Topic: Slappy Statist Candidates for US President 2016 - page 12. (Read 17936 times)

I missed this the first time around, thanks for the good news.
Rick Perry has shown once again, he doesn't have what it takes to build momentum.



"They" made him a front-runner once, will that ever happen again?
 

Texas Gov. Rick Perry indicted on two felony charges


More...http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/15/politics/rick-perry-indictment/index.html

NEW YORK — Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will raise money on Wall Street on Wednesday at an eye-popping $100,000 per-ticket Park Avenue event hosted by private equity mogul Henry Kravis and his wife.

The price of admission to the event, which will raise funds for Bush’s “Right to Rise” super PAC, surprised even Wall Street veterans used to high-dollar fundraisers.

The event comes as Bush continues a shock and awe approach to early 2016 fundraising that people close to the campaign say could eventually see the former governor reach a total of between $50 million and $100 million between the super PAC, a traditional political action committee and an eventual presidential campaign.

Bush spokeswoman Kristy Campbell declined to comment on the price of the Kravis fundraiser, the second event the private equity titan has held for Bush.

“We don’t detail info on private finance events,” she said in an email. But two people familiar with the event confirmed the $100,000 amount.

“I shook my head when I heard the number,” one senior Wall Street executive who is not attending the event said on Tuesday. Another said the event would likely draw a significant crowd and would put Bush well on a path to raise over $50 million for the super PAC alone.

Bush is moving quickly to consolidate financial support in the wealthy enclaves of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut, in many cases squeezing out New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. People familiar with the matter said the KKR event is likely to feature Kravis and other senior executives at the firm, including Ken Mehlman, who managed George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign, and Alexander Navab. Mehlman did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Wednesday night, several dozen people with the means to attend an event so pricey its invitation doesn’t list an expected contribution will gather in the Park Avenue apartment of Henry and Marie-Josée Kravis to meet Jeb Bush and add to the quickly filling coffers of Right to Rise, the PAC set up to aid Mr. Bush’s presidential ambitions. The affair will be co-chaired by Mr. Kravis’ colleagues at KKR, including Ken Mehlman, who managed George W. Bush’s 2004 campaign and later became chairman of the Republican National Committee.

This is the second event Mr. Kravis, a coveted GOP donor who leads the storied leveraged buyout firm that bears his name, has hosted for Mr. Bush in a month. On the afternoon of January 8th, KKR hosted an event at its offices where the still undeclared candidate met with 80 supporters. The night before, Mr. Bush traveled to Greenwich, where an even larger crowd of 130 greeted the former Florida governor.

It’s no secret that Jeb Bush has been moving aggressively to vacuum up cash and secure support. These three events are part of that effort and the Observer’s cover story last week shared for the first time names of more than a dozen New Jersey and New York finance heavyweights who attended a fourth event – a January 8th dinner hosted by New Jersey lawyer and former RNC finance chief Larry Bathgate.

Clinton may look inevitable, but some Iowa Democrats are ready for Warren
IA dems tiring of Hillary?

More...http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/clinton-may-look-inevitable-but-some-iowa-democrats-are-ready-for-warren/2015/02/09/1f0063fe-b083-11e4-854b-a38d13486ba1_story.html

AMES, Iowa — Thirteen Iowa Democrats wearily took their seats here this weekend and discussed among themselves the source of their angst: Hillary Rodham Clinton.

“I’m utterly tired, tired of the Clintons and the whole establishment,” said Carole Brannon, 71, a retired nurse.

Anne Kinzel, 57, a former health-care attorney, nodded sympathetically.

“The hacks think Hillary is entitled to be president,” Kinzel said. “I think she is one of those people who has lost the sense of why they are in politics.”

As Clinton prepares to launch her all-but-certain 2016 campaign, the former secretary of state remains a favorite of a vast majority of Democrats and the front-runner for the party’s presidential nomination. Still, there is unease among progressives about her largely uncontested ascent.

Joe Biden, the vice president and an underdog for the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, is scheduled to be back in Iowa next week.

Biden will speak in Des Moines on Thursday, sources familiar with preparations for his trip told The Des Moines Register. His office later confirmed that he will deliver remarks at Drake University and do a roundtable at Des Moines Area Community College on college affordability.

The news comes in the wake of the release this past weekend of a new Iowa Poll that shows Biden trails both Hillary Clinton and Elizabeth Warren in the horse race for most popular presidential pick among likely Democratic caucusgoers.

