GOP - Rand Paul's Presidential Highlight Reel w/ his Libertarian Twist

[Chef Ramsay]

Paul kicks off western swing in Alaska-to some extent

Glad to see conservatives bringing the message to Alaska! Republicans are lucky to have a great group of candidates to pick from - and one of them is bringing his bold message and plan to "Defeat the Washington Machine" right to Anchorage! So many of us in Alaska share a libertarian streak, and Rand is sure to talk about that! I was proud to support Dr. Rand Paul in his first election to the U.S. Senate and would be there to welcome him to Alaska, but I'm in San Diego guest hosting "On Point" for One America News this week. Find out more about how you can hear directly from Rand while he's in Alaska here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/stand-with-rand-anchorage-ak-t%E2%80%A6


Rand, hope you get some time for some moose chili or eskimo ice cream while you are in town!
- Sarah Palin

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[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul’s sneak attack strategy

SPOKANE, Wa. – Rand Paul was 2,487 miles away from the Beltway journalists who had written off his campaign, and he was loving it.

A riverfront hotel ballroom had filled early, latecomers grabbing chairs from the hallway to add more rows. Seven hundred people stood for a prayer, then the Pledge of Allegiance, then the Star-Spangled Banner, then for two amen-filled endorsements from local legislators, then a video message from the senator’s wife Kelley — and then, finally, for Rand Paul.

“Looks like the liberty movement is alive and well and packing itself into the room!” said Paul.

He wore a dress shirt and tie atop jeans and cowboy boots, his uniform for the week. He delivered a 34-minute speech, touching on everything from the Middle East to land rights to racial sentencing disparities to a rival with “orange hair” – Donald Trump – who benefited from eminent domain. “If I’m president, there’ll be no incident of anyone having their private property taken and given to another owner,” said Paul. Only one line drew louder applause: The one about defunding Planned Parenthood.

Paul’s five-day run was taking him through Western states far from the key battlefields of 2016, drawing him out on issues that don’t resonate in Iowa and New Hampshire. That played to Paul’s strengths. He was far more comfortable whaling on the feds for owning so much Idaho land than he was gabbing about Iowa ethanol. His stump speech, peppered with stories of lives ruined by bureaucrats, was tailor-made for people who wore hunting gear downtown or kept legal marijuana prescriptions in their hemp wallets.

More...http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/rand-pauls-sneak-attack-strategy/2015/08/27/fc82d466-4ccb-11e5-bfb9-9736d04fc8e4_story.html

[Panzzer]

He has no chance. He is nowhere in the surveys.

[Bit_Happy]

He has no chance. He is nowhere in the surveys.

It is still early, so he does "have a chance" even though the road is difficult and he made some mistakes. The contest is not over, yet.

[Chef Ramsay]

He has no chance. He is nowhere in the surveys.

It is still early, so he does "have a chance" even though the road is difficult and he made some mistakes. The contest is not over, yet.

Back in '08 when his dad ran the first time for the GOP nomination, former NYC Mayor Giuliani was way ahead of the pack in the 20%tile and then faded to nothing yet Sen. McCain was polling in low single digits and became the nominee. Rand was the front-runner a year ago and has been campaigning as a nominee to attract independents all this last year but has slipped in the red meat that gets the base fired up. He's been attracting black voters that typically go democrat by staking his claim to criminal justice reform and focusing alot of his Senate time by standing for civil liberties which are often overlooked or not taken seriously by red meaters. He outpolls Hillary in 5 states won by Obama and no other republican does that in full. I agree that his campaign has stumbled at times in their messaging but that will all be worked out as time goes by. It's still way early on and conservatives have yet to realize how un-conservative Trump is on most issues, they're just blinded by tough talk about immigration atm. Things will change and Rand has yet to spend much money on promoting his message other than retail campaigning.

