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

[Chef Ramsay]

The Slate's take on Foreign Policy in the GOP debate

"It’s a strange debate where Sen. Rand Paul comes off as the most sensible contender on the stage.

The shockwaves sounded three times during the GOP debate’s testy phase on foreign policy Wednesday night. First, after Carly Fiorina said she wouldn’t so much as meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin for the evils he’s committed, Paul noted that Ronald Reagan—in whose library the candidates and their audience were gathered—talked with the Russians throughout the Cold War, to the world’s benefit.

Second, after hearing his rivals blast President Obama for not bombing Syria two years ago after pledging that he would if President Bashar al-Assad crossed the “red line” of using chemical weapons, Paul said, “If we’d bombed Syria, ISIS would be in Damascus today,” adding, “Sometimes intervention makes us less safe.” The specific claim is debatable (though no one debated it), but the broad point is indisputably true.

Third, contrary to almost all of his rivals (and his fellow Republicans on Capitol Hill), Paul said that he would not “tear up” the Iran nuclear deal upon entering the White House. “Let’s see if the Iranians comply with it,” he said, in a tone suggesting that he was making an obvious point—which, indeed, he was.

...http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/war_stories/2015/09/republican_party_s_presidential_candidates_on_foreign_policy_gop_contenders.html

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand's post debate appearance on the Sean Hannity show on Fox News

He predicts the poll numbers for all candidates will be reshuffled after last nights performance.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96Su9U6kCPI

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul on Fox News w/ Bill Hemmer 9/17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RgWHimNglR8

"Trump's pitiful shtick coming to an end"

[Chef Ramsay]

If Only the Fed Would Get Out of the Way

By RAND PAUL and MARK SPITZNAGEL

The recent tumult in U.S. equity markets has prompted many analysts to urge the Fed to postpone any increase in interest rates. This advice assumes that rock-bottom interest rates are balm for a weak economy, with the only possible side effect being price inflation. Yet it is the Fed’s artificially low interest rates that set up the economy for the 2008 crisis, not to mention previous crises.

The “doves” are right to point out that higher interest rates will lead to a repricing of many securities, aka a crash. But years of near-zero interest rates have made this inevitable. Continuing on the current course will only allow structural distortions caused by these interest rates to fester and an inevitable reckoning that will be much worse than seven years ago.

The master fallacy underlying so much economic commentary is to imagine that a handful of experts in Washington should be setting the price of borrowing money. Instead, the Fed should set markets free.

In their theory of business cycles, the Austrian economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek explained several decades ago that artificially cheap credit misleads entrepreneurs and investors into doing the wrong things—which in the current financial context includes making unsustainable, levered investments in risky assets, including companies loading up on debt to buy back and boost the price of their stock. Low interest rates may create an illusion of robust markets, but eventually rates spike, assets are suddenly revealed to be too highly priced, and debt unpayable. Many firms have to cut back production or shut down, unemployment rises and the boom goes bust.

...http://www.infowars.com/if-only-the-fed-would-get-out-of-the-way/

[Chef Ramsay]

Via the Chicago Tribune

Kass: Rand Paul won the latest debate without flashiness, and Trump may be facing his twilight.

Donald Trump wanted to kick him off the debate stage. Fox News ignored him. CNN limited his time, then called him a loser.

But Rand Paul won the Republican presidential debate.

It wasn't even close.

Is he perfect, or some savior on a white horse? No. Yet the others on the debate stage talked like angry children determined to show the world how tough they'd be. They promised to rip up the Iran deal and either push Vladimir Putin around or ignore him completely.

But Paul, the senator from Kentucky, spoke like a thoughtful grown-up, overshadowing them all on foreign policy, explaining that intervening in Middle East civil wars is a recipe for disaster.
Issues, too: GOP candidates debate more than Trump this time

"If you want boots on the ground, and you want them to be our sons and daughters, you've got 14 other choices," Paul said during the debate. "There will always be a Bush or Clinton for you if you want to go back to war in Iraq."
Clearly the media don't like him. And Trump doesn't like him, singling Paul out for attack at the outset.