Biden's timing suggests he wants to keep his name in circulation as presidential material - any time top-shelf politicians make a trip here it reinforces the notion that they harbor aspirations for the top job. He is currently in Belgium, meeting with European leaders in part to talk about sanctions against Russia and security and aid to Ukraine. He'll also attend a security summit in Germany.

Democrats generally think the 2016 Democratic nomination is Clinton's if she wants it, although she has yet to announce an official candidacy. In September, Biden made headlines for chasing Clinton here just three days after she made her Iowa comeback after a seven-year absence; she spoke before an audience of 10,000 and a horde of media at the Harkin Steak Fry.

Biden's event Thursday, like the one in September, will be an official White House trip to talk about the Obama administration's economic policies. Biden remarks in September, with the Iowa Capitol in the background, had the air of a campaign stump speech, as he called for raising the minimum wage and making life better for the middle class.

The Republican 2016 presidential field includes three politicians — George Pataki, Jim Gilmore and Bob Ehrlich — who last won election when the flip phone was hot technology. Also making moves to run are John Bolton, who is best remembered as an architect of George W. Bush’s WMD strategy and has never held elected office, and Peter King, the longtime Long Island congressman who’s made his biggest headlines hitting conservatives.

And don’t forget about former Hewlett-Packard CEO and failed California senatorial candidate Carly Fiorina — another accomplished figure who’s perceived to have next to no chance of becoming the Republican standard-bearer.
Story Continued Below

Welcome to 2016’s “Why not me?” primary: a low-stakes, little-covered tussle among below-the-radar Republicans who say they could be president. After seeing other presumed has-beens like Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich become real factors in 2012, they see little downside in taking a shot.

But for the GOP, which is already wrestling with a large group of would-be contenders, the presence of these former governors and senators and prominent officials presents an extra complication. They’re trying to avoid the circus-like atmosphere, fueled by candidates desperate for attention, that tainted many of the 2012 primary debates.

[Federal authorities have launched a criminal investigation into New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, as well as members of his administration, a man at the center of the investigation told ABC News.

The U.S. attorney’s office in New Jersey has interviewed former Hunterdon County Assistant Prosecutor Bennett Barlyn, who claims he was fired because he objected to Christie officials dismissing indictments against political allies of the governor. Barlyn confirmed the investigation to ABC News. It was first reported by the International Business Times.

“It is true,” Barlyn told ABC News, saying he was interviewed by federal authorities at his Pennsylvania home this week. “I also provided the investigators with names of people I thought could furnish firsthand information.”

Barlyn said he was not sure whether others have been questioned for the investigation.

Barlyn was dismissed from the Hunterdon County Prosecutor’s Office in September 2010 and later brought a whistleblower case against the Christie administration that currently is in the discovery phase. He has consistently said he was fired for objecting to the quashing of indictments against the county’s sheriff and two subordinates -- all political supporters of Christie’s.

The governor’s office previously has dismissed the accusations as being “conspiratorial nonsense.”

State officials have repeatedly denied Barlyn’s accusations and, in court filings, they said that the decision to dismiss the indictment was within the discretion of New Jersey’s top law-enforcement officials. They have argued Barlyn has no case and doesn’t even have the right to sue under state law.

The federal prosecutor's probe centers on why Christie’s then-attorney general, Paula Dow, dismissed the indictments.

Dow has rejected Barlyn's accusations, saying the indictment was flawed and Barlyn was fired for “legitimate business reasons,” according to NJ.com.

In a February 2014 interview, Barlyn outlined some of his grievances. He told ABC News' Jim Avila that all the evidence his former office obtained during its “two-year investigation was suddenly shipped back to [the state capital] Trenton. ... physically taken out of our office and taken to the attorney general's office.”

He called it “highly unusual,” adding, “The head of our special investigations unit who was heading the investigation was very abruptly taken off the case two weeks before the dismissal.”

Barlyn called the relationships between those being investigated and Christie “compelling,” adding “there’s simply photographic evidence” showing Christie “associating with these individuals.”

In the interview, Barlyn claimed he was fired for “political reasons.” He said the state attorney general gave him no explanation for his dismissal.

“I asked for one and was told that I wasn't entitled to an explanation,” Barlyn said. “I gave up my access to the building. I returned home again completely in the dark although I had a feeling of what precipitated the dismissal. My Internet connection to the office was cut off. And three weeks later I received a one-page faxed dismissal letter from the director of the Division of Criminal Justice. Again, no reason was given of why I was terminated after 18 years of being ... a state and county prosecutor with a pretty good rep.”/quote]

More...http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/jersey-gov-chris-christie-criminal-investigation/story?id=28753740

CONCORD - New Hampshire may have a new front-runner in the race for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination.

