Topic: GOP - Rand Paul's Presidential Highlight Reel w/ his Libertarian Twist - page 65. (Read 205816 times)

North Carolina U.S. Rep. Patrick McHenry said he’d like his constituents to see potential new presidential candidates like Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.

“From what I’ve heard other people, he brings in a different crowd, not just activists coming out, but new people, new faces come out,” McHenry told reporters during the House and Senate Republican retreat in Hershey, Pa., on Friday. McHenry represents the 10th District, from the Charlotte suburbs to Asheville.

McHenry made the same pitch for Paul in an interview with Luke Russert on MSNBC’s digital show, “The Briefing.” Russert said he imagined McHenry was would be an early supporter if former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush runs.

“I don’t know about that. I’m very open about that,” McHenry replied, “I actually want to see Rand Paul in, the reaction my constituents have to him.”

McHenry, who’s part of the Republican House leadership as a chief deputy whip, also told Russert he has changed since he went to Congress a decade ago: “I came in as a rabble-rouser. I’m much more an institutionalist now.

Senator Rand Paul is now the proud owner of the ultimate smoking jacket: a custom-made, navy blue hemp blazer.

At a diner stop in Las Vegas on Friday, a fan of the senator’s surprised Mr. Paul with the blazer as a gift. It fit like a glove. And that was no coincidence.

The fan, Dannion Brinkley, said he had asked Mr. Paul’s staff for the right size, and they obliged. So when Mr. Paul, Republican of Kentucky, showed up to glad hand with voters, Mr. Brinkley was waiting.

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Mr. Brinkley said in an interview that he had to get the jacket from Romania because it is illegal to trade in hemp in the United States. He told Mr. Paul that he wished the jacket had been made in America.

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He [Rand] is a sharp dude I'll tell you that. I'm serious about that. You don't have to agree with him on everything but he's willing to come on a program like this, pretty much any program, and engage. Where's Mittster?

Mark Levin interviewed Rand Paul on his show tonight and they talked about an array of issues, from Paul’s bill to defund the Palestinians to negotiating with Iran to Mitt and Jeb in 2016 to judicial restraint vs judicial activism.

That's a tough one... Chris Christie, Jeb Bush, no idea, no idea (overweight & drunk Oliver North?), Brit Hume???, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry (those glasses...), Mike Huckabee, Mitt Romney.

Or, Bridge Asshole, Dubya's brother, no idea, no idea, Fox anchor?, that guy who isn't white, I forget, Fox anchor, guy who ran in 2012 or 2008 (and isn't Dick DeVos who I frequently confuse him with). Based on my own familiarity with candidates, I'm going to guess Jeb Bush competes primarily with Mitt in 2016 and wins, with Rand coming in with a strong 2nd but rarely attacked by opponents.

As Bush and Romney Battle, Can Rand Paul Sneak Through In New Hampshire?



More...http://www.bloomberg.com/politics/features/2015-01-16/as-bush-and-romney-battle-can-rand-paul-sneak-through-in-new-hampshire

CONCORD, N.H. – Rand Paul was winding down his day, talking to his fourth overflow crowd in eight hours. He’d started with state legislators who (mostly) had supported his father’s second presidential bid, in 2012. After a chat with the mayor of Manchester, he was off to talk with gun owners. He spun right around to talk to teachers about the threat of Common Core, and then he went up the highway to The Draft, a sports bar owned by the friendly State Senator Andy Sanborn, to address an assemblage of small businessmen.

At the bar, for the third time that day—totally unbidden—a potential voter asked him about militarization.

“I wanted to know if you thought the corporations that are selling weapons to the government are part of the problem,” asked Arnie Alpert, a Quaker activist wearing an NAACP badge on his tweed lapel.

The schism between Jeb and Mitt created an opening—and no one is in a better position to benefit than Paul, who says he’ll decide on a bid by March or April. New Hampshire has always been a key state for a Paul campaign. For most of the past decade, the state has attracted new libertarian-minded immigrants from other states, and elected new libertarian-minded legislators. They’re often the same people. The Free State Project, an effort to attract a critical mass of libertarians to one state and steer its life and politics, was organizing in New Hampshire long before Ron Paul ran for president. When Paul ran in 2008 and 2012, he grew a passionate base of volunteers.

“They were pretty symbiotic,” says Jason Sorens, the young Yale academic (now a professor at Dartmouth, fittingly) who dreamed up the Free State concept in 2001. “The Free Staters went from 500 to 1200 in the space of a couple of years, and there was a big boost to us from the Ron Paul movement.”