Trump is the front-runner. So why attack Paul, who's been so starved of media oxygen? Because New Hampshire approaches, and Trump will fade eventually, having demonstrated to Americans that he lacks the requisite depth for the job.

The GOP establishment can afford a Carly Fiorina, pretending to be an outsider, or even a Marco Rubio, thrilling a few of the TV talking heads by morphing into some Leonidas of Sparta from Miami, eager to kick those insolent Persian envoys down the well.

But what the Republican establishment cannot afford is Paul as their nominee. That would expose the neocons and the war party, and the security surveillance state.

And it might help remind Americans that conservatives once opposed foreign adventures, meaning wars, because wars by definition lead to the aggrandizement of federal power.

It is the universal law of political arithmetic that as the government gorges and muscles up, individual liberty fades.
Paul doesn't have buzz, but buzz is overrated, as is snark and hair.

Former President George W. Bush had buzz when he plunged foolishly into Iraq and that led to the terror of ISIS. President Barack Obama had buzz, just about the time he drew that "red line" in the sands of Syria, and before the dictator in Libya was toppled.

Obama began to lose buzz with the growth of ISIS, which he dismissed as some kind of terrorist junior varsity.
The flood of refugees from North Africa and Syria —the forerunners of a larger stampede threatening Europe — has both Bush and Obama's name on it.

But you won't hear that on CNN (the Democratic network) or Fox News (the Republican network), or from other establishment Democratic or Republican candidates.

"I've made my career as being an opponent of the Iraq War," Paul said. "I was opposed to the Syria war. I was opposed to arming people who are our enemies.

"Iran is now stronger because Hussein is gone (from Iraq). Hussein was the great bulwark and counterbalance to the Iranians. So when we complain about the Iranians, you need to remember that the Iraq War made it worse …
"We have to learn sometimes the interventions backfire. The Iraq War backfired and did not help us. We're still paying the repercussions of a bad decision."

Yet it was obvious from their flexing and posturing and saber rattling that the other Republicans insist on not learning a thing from Iraq.

And so, they'd love to face Hillary Clinton. She never met a war she didn't like.

If Hillary is in the finals with Jeb! or Rubio or even Fiorina — our new Joan of Arc who talked of building warships and recruiting brigades of U.S. Marines — the Republicans will be saved from having to confront their past.
Ted Cruz is a smart man, hated of course by liberal newspeople, and I've always thought he might best serve his nation on the Supreme Court.

But in the debate, Cruz was so ostentatiously fierce about shredding the Iran agreement that he might as well have worn some leopard skin costume, a circus strongman in a Fellini movie shredding the Palermo phone book in his bare hands.

Dr. Ben Carson was reasonable but inexperienced in foreign affairs and it showed. Mike Huckabee is a nincompoop. The others pandered like pros. And the talking heads said it was wisdom.

Paul took a different tack.

"Sometimes both sides of the civil war are evil, and sometimes intervention sometimes makes us less safe," Paul said. "This is real the debate we have to have in the Middle East.

"Every time we have toppled a secular dictator, we have gotten chaos, the rise of radical Islam, and we're more at risk. So I think we need to think before we act, and know most interventions, if not a lot of them in the Middle East, have actually backfired on us."

There is no buzz to such rhetoric, no bloody gusto, no King Leonidas abs of steel, no Joan of Arc with a sword.
It's just grown-up talk, and so, quite likely, not entertaining at all.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/columnists/kass/ct-kass-debate-wrapup-met-0918-20150917-column.html

It's behind a paywall so I just posted the whole damn thing as this is probably the most widely circulated positive piece on Paul's debate performance and the bigger picture writ large in this GOP Primary. Read the whole thing, it's worth it.