[Chef Ramsay]

CNN: Rand Paul vows to continue eye surgery if president

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GztLg4iTKs8

People underestimate Rand's surgery for poor people in terms of how they view his candidacy and it hasn't really stuck to his name yet in electoral politics, but will eventually. The Trump novelty will wear off and the real anti-establishment medical background will take hold when the time is right and he will peak at the right time later on in the winter. If you followed him running for the US Senate seat from KY or his dad's runs for Congress early, you have no idea how much fight a Paul can put forth and how much his backers will do to see him/them through. When they trot out Ron himself, the emotional and passionate libertarian base will come back in legions especially if they feel Rand is the underdog that isn't getting a fair shake and this will propel Rand at the right time. Ron came about 4% from winning Iowa outright so Rand can build upon that but in the mean time, there's too much fluff right now being orchestrated by the media over Trump and his numbers can only go down and filter out to other candidates as time goes by. Cheers!

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul can’t believe he’s losing to this guy: ‘This whole thing with Trump is insane’

A recent Rand Paul rally in Seattle was a lot like a Rush concert: almost entirely white, mostly male and at least a little bit libertarian.

About 500 supporters, including up to a dozen people of color, turned out Wednesday to “stand with Rand” at the city’s Town Hall, reported The Stranger.

““Here’s your crowd recap: There’s no waiting in the ladies’ room, and a line out the door for the men’s,” one attendee told the newspaper.

The crowd was smaller than those typically drawn by his father, former Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), who ran for president in each of the last two presidential elections.

“Washington is horribly broken and you ask yourself whose fault is it. Well let’s see, Republicans, Democrats — let’s just say everybody in Washington ought to come home and we ought to start over,” said the junior senator for Kentucky, who is running his first presidential campaign.

Paul portrayed rivals in both parties as warmongers.


More...https://www.rawstory.com/2015/08/rand-paul-cant-believe-hes-losing-to-this-guy-this-whole-thing-with-trump-is-insane/

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul poses in front of NSA data center that he pledges to shut down

On Saturday, presidential hopeful and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) made an unusual campaign stop. Wearing his usual shades and messy curls, Paul posed with arms crossed in front of a controversial Utah data center belonging to the NSA. Alongside the photo, posted on Facebook, Paul made a bold campaign pledge: to essentially tear that data center down.

"I'm on my way to the airport, but we decided to stop by the NSA facility in Utah," the caption on Paul's Facebook page says. "When I become president, we'll convert it into a Constitutional Center to study the Fourth Amendment! Bulk data collection must end!"

Senator Paul already succeeded in pushing to end bulk collection of telephone data — a practice that was famously revealed in 2013 by Edward Snowden, who remains in exile. While the remedy to that program came in a legislative reform bill, it was attacked from several angles; one of the lawsuits challenging it was launched by Paul, who called it a "clear and continuing violation of the Fourth Amendment." His Republican competition, including Jeb Bush and Chris Christie, have openly said they want to expand NSA spying.

So if you're looking for a hero to end the surveillance state in the current crop of presidential candidates, your options are very limited. In fact, the only ardent critic among more than 19 Democratic and Republican hopefuls is Senator Paul. Paul is well-known for cheesy bumper sticker lines and public stunts, like his impressive 12-hour drone filibuster, but when it comes to fighting mass government surveillance he's actually one of the only people who has put earnest work into reform. But it's unclear what Paul brings to the table beyond fighting the now-defeated phone records program, which he still rails against on his campaign website as if it were the chief ongoing threat from the NSA.

Paul says that as president he will "immediately end the NSA's illegal bulk data collection and domestic spying programs and protect the Fourth Amendment rights of all Americans." Unfortunately, that could be a loophole depending on Paul's own interpretation of what's legal; last week, the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned a ruling that said the NSA's bulk phone spying program was unconstitutional.

Completely shutting down a huge NSA data center seems like just another silly campaign promise bordering on a stunt, unless Paul believes that all of the NSA's other bulk collection programs — and there are many of those — are just as illegal as the phone records program. Even though he may be the only vociferous candidate when it comes to surveillance reform, Paul will need to start talking about more than phone records if he wants his reformer credentials to remain convincing.

More...http://www.theverge.com/2015/8/30/9228879/rand-paul-nsa-utah

The pic is pretty crap and doesn't add to the purpose but the story is real and legit.