How big a boost? “I’ve tried to investigate this, actually,” says Sorens. “I looked at the correlation between Free Staters and the 2008 primary vote for Paul. For every one of them in a given town, there were two additional votes for him.”

After a tough vote, a new GOP attitude.

HERSHEY, Penn. — In New Hampshire yesterday, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul told a group of supportive Republican legislators that the country needed some immigration fixes. A few hours later, I asked whether, if elected president, Paul would move to overturn the Obama-era executive orders that have essentially legalized millions of immigrants.

"I’ve always been of the opinion that we should do things the proper way," Paul said. "I am in favor of doing immigration reform, but it should be done in the proper fashion." He cited the the need to tighten border security before attempting anything else, but added that "the 11 million, I think, are never going home, don’t need to be sent home, and I would incorporate them into our society by giving them work visas and making them taxpayers."

Stanford University researchers have created Crowdpac, a for-profit organization that rates potential political candidates according to three primary measurements: 1. Voting records. 2. Speeches and statements. 3. Campaign contributions. Their most recent ranking explores where potential Republican and Democratic 2016 presidential candidates fall on the left-right ideological spectrum.

A “10C” is the highest rating conservative rating one can receive and a “10L” is the highest liberal score.

Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky) is the most conservative Republican with a 10+C ranking, says Crowdpac, ahead of Senator Ted Cruz (R-Tx) who received a 9.7C, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker came in at 7.8C followed by former Indiana Governor Mike Pence 7.6C and Dr. Ben Carson at 7.4

Potential candidates Jeb Bush, Mitt Romney, Marco Rubio, Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee all fell below 7 points.

Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vt) is ranked as most liberal overall at 8.3L, followed by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Ma) who comes in at 8.2L.

But on the civil liberties-related issue of government surveillance and spying on U.S. citizens–Rand Paul was ranked as more liberal than any potential Democratic candidate.

Sanders, Warren, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton–all of them.


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It’s good for the voters to have choices, says Paul, and it seems like Republican voters have more every day. Mitt Romney is seriously considering a run. Former three-term New York Gov. George Pataki just visited New Hampshire to see if anyone remembers him. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham is making soundings. It’s getting to be the case that the R next to a politician’s name stands for “Running for president.” “I saw in the paper recently they listed who might run for the Republican primary,” said Paul. “It was like the whole page.”

But Paul isn’t just being ideologically consistent when he says, “More the merrier.” He’s happy to see the others split the vote. On the establishment side of the party, Mitt Romney, Jeb Bush, and Chris Christie will fight for the share of voters who want a pragmatist with executive experience. Social conservatives will splinter between Rick Santorum, Ted Cruz, and Mike Huckabee. Paul will have relatively less competition for the libertarian conservatives of the kind who supported his father in the state in 2012, when Rep. Ron Paul came in second to Mitt Romney with 23 percent of the vote.

But the son is not the father. To make that clear he has said his father will not be campaigning with him. Sen. Paul’s foreign policy views are less confrontational and isolationist than his father’s are, and he is running a more traditional campaign, assembling constituency groups, not just relying on tribal loyalism. At Murphy’s, Paul talked to small government legislators, at the gun club it was Second Amendment enthusiasts, and at Founders it was education activists. You could almost see the chart on which the careful constituent tending had been mapped out.
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Speaking Tuesday at the Heritage Action Conservative Policy Summit in Washington, D.C., Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) urged his conservative audience to reject the legal philosophy known as judicial restraint and instead embrace an “activist” Supreme Court that’s willing to strike down offensive state and federal laws. “What happens when a legislature does bad things?” Paul asked the crowd. “Should we have an activist court that comes in and overturns that?”

Paul answered that question with a resounding yes. He pointed to a variety of Supreme Court cases where government actions were on trial, from Progressive era economic regulations to state bans on birth control to the 2012 showdown over Obamacare, and pronounced himself in favor of judicial activism against those laws in every instance.
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When governments “do wrong we should overturn them,” Paul said. “There is a role for the Supreme Court to mete out justice.”
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For a detailed account of the long-running legal battle over the merits of judicial restraint, check out my new book on the subject, Overruled: The Long War for Control of the U.S. Supreme Court.
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Media Advisory
Senator Rand Paul To Nevada

ON:13 January 2015
BY:Admin
IN: Media Advisory

WASHINGTON, DC – Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) will travel to Las Vegas, Nevada on January 16th and Reno, Nevada on January 17th, 2015. Senator Paul will focus on meeting local pastors, business leaders and political activists.