[Chef Ramsay]

Yahoo News says says Rand has the best line of the night

and that's a surprise. they give a brief blurb on how all of the candidates did in the debate. For Rand they say:

Standing at far stage right, Paul had the best line of the night on the Iraq war and the fight against the Islamic State. "If you want boots on the ground, and you want them to be our sons and daughters, you got 14 other choices. There will always be a Bush or Clinton for you, if you want to go back to war in Iraq."

http://news.yahoo.com/scorecard-gop-candidates-fared-2nd-debate-072543923--election.html

[Chef Ramsay]

300 students showed up to Rand's Rally in the university of Nevada

https://www.facebook.com/studentsforrand/photos/a.905476772881013.1073741830.483190015109693/918065228288834/?type=1&theater

That is 10 percent of the 3k goal in Nevada! Rand is driving home the message from the debate. It is a message that resonates with young voters. I am very excited. The libertarian message came at a great time!

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul: Why I'm Different

RENO & CARSON CITY, Nev. (MyNews4.com & KRNV) -- Republican presidential hopeful Rand Paul hit the campaign trail hard in northern Nevada just one day after the second GOP Presidential Debate.

He made stops in Carson City and later spoke with students at the University of Nevada, Reno.

He spoke with News 4's Terri Hendry, who spent most of the day with the candidate. When asked on how he thought he did in the debate, he joked that Donald Trump seemed a bit upset with him, but he smiled and said he thought he did well because he was able to show how he is different.

That difference became clear regarding his position on additional military force in the Middle East. Paul said, "I'm not going back in to Iraq. Frankly, we've been there and done that. I'm not sending our young men and women back, and I hope that's something that's different but I hope that's something that will appeal."

Later that afternoon, he told students at the university, "When it comes to our involvement regarding ISIS and Iran," he added, "Iran and ISIS are fighting each other. Why do we need to get involved? Why not just pop some popcorn?"

He refers to himself as a Libertarian. He was also asked to explain the difference between a Libertarian and a Republican. He said, "You know there is overlap between Libertarians and Republicans. In fact, Ronald Reagan said the very heart and soul of conservatism is Libertarianism. Libertarians believe you have the right to do most things if you're not hurting someone else."

He gave the example of marijuana. He supports de-criminalizing it, particularly medical marijuana.

He supports limiting and shrinking the federal government. He also believes in giving more power back to individual states. Paul believes in government that strictly adheres to powers granted in the Constitution.  He said he is also a staunch supporter of protecting your rights.

Local video footage located here...http://www.mynews4.com/news/story/Rand-Paul-in-Nevada/J_eYV0unT0e4ouiI7J3BSQ.cspx

[Chef Ramsay]

Here's another poll to vote in and I hope yall really go at this one. We need to go bulls on parade w/ these Fox fuckers that are trying to pimp out Fiorina as the next greatest thing for the viewers to fall for. The main takeaway that I got out of Fiorina during the recent debate a few nights ago was her willingness to start shit all over again in the middle east as well as spending hundreds of billions more for more carriers and other military hardware as if we didn't have enough already. That alone should get you to vote for Rand over there.

http://nation.foxnews.com/poll/2015/09/17/who-do-think-won-2nd-republican-2016-debate/

[Chef Ramsay]

Rubio aide punches Paul official at Mackinac Island

Mackinac Island — A top official for Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s presidential campaign said Friday he was punched in the face by a man working for rival Sen. Marco Rubio at a bar on Mackinac Island, where Republicans are gathered this weekend for a leadership conference.

Grand Rapids consultant John Yob, who is Paul’s national political director, said early Friday he was assaulted in a Mackinac Island bar by a man he and a witness identified as working for Rubio.

“He literally physically assaulted me by punching me in the face,” Yob wrote in a Facebook post. “The state police are looking for him. I have it on video, from multiple angles. This will play out in the national media in the next few hours.”

The Michigan Republican Party is hosting Paul and five other presidential candidates at the Grand Hotel this weekend for its biennial Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference. A record 2,180 Republican leaders, donors and activists have registered to attend the confab.