The first survey conducted in the first-in-the-nation primary state since Mitt Romney's exit from the 2016 White House race indicates that Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker leads the pack of potential Republican presidential contenders.

According to an NH1 Pulse Poll released Wednesday, Walker has the backing of 21.2% of those who say they're likely to vote in next year's GOP presidential primary. The automated survey indicates Jeb Bush in second place, with 14.4% saying they'd support the former two-term Florida governor if the Feb. 9, 2016 primary was held now.

The poll was conducted Monday and Tuesday, after Romney's announcement last Friday that he wouldn't make a third run for the White House. The 2012 GOP nominee and former Massachusetts governor, who owns a vacation home along Lake Winnipesaukee, is very well known in New Hampshire and would have been the front-runner in the primary if he had launched a campaign.

A NH1 Pulse Poll conducted two weeks ago put Romney at 29% support, far ahead of the rest of the field. Bush was at 11% and Walker was at 8% in that same survey.

In his announcement, Romney said "I believe that one of our next generation of Republican leaders, one who may not be as well-known as I am today, one who has not yet taken their message across the country, one who is just getting started, may well emerge as being better able to defeat the Democrat nominee. In fact, I expect and hope that to be the case."

The poll suggests that Walker may possibly be that Republican leader. First elected governor in 2010 in a state that leans towards the Democrats, Walker became a national hero to many conservatives thanks to his high profile 2011-2012 battle against state public sector unions over collective bargaining rights.

Well, at least I'll give you props for helping out in the primary. I vote for lots of LP candidate each election but when there's a demonstrably proven libertarian-leaning republican running for federal office that maintains stances in favor of civil liberties and a restrained foreign policy then it's up to me as a Libertarian to lend that candidate (that has a way better chance of winning than the LP candidate) my vote, activism and maybe even my money. In a situation of practicality like this, the good is not the enemy of the perfect.

(CNN)Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker has hired several more key operatives to staff a new political committee that he recently established as he considers a run for the Republican presidential nomination, CNN has learned.

Kirsten Kukowski, deputy communications director/press secretary for the Republican National Committee, will serve as communications director for Walker's "Our American Revival" and several members of the Tarrance Group will conduct polling and provide strategic political advice to the governor.

READ: Jeb Bush adds veteran consultants to likely campaign team

Ed Goeas, president and CEO of Tarrance, will serve as a senior adviser, while partner Brian Tringali and senior vice president B.J. Martino will oversee polling. Tringali and Martino have worked for Walker in his previous gubernatorial campaigns.

In addition, Mark Stephenson, who worked on Joni Ernst's successful Iowa Senate campaign among others, has signed on as Walker's chief data officer.

As Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey waited to depart on a trade mission to Israel in 2012, his entourage was delayed by a late arrival: Mr. Christie’s father, who had accidentally headed to the wrong airport.

A commercial flight might have left without him, but in this case, there was no rush. The private plane, on which Mr. Christie had his own bedroom, had been lent by Sheldon G. Adelson, the billionaire casino owner and supporter of Israel. At the time, he was opposing legislation then before the governor to legalize online gambling in New Jersey.

Mr. Christie loaded the plane with his wife, three of his four children, his mother-in-law, his father and stepmother, four staff members, his former law partner and a state trooper.

King Abdullah of Jordan picked up the tab for a Christie family weekend at the end of the trip. The governor and two staff members who accompanied him came back to New Jersey bubbling that they had celebrated with Bono, the lead singer of U2, at three parties, two at the king’s residence, the other a Champagne reception in the desert. But a small knot of aides fretted: The rooms in luxurious Kempinski hotels had cost about $30,000; what would happen if that became public?

On Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) launched an exploratory committee for a 2016 presidential run, as Arlette Saenz of ABC News reported.
The committee, named "Security through Strength," will allow Graham to fundraise while he decides whether to officially launch a bid.
The committee's website implies that a Graham presidential bid will focus on foreign policy. It quotes Graham citing Ronald Reagan's "Peace Through Strength" policy for the Cold War, and adds that for "radical Islam," whose "followers are committed to destroying us and our way of life," Graham's own policy will be "Security through Strength."

What it means

Senator Lindsey Graham wants to put 10,000 "boots on the ground" to confront the Islamic State

The South Carolina Republican, who on Thursday premiered a political action committee aimed at exploring a run for president, told Face the Nation on Sunday that the terrorist organization could launch an attack on the U.S. that would be like "Paris on steroids" and that the group won't stop executing hostages aide workers and journalists until "they're degraded and destroyed."