FRIDAY, JANUARY 16, 2015
WHAT: Diner Visit – Las Vegas
TIME: 10:30 am (PST)
WHO: Senator Rand Paul
WHERE: Peppermill Restaurant
2985 South Las Vegas Blvd, Las Vegas NV 89109

SATURDAY, JANUARY 17, 2015
WHAT: Media Availability – Reno
TIME: 1:00 pm (PST)
WHO: Senator Rand Paul
WHERE: Downtown Reno – Exact location TBD

(Reuters) - Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul took aim in New Hampshire on Wednesday at Common Core national education standards as he looked to strengthen ties with voters in the first-in-the-nation primary state before an expected 2016 White House run.

With its libertarian leanings, New Hampshire is seen as hospitable territory for Paul's small-government beliefs. His father, former Texas U.S. Representative Ron Paul, finished second in the 2012 New Hampshire primary, trailing only former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, who went on to clinch the nomination.

A running theme during Paul's visit to the state on Wednesday was his critique of the federal government's involvement in grade-school education and particularly the Common Core standards adopted by most states and supported by President Barack Obama's administration.

The Kentucky lawmaker told staff and parents at a Manchester charter school that he would rather see local schools develop their own standards, which he argued would encourage innovation.

"If you have a national curriculum and rules, you'll never get to these new ideas," Paul said.

Paul's position against Common Core distinguishes him from former Florida Governor Jeb Bush, the Republican who has come closest to officially declaring his presidential candidacy and who has expressed support for the standards.

The Common Core English and math standards are aimed at boosting critical-thinking skills and unifying state guidelines.

But they have come under fire across the political spectrum. Left-leaning groups argue they increase reliance on standardized testing and discourage creativity and flexibility in the classroom. Some conservative groups say they amount to a federal takeover of education.

Paul added that if elected, he would eliminate the U.S. Department of Education, a sentiment that drew applause from the audience.

He also addressed another issue dear to many New Hampshire Republicans: gun rights. He spoke at a closed meeting for Second Amendment supporters at the Londonderry Fish and Game Club.

Outside that event, Anthony Nino Jr., 49, said he liked Paul and his father for their commitment to individual rights.

"I think we need more people with his sense of duty to the Constitution," said Nino, wearing a hand-made three-corner hat, a style popular in colonial times. "If they have a duty to follow and enforce the Constitution, then they will respect another person's rights."

Rand Paul is not a fan of the United Nations, and on a campaign-style swing through New Hampshire on Wednesday, the likely Republican presidential hopeful said that he would support dissolving the international governing body entirely.

Speaking to a room full of gun rights advocates at the Londonderry Fish & Game Club, Paul said that while the concept of having a multinational body to "discuss diplomacy" isn't necessarily a bad one, he objects to the current structure, in which the United States has to foot "a huge chunk" of the U.N.'s bill.

“I dislike paying for something that two-bit Third World countries with no freedom attack us and complain about the United States,” Paul said. “There’s a lot of reasons why I don’t like the U.N., and I think I’d be happy to dissolve it.”

The Kentucky senator’s swing through the first-in-the-nation primary state came a day after The Washington Post reported that Paul has hired a campaign manager for his now all-but certain White House run.

Paul was in his element among the libertarian-leaning crowd here, as he took a range of questions on gun policy and noted that he began his successful 2010 Senate bid at a machine gun festival in Kentucky.

“From a freedom perspective, I’m against limiting magazines,” Paul said in response to one question about ammunition. “From a practical point of view, I’m not that great a shot, so I need a few more chances.”

The remark drew laughter from the standing-room crowd that had gathered near the club’s gun range.

Though Paul’s 2016 candidacy is not yet official, the freshman senator mostly dispensed with any attempt to play it coy as he asked for the club members’ support.

“I don’t think you’ll probably find anybody in our primary who’s going to come up here and say they don’t support the 2nd Amendment and they’re not for gun rights,” he said. “So really the job of voters sometimes is sifting through who they think can best advocate for the position, who has advocated for the position, and how do we do it best. I think there’s a lot of overlap between all of the people you’ll see and hear from. But I think one thing that may be unique about my message is that I try to intertwine and make it not just about guns and not just the 2nd Amendment. I tend to make it more about freedom.”