Rubio is not attending, but his campaign has sent surrogates, including pawn shop reality TV star Rick Harrison of the History Channel show “Pawn Stars.” A Rubio campaign spokesperson could not be immediately reached Friday morning for comment.

A Mackinac Island police officer declined comment early Friday morning about the incident and said it was unclear when the department would release any information.

Brandon Hall, a conservative blogger from Grand Haven, said Friday he witnessed Yob being punched at Horn’s Gaslight Bar, a popular Mackinac Island watering hole.

“As I was sitting at the bar talking to someone at Horn’s in Mackinac Island Thursday night, I witnessed (the man) suddenly, out of nowhere, approach one of Rand Paul’s advisers, John Yob — unprovoked — and try to hit him,” Hall wrote on his West Michigan Politics blog. “(He) missed a full on shot but still struck Yob’s in the face with a powerful blow near the jaw.”

Hall said the Rubio campaign official was at the bar trying to drum up votes for the Florida senator in the presidential straw poll The Detroit News and MIRSnews.com are conducting this weekend at the conference.

The Michigan Republican Party’s conference begins Friday afternoon with a reception on the Grand Hotel’s famous front porch followed by opening remarks by Gov. Rick Snyder at 4:45 p.m.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is the lone keynote speaker Friday night. The other five presidential candidates are speaking on Saturday, according to the conference schedule.

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2015/09/18/mackinac-island-bar-fight/72388142/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAoEq1RYqUc

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul to The Fed: Stop Setting Interest Rates

September 16, 2015—Presidential candidate Rand Paul made it a point to introduce Audit the Fed legislation about as soon as he was elected to the US Senate in 2010. But this week he came closer to aligning himself with the “End the Fed” position in a Wall Street Journal op-ed.

Co-written with his economic, Mark Spitznagel, the editorial cited the heralds of Austrian economics’ brightest figures. From WSJ.com:

“In their theory of business cycles, the Austrian economists Ludwig von Mises and Friedrich Hayek explained several decades ago that artificially cheap credit misleads entrepreneurs and investors into doing the wrong things—which in the current financial context includes making unsustainable, levered investments in risky assets, including companies loading up on debt to buy back and boost the price of their stock.”

...http://www.voicesofliberty.com/article/rand-paul-to-the-fed-stop-setting-interest-rates/

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul Found His Voice: Can He Find Noninterventionist Voters?

Rand Paul found his voice last night. He’s a sincere noninterventionist in foreign policy. If he can get that message across, there’s a Republican constituency for it, and even broader support among independents.

Coincidentally or not, Paul’s standing in the polls has fallen as he seemed to move away from the noninterventionist positions associated with his father, congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul. He called for a declaration of war with ISIS, more military spending, and rejection of President Obama’s Iran deal.

Meanwhile, hawkish conservative pundits consistently underestimate the extent of non interventionist and war-weary sentiment in the Republican party.

In the debate Paul came out swinging on the risks of war and the failures of military intervention. He declared, “I’ve made my career as being an opponent of the Iraq War. I was opposed to the Syria war. I was opposed to arming people who are our enemies.”

...http://www.cato.org/publications/commentary/rand-paul-found-voice-can-he-find-noninterventionist-voters

[Chef Ramsay]

Ignoring Rand Paul

Desperately searching for an establishment Republican who can block Donald Trump, many observers are ignoring the strong and politically astute performance of Rand Paul in Wednesday night’s Republican debate. A classic example this morning is Michael Gerson, the big-government Republican who has written for George W. Bush and the Washington Post and is the most anti-libertarian pundit this side of Salon. Recognizing the need for the Republican party to reach new audiences, especially “with minorities, with women, with younger voters, with working-class voters in key states,” Gerson writes:

The relatively rare moments of economic analysis and political outreach in the second Republican debate — Chris Christie talking about income stagnation, or Marco Rubio lamenting the “millions of people in this country living paycheck to paycheck,” or Ben Carson admitting the minimum wage might require increasing and fixing, or Jeb Bush setting out the necessary goal of accelerated economic growth, or John Kasich calling for a “sense of hope, sense of purpose, a sense of unity” — served only to highlight the opportunity cost of the Trump summer.