[Chef Ramsay]

New Des Moines (IA) Register Caucus Poll

Trump 23
Carson 18
Cruz 8
Walker 8
Bush 6
Rubio 6
Fiorina 5
Paul 4
Huckabee 4
Kasich 2
Christie 2
Jindal 2
Perry 1
Santorum 1
Graham 0
Unsure/Not committed 10

http://www.gannett-cdn.com/LDSN/desmoines/PDF/iowa-poll-study-2125-methodology-aug31-update.pdf

[Chef Ramsay]

Secret weapon in the mix-
Kelley Paul heading to Iowa to speak to Republican women



I sure am glad that Rand's campaign is finally utilizing his wife, the secret weapon, to boost his numbers in IA which have been faltering since Trump has ran the media up in a storm and the conservative drones have been led down to the guillotine at this point.

[Chef Ramsay]

Video: Rand Paul rally Orem, UT

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7qHt9x1xiY

Great crowd! I think Rand's stump speech could use a makeover though. Fewer quotes -- needs less "Madison said" and more "I say". And more importantly, listening to this stump speech I didn't get a clear picture of what the theme of Rand's campaign is. He goes through a number of different issues, with some common sense solutions, but I didn't really get "Defeat the Washington Machine" from his speech. Rand needs to own more of these issues. You want to talk about how the collapse of the separation of powers is the worst thing Obama has done? Don't just list off a couple examples and move on to the next thing. Freaking slam Obama on it, and slam Bush and the entire establishment. Leave a wound. You want to talk about protecting the entire Bill of Rights? Richard Jewell and Guantanamo Bay are nice little professorial examples, but go harder! Go bold or go home. I don't think America is in the mood for nuance.

[Chef Ramsay]

Clinton emails mention Rand Paul and 'Rove at war with Palin'

Trudging through the 7,000 pages of newly released Hillary Clinton emails, I came upon a very revealing series of emails while searching the term, "Rand Paul." And the State Department made a boo-boo. The original email from Sid Blumenthal includes a large portion of a paragraph that is whited out. However, Sec. Clinton's reply doesn't include these redactions.

This email from Blumenthal (and her short reply) gives us a window into the thinking of Sec. Clinton at the time of the 2010 midterm elections when a wave of more conservative Republicans swept into office--including Sen. Rand Paul. Mr. Blumenthal is a journalist who also acted as an adviser to Sec. Clinton.

More...http://iroots.org/2015/08/31/oops-state-dept-fails-to-censor-hillarys-reply-email/

[Chef Ramsay]

Vote for Rand at Breitbart.com NOW!

Go there (Breitbart.com) and a pop up will come up where you can vote for Rand. It's actually very fast.

TRUMP
39%
CRUZ
25%
CARSON
10%
FIORINA
5%
PAUL
4%

Load up and turn the tide you smart people.

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul Radio Interview: Donald Trump setting GOP up for worst defeat since 1964

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul — a Republican candidate for president — today warned his party risks its worst electoral beating since 1964 if frontrunner Donald Trump wins the GOP nomination.

“It would probably be the worst defeat we’ve had since (Barry) Goldwater, I’d predict, if Trump where the nominee,” Paul said in a Boston Herald Radio “Morning Meeting” interview, referring to the 1964 race during which the Republican from Arizona carried only six states against Lyndon B. Johnson.

A recent Quinnipiac national poll showed Trump lapping the field with 28 percent of those surveyed saying they support him. Paul, who entered the race with a strong following of libertarians and conservatives, languished towards the back of the pack with 2 percent of the survey.

Paul today blasted Trump, accusing the celebrity mogul of masking liberal views with red-meat rhetoric.

“There is a lot of bluster and anger on Trump’s part, but a lot of his solutions are big government solutions,” Paul said. “I think eventually people are going to come to their senses and say ‘oh my God, I liked his angry vitriol, but I didn’t realize he was for gun control, Obamacare, increasing taxes, and taking private property.’ ”

The Kentucky senator had lashed out at Trump in the first primary debate earlier this month and said he will be campaigning hard to warn Republican about what he described as the billionaire’s moderate views.

