW, he's managed to convince people with diametrically opposed foreign policy views that he can't be trusted.

Thank you for the intelligentsia and views to my Rand Paul for President thread, much appreciated and full of substance.

Donation link - https://secure.randpaul.com/
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legendary
Activity: 1568
Merit: 1001
Neil Peart: Rand Paul ‘hates women and brown people’
Rush’s famously Ayn Rand-inspired drummer/lyricist will only vote Democrat, because health care and compassion

The Canadian prog-rock trio Rush has always held a special place in many libertarian hearts, largely due to drummer/lyricist Neil Peart's fondness for individualist themes (the band had an early song called "Anthem," fer chrissakes). FreedomWorks honcho Matt Kibbe became a libertarian after hearing Rush's Ayn Rand-inspired 2112. You can read a Scott Bullock (of Institute for Justice fame) interview with Peart in this 1997 edition of Liberty. The magazine whose website you are reading ran an effusive and nerdy letter praising the band—"Rush is a living example of what a group of people can do if they continually apply and uphold the principles that they believe in"—back in 1986.

So I imagine that some fans may be distressed to learn that, according to this excellent new Rolling Stone profile of the band, Peart's self-described "bleeding-heart libertarian" tendencies include automatically voting Democrat, and sending cease-and-desist letters to an allegedly racist Rand Paul:

More:  http://reason.com/blog/2015/06/16/neil-peart-rand-paul-hates-women-and-bro

Interesting that I turned down tix to Rush's concert in Detroit last Sunday night, now this.
full member
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Rand Paul's problem is that among my right leaning friends who saw the potential the Rand wasn't an anti military isolationist kook , he's been outed as a two faced fraud. IOW, he's managed to convince people with diametrically opposed foreign policy views that he can't be trusted.
legendary
Activity: 1568
Merit: 1001
EXCLUSIVE — RAND PAUL: OBAMATRADE TAX HIKES ON SMALL BUSINESSES MEAN REPUBLICANS SHOULD OPPOSE REVIVAL EFFORTS

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) is calling on Republicans in the House—and the grassroots nationwide—to oppose efforts by House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)58%
 to revive Obamatrade via a tax increase hidden inside the Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA) portion of the deal.

Paul said when asked to react to an article from Breitbart News from late Sunday evening exposing the tax increase in the deal:

You know typically to pass these kinds of things, the establishment will try to buy off Democrats by sprinkling money so they have some money in there. To get the money, under our budget rules, we have to pay for it—so they want to pay for it with a fine on small businesses. But I thought a point that was made in the article which was pretty good is this is similar to the fines they wanted to do in Obamacare with 1099s and there was such an outcry it’s the only part of Obamacare we ever repealed. So I think when people discover they’re sticking a tax increase in there I think people will be even more unhappy.

Paul said he recommends all Republicans vote against TAA when Ryan and House GOP leadership bring it back up on Tuesday for an attempt to revive it after it embarrassingly failed 302-126 when they tried to pass TAA last week in the House. To send Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) to President Obama’s desk, TPA and TAA have to pass as a package. A bipartisan coalition formed to take down TAA last week, therefore temporarily killing Obamatrade as a whole—but House GOP leadership, at Ryan’s insistence, is going to try to change the game and pass TAA again on Tuesday despite the fact it raises taxes on small business.

...

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/06/15/exclusive-rand-paul-obamatrade-tax-hikes-on-small-businesses-mean-republicans-should-oppose-revival-efforts/
hero member
Activity: 644
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It's been obvious to anyone who lingers in the comments sections that Rand Paul's base has disappeared. I'm sure long time Atlantic commenters remember how just the inclusion of his name in the headline guaranteed 1000 comments about Freedom!™ and Liberty!!™ and Let's Take Our Country Back!!!™.

Among my left leaning friends who saw the potential for a new kind of foreign policy (best described by me as "Not Drones") he's been outed as a two faced fraud in a bed head hair piece and they find his flailing attempts to court F undies alarming.

So, you know, good riddance Aqua Buddha. Thanks for letting me say to my friends, one more time, "Told you so."
legendary
Activity: 1568
Merit: 1001
Rand Paul, struggling in his presidential bid, works to court evangelicals

Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, running for president on a platform of keeping the government out of people’s business, took a deep breath when asked at a recent stop in Philadelphia whether he’d make addressing abortion a part of his campaign.

“I didn’t run for office because of the social issues,” Paul answered. “It wasn’t what got me to leave my practice. I ran for office mainly because I became concerned that we’re going to destroy the country with debt.”

The libertarianism that launched Paul’s political career can be a tough fit with the religious right, which plays an outsized role in the primary elections to select the Republican nominee for president. In the latest Fox News poll, Paul ranked seventh in the Republican field in support among white evangelical voters, with 7 percent of them saying they’d back him.

Read more here: http://www.kansascity.com/news/government-politics/article24796168.html#storylink=cpy

Hit piece but the picture shows him greeting a family in a diner in NH where evangelicals aren't much of a voting block at all. All to talk about some event in DC this week. Hence my no linky.
legendary
Activity: 1568
Merit: 1001
Rand's WSJ Op-Ed: Blow Up the Tax Code and Start Over
Apply a 14.5% flat tax to personal income and to businesses. Cut deductions. Watch the economy roar.

Some of my fellow Republican candidates for the presidency have proposed plans to fix the tax system. These proposals are a step in the right direction, but the tax code has grown so corrupt, complicated, intrusive and antigrowth that I’ve concluded the system isn’t fixable.

So on Thursday I am announcing an over $2 trillion tax cut that would repeal the entire IRS tax code—more than 70,000 pages—and replace it with a low, broad-based tax of 14.5% on individuals and businesses. I would eliminate nearly every special-interest loophole. The plan also eliminates the payroll tax on workers and several federal taxes outright, including gift and estate taxes, telephone taxes, and all duties and tariffs. I call this “The Fair and Flat Tax.”

President Obama talks about “middle-class economics,” but his redistribution policies have led to rising income inequality and negative income gains for families. Here’s what I propose for the middle class: The Fair and Flat Tax eliminates payroll taxes, which are seized by the IRS from a worker’s paychecks before a family ever sees the money. This will boost the incentive for employers to hire more workers, and raise after-tax income by at least 15% over 10 years.

Here’s why we have to start over with the tax code. From 2001 until 2010, there were at least 4,430 changes to tax laws—an average of one “fix” a day—always promising more fairness, more simplicity or more growth stimulants. And every year the Internal Revenue Code grows absurdly more incomprehensible, as if it were designed as a jobs program for accountants, IRS agents and tax attorneys.

Polls show that “fairness” is a top goal for Americans in our tax system. I envision a traditionally All-American solution: Everyone plays by the same rules. This means no one of privilege, wealth or with an arsenal of lobbyists can game the system to pay a lower rate than working Americans.

More...http://www.wsj.com/articles/blow-up-the-tax-code-and-start-over-1434582592
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