What’s missing? Well, Rand Paul talked about marijuana reform, an issue that is far more popular than the Republican Party, especially among younger voters. And criminal justice and incarceration, an issue of special concern to minorities. And especially about our endless wars in the Middle East, at a time when 63 percent of Republicans and 79 percent of independents say that the Iraq war was not worth the costs, and when 52 percent of Americans say the United States “should mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along the best they can on their own.” (Not the best formulation, as noninterventionists are not opposed to international activity, just to imprudent military action. But you go to print with the polls you have, not the polls you wish you had.) Those are attempts to reach new audiences that a fair-minded debate watcher would have noticed.

...http://www.cato.org/blog/ignoring-rand-paul

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul wins Mackinac Isle (MI) Confab's Strawpoll

Mackinac Island — Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul won the presidential straw poll at this weekend’s Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference, capturing 22 percent of the vote among a field of 16 candidates.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina came in second with 15 percent, followed by Ohio Gov. John Kasich in third place with 13.8 percent and Texas Sen. Ted Cruz in fourth with 13 percent in The Detroit News/MIRS presidential straw poll.

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush finished fifth in the straw poll with 9.7 percent of the 785 registered conference attendees who voted.

The Paul campaign celebrated the straw poll victory as a sign that the libertarian-minded senator’s presidential bid remains alive, despite registering single-digit numbers in national polls.

...http://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/politics/2015/09/19/straw-poll-rand-paul-tops-among-mich-gop-activists/72504936/

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul calls for term limits, says Trump has peaked

MACKINAC ISLAND, Mich. — The federal government never gets any smaller because Americans leave members of Congress in Washington too long, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky told the Mackinac Republican Leadership Conference on Saturday in calling for federal term limits.

"We should term limit them all, fumigate the place and bring them home," said Paul, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president.

Paul said in an after-dinner speech at the Grand Hotel that both Republicans and Democrats stay in Congress too long and become part of a system they can't shrink.
Paul also hammered Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state who is the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president, for her handling of security at the embassy in Benghazi, Libya, prior to a 2012 attack and for putting sensitive and potentially classified emails on a private server that was not secure.

...http://www.freep.com/story/news/politics/2015/09/19/sen-rand-paul-says-donald-trump-has-peaked/72486434/

[Chef Ramsay]

Here’s how drastically different Rand Paul is on foreign policy from every other candidate

For some time now, it has been said that one of Rand Paul’s current campaign problems is that he no longer distinguishes himself on one of the most important issues that helped his father stand out—foreign policy.

The left says this. The right says this. Libertarians say this. Perception being reality, it might very well be a campaign problem.

But it’s not true. It’s not even close to true.

At the same time, some liberals, conservatives and even libertarians also say Paul has foreign policy views that are too far outside the mainstream of his own party and Americans in general to get anywhere near the Republican nomination.

This isn’t true either.

Paul’s foreign policy is actually where most Americans and even Republican primary voters are on the subject, if his positions are explained honestly and not mislabeled as “isolationism” by hawks eager to do so.


Read more at http://rare.us/story/heres-how-drastically-different-rand-paul-is-on-foreign-policy-from-every-other-candidate/#1bdHlZDqR6wkCFCu.99

[Chef Ramsay]

CNN post-debate national poll: Rand in 8th

Carly Fiorina shot into second place in the Republican presidential field on the heels of another strong debate performance, and Donald Trump has lost some support, a new national CNN/ORC poll shows.

The survey, conducted in the three days after 23 million people tuned in to Wednesday night's GOP debate on CNN, shows that Trump is still the party's front-runner with 24% support. That, though, is an 8 percentage point decrease from earlier in the month when a similar poll had him at 32%.