“If one side doesn’t have ideas or has ideas that seem to be more liberal Democrat than Republican, we need to point these out to people,” he said. “It would be a tragedy if we were to get the nomination and then we discover we nominated a liberal Democrat. That would be a great irony.”

Paul singled out Trump’s stand on eminent domain -- a hot-button issue for libertarians.

“He has been a proponent of using eminent domain to take property from small property owners and use it to make business and make money for himself,” Paul said. “There was a case of a woman who had lived in a house for 30 years. He built a casino next door and when she wouldn’t sell, he used the government to take it from her.”

Last week, Paul wrote an online oped charging that Trump is a supporter of the Kelo Supreme Court decision, which allowed the government to take private property under eminent domain.

“When people find this out, they are going to be horrified,” Paul said.

Paul’s feud with the frontrunner began at the first Republican primary debate when Trump said he would not rule out running as a third-party candidate.

“That really ticked me off,” Paul said. “I have nothing against people running as a third party. I do have a problem with people being dishonest and using the Republicans to get a lot of attention and then running as a third party.”

More...http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2015/08/rand_paul_donald_trump_setting_gop_up_for_worst_defeat_since

[Chef Ramsay]

In Seattle, Rand Paul blames both parties for ‘horribly broken’ system

Rand Paul denounced his rivals in the pack of Republicans and Democrats running for president as warmongers and big-government enablers during a rally Wednesday in Seattle.

The junior senator from Kentucky railed against the “unholy alliance” in Washington, D.C., between the establishment of both parties he said has resulted in out-of-control domestic and military spending.

“Washington is horribly broken and you ask yourself whose fault is it. Well let’s see, Republicans, Democrats — let’s just say everybody in Washington ought to come home and we ought to start over,” Paul said.

Seeking to distinguish himself from the 2016 field, Paul hit politicians of both parties for being too quick to entangle the U.S. in overseas conflicts.

“If you’re eager for war there’s 10 other people I can recommend. If you’re eager for war there will always be a Bush or Clinton for you,” he said.

Paul spoke to about 500 supporters at Town Hall Seattle. It was a smaller crowd than those frequently drawn by his father, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who ran twice for president and had a strong volunteer cadre in Washington.

More...http://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/rand-paul-blames-both-parties-for-horribly-broken-political-system/

[Chef Ramsay]

Poll: Most Iowa GOP voters don’t care if a candidate has any specific policy

...
Among Trump supporters, the portion of those who don’t care if a candidate has specific policy proposals jumped up to two thirds. This kind of vacuity is exactly what Republicans criticized Obama supporters for in 2008 and 2012, but now, it seems, they’ve eagerly jumped into the same pool of inanity.

And whether it’s two thirds or 57 percent or, honestly, anything much above zero, this is a terrifying and depressing statistic.

Unfortunately, it’s not so much surprising as it is something we don’t like to admit to ourselves: most voters don’t pick a candidate because they’ve made a careful examination of the issue positions of every contender. Most voters—and, it seems, especially Trump voters—are mainly just going with their gut, casting their ballots with relatively little research beyond their own immediate feelings about a candidate’s manner and rhetoric.

...
Read more at http://rare.us/story/poll-most-iowa-gop-voters-dont-care-if-a-candidate-has-any-specific-policy-ideas/#66dcm58T56OtmjIS.99

Meaningful since Rand should receive all the anti-establishment support that Trump has seen lately. It's early and Rand will sweep up sooner rather than later.

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul says KY clerk’s marriage protest is ‘part of the American way'

MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has given a mixed endorsement to a home state county clerk whose refusal to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples has become national news.


"I think people who do stand up and are making a stand to say that they believe in something is an important part of the American way," Paul told Boston Herald Radio during a three-day campaign swing through the Northeast.

When asked about Rowan County, Kentucky clerk Kim Davis's ongoing refusal to issue licenses, in defiance of the Supreme Court's 2015 Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, Paul's campaign pointed to his Monday interview with the conservative Herald. The question was succinct, asking if Paul "back[ed] Kim Davis and her religious right" to defy the ruling. Paul's answer took him across the plains of legal theory before ending with the "making a stand" statement.