"An aerial campaign will not destroy them," Graham said. "You're going to need boots on the ground, not only in Iraq, but in Syria."

Host Norah O'Donnell said the Islamic State effectively controls 20,000 square miles in those two countries, and the group released a video on Friday that appears to show the execution of Japanese hostage Kenji Goto. Graham called Iraq and Syria the "best platforms to launch an attack on [the] United States" since 9/11.

Graham said he thought aerial strikes, which have been ongoing against the group, have helped push it back but that "there's got to be some regional force formed with an American component, somewhere around 10,000" in order to stop the group.

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who is considering his own run for president in 2016, also said on Sunday that "ultimately, we have to be prepared to put boots on the ground," although he said that wasn't "an immediate plan."

Sending ground troops to Iraq and Syria may play well in the upcoming GOP primary. Fifty-seven percent of Republicans support the idea, according to a Pew poll released in October. Conversely, the issue could be a liability in the general election as 55 percent of respondents from both parties opposed sending in ground troops.

Gov. Scott Walker wants the American military to be everywhere on earth.

“I think anywhere and everywhere, we have to go beyond just aggressive air strikes,” Walker said during a live interview on ABC’s This Week. “We need to have an aggressive strategy anywhere around the world.”


Walker is Republican governor of Wisconsin and considering running for president in 2016. Walker said

“I think when you have the lives of Americans at stake and our freedom loving allies anywhere in the world, we have to be prepared to do things that don’t allow those measures, those attacks, those abuses to come to our shores.”

This is the Bush Doctrine, which is for the U.S. to attack threats that it perceives even before they are actual threats, that is, to attack threats of threats. To quote what Bush proposed in full:

“The security environment confronting the United States today is radically different from what we have faced before. Yet the first duty of the United States Government remains what it always has been: to protect the American people and American interests. It is an enduring American principle that this duty obligates the government to anticipate and counter threats, using all elements of national power, before the threats can do grave damage. The greater the threat, the greater is the risk of inaction – and the more compelling the case for taking anticipatory action to defend ourselves, even if uncertainty remains as to the time and place of the enemy’s attack. There are few greater threats than a terrorist attack with WMD.

Rand Paul has my vote for the primary, without question, because there's no one else worth voting for on either side. (I live in a state where you can only vote on one side, which is dumb.) But in the general election, I'll be back to someone who more closely represents libertarianism in Gary Johnson.

The difference here is there is no comparison between Obama and Paul. There's two diametrically opposed ideologies where one is to fundamentally change America and this is what we've come to see in terms of the expansion and powers of government and the other is a true to form libertarian populist mentality of paring back govt to reasonable levels at minimum. I agree that most republicans haven't been trustworthy in terms of being true fiscal conservatives but that's the difference between run of the mill republicans and those of the libertarian brand which we've come to see more of in different parts of the country and Reps like Amash and Massie. Over and above the fact that Rand is a Paul, his voting record pretty much speaks for itself in libertarian terms. I'm just trying to help him get the nomination and then let the people decide between their choices and then so be it. If he's the head of the party by being at the top of the ticket, all other republicans running will have to push for and defend the way Rand positions himself and the rest of the party, for that matter, on the issues. Note how Obama had his majority leader line up the votes to pass things he wanted when he had the chance. Anyways, I shot my own self in the foot for getting into Rand Paul in this thread when I already showcase him in my other thread.

This thread is reserved for candidates that are running (or might run) in the two major parties for the upcoming primaries on either side and I get to deem who fits here and who doesn't. Not trying to be a jerk but Rand Paul would be showcased in this thread if he didn't have the dynamics as a person that he has including his voting record and the issues he champions, all or most of which are pro-liberty.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee on Sunday said being gay is akin to choosing to drink alcohol or use profanity - lifestyle choices he says are appealing to others but not to him.


The former Baptist pastor, who is weighing a second run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, also claimed that forcing people of faith to accept gay marriage as policy is on par with telling Jews that they must serve "bacon-wrapped shrimp in their deli." That dish would run afoul of kosher rules in the same way Huckabee sees asking Christians to accept same-sex marriages.


"We're so sensitive to make sure we don't offend certain religions, but then we act like Christians can't have the convictions that they have had for over 2,000 years," Huckabee said.

Huckabee has made cultural issues the cornerstone of his likely White House bid. The former Baptist pastor is counting on social conservatives and evangelicals who have great clout in early nominating Iowa to help him.


His comments about gays and lesbians seem targeted at the conservative corners of his party.