Fiorina ranks second with 15% support -- up from 3% in early September. She's just ahead of Ben Carson's 14%, though Carson's support has also declined from 19% in the previous poll.

Driving Trump's drop and Fiorina's rise: a debate in which 31% of Republicans who watched said Trump was the loser, and 52% identified Fiorina as the winner.

During the CNN debate, Fiorina clashed with Trump over his personal attacks and their business records and scored points for her condemnation of Planned Parenthood.

The top three contenders underscore a key theme in the 2016 race: In a jampacked GOP presidential field, the leading candidates are the only ones who have never held political office.

But one established politician has seen his standing rise after flashing foreign policy chops on the debate stage. Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida -- identified as Wednesday's winner by 14% of Republicans, putting him second behind Fiorina -- is now in fourth place with 11% support, up from 3% in a previous poll.

In fifth place is former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, at 9%. He's followed by Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee at 6% each, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky at 4%, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 3%, Ohio Gov. John Kasich at 2% and former Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania at 1%.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/09/20/politics/carly-fiorina-donald-trump-republican-2016-poll/index.html

[Chef Ramsay]

Opinion: Paul building broader, bolder GOP

It’s no secret that the Republican Party is in need of revitalization. For too long there are too many voters that have been overlooked by many Republican candidates as “unwinnable.” This is an attitude that will lead to our demise if left uncorrected. And while a number of candidates talk a good game about building a “big tent” party, it has been largely empty rhetoric. Everyone agrees that we need to do more — but I only see one candidate for president who is actually doing it. And that is Rand Paul.

In the two years since Gov. Chris Christie talked about Republicans going to places that make us uncomfortable, Rand Paul has been the only Republican who has already gone there. He is the only Republican candidate to meet with community leaders in places like Detroit, Chicago and Ferguson. And he is winning support in these places that have been devastated by crime and poverty after years of single-party Democrat control. Many people that have never voted for a Republican before are realizing that Democrats are taking them for granted, and are now seriously listening to what Paul has to say. Rand’s positions on criminal justice reform especially are winning support from minorities.

...http://www.burlingtonfreepress.com/story/opinion/my-turn/2015/09/18/opinion-paul-building-broader-bolder-gop/72422968/

[Chef Ramsay]

Campaign Manager Chip Englander on Rand's Iowa strategy

Start around 26:08. This is a very important part of Rand's strategy, and is something that I've been trying to reassure people of for a while. If you look at most of Rand's top staff, it's all focused on ground game. Especially in a caucus, this is incredibly important. Chip Englander was campaign manager for Bruce Rauner, who was elected Governor of a blue state, Illinois, in the 2014 election, primarily because of ground game. Several others from this campaign are in top positions in the campaign.

If you also add in Concerned American Voters, headed by Frazee and Kibbe, which is focused solely on door to door, phone from home, get out the vote efforts, it's clear that Rand Paul has the best ground game out of any of the candidates. Students for Rand's operations as well will play a crucial role in getting young people to the caucus.

Just look at the straw poll in Mackinac last week, it's a clear example of ground game and flooding the vote with support when it actually matters. Summer before the election does not matter (polling) except for building infrastructure and ground game for when it does matter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4q8qqZQDbs

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul to Ben Carson: There’s no religious test in politics

Fresh off a surprise win in a Michigan straw poll, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) criticized former neurosurgeon Ben Carson's argument that a Muslim could not be "in charge of this nation."

"Article VI of the Constitution says there won’t be a religious test," Paul said in an interview. "I think the answer is that simple."

Carson made the remarks first in an interview with Meet the Press. Asked by host Chuck Todd if Islam was "consistent with the Constitution," Carson said it wasn't. In a subsequent interview with The Hill's Jon Easley, Carson explained that he didn't think "Sharia is consistent with the Constitution of this country."

...http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/09/21/rand-paul-to-ben-carson-theres-no-religious-test-in-politics/