"I think one way to get around the whole idea of what the Supreme Court is forcing on the states is for states just to get out of the business of giving out licenses," Paul said. "Alabama has already voted to do this, they’re just no longer going to give out licenses. And anybody can make a contract. And then if you want a marriage contract you go to a church. And so I’ve often said we could have gotten around all of this also in the sense that I do believe everybody has a right to a contract."

...http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/09/01/rand-paul-says-ky-clerks-gay-marriage-protest-is-part-of-the-american-way/

[Chef Ramsay]

CNN changes debate criteria, clearing path for Fiorina

CNN announced on Tuesday that it has changed the criteria for its upcoming debate, making space for Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina on the primetime stage.

Fiorina had argued for weeks that CNN's debate criteria unfairly weighted early field leaders over those who have polled better since the Fox News debate on Aug. 6.

According to CNN, any candidate who ranks in the top 10 between Aug. 6 and Sept. 10 will be included in the primetime debate on Sept. 16.

...http://www.politico.com/story/2015/09/cnn-changes-debate-criteria-clearing-path-for-fiorina-213237#ixzz3kWitNbmU

[Chef Ramsay]

Libertarians May Co-Nominate Rand Paul in 2016

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., may follow in his father’s footsteps not only by seeking the Republican presidential nomination, but also by receiving the Libertarian Party’s ballot line.

Members of the Libertarian Party are bracing for an internal struggle over whether to back the libertarian-leaning senator if he appears poised to win the Republican nomination in 2016.

Paul is unlikely to directly seek the third party’s support, but could win it anyhow through the work of eager activists like those who worked the campaigns of his father, former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, a GOP presidential contender in 2008 and 2012 and the Libertarian nominee in 1988.

A co-nomination from one of the nation’s most significant minor parties could help Paul - if he’s the Republican nominee - avoid losing hundreds of thousands of votes to an ideological ally. In some states, his name would appear twice on ballots.

If Paul is nominated by both the Republican and Libertarian parties, it could also unleash electoral scenarios unseen in decades, such as the negotiation of a fusion slate of electors. Libertarians could, theoretically, nominate their own vice presidential candidate.

Though the Libertarian Party’s Orlando, Florida, nominating convention isn’t until May 2016, Libertarian National Committee Executive Director Wes Benedict foresees a fight.

“If Rand Paul wins the Republican nomination, I'd expect a big fight within the [party] over whether or not we should run our own candidate,” Benedict says. “It wouldn't just be a discussion.”

Libertarian Party chairman Nicholas Sarwark, officially neutral on the matter, says “there is a possibility that the delegates in Orlando would nominate Sen. Paul and if they were to do so, I'd work hard to support their choice.”

The Republican primary season will be well underway when the 1,000 or so Libertarian convention delegates gather. If Paul appears poised for victory in the GOP race, they would have several options.

Delegates could nominate Paul and his presumptive GOP running mate (if that person has been selected), or nominate Paul and a Libertarian running mate (as happened in 1896 when the Democratic and Populist parties nominated William Jennings Bryan for president, but chose different vice presidential candidates).

They could also choose to endorse no candidate, a scenario in which many would-be Libertarian voters would presumably vote for Paul without the party’s official blessing; or they could snub Paul and pick their own presidential candidate.

...

http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2014/10/27/rand-paul-could-win-libertarian-nomination-too

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul Op-Ed: Simplify the Tax Code, Reduce the Budget, and Balance It

I believe that the only way to rein in big government is to starve the beast. I’d eliminate the more than 70,000 pages of the tax code, replace it with one page, and start over. I’d set a single rate of 14.5 percent for businesses and individuals. I’d also eliminate the payroll tax, a move that would raise after-tax income by at least 15 percent over ten years.

Fake conservatives like Donald Trump want to raise taxes. Trump maintains that Democrats run the economy better. So, if tea-party conservatives succumb to his nonsense, expect higher taxes and Clinton-style big government to be the result.

One of the fundamental aims of the Constitution was to limit the powers of the federal government. Our Founders would be horrified to learn that the federal government has worked its way into every nook and cranny of our lives.

...http://www.nationalreview.com/article/423549/tax-reform-limited-government-conservatism-rand-paul