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

[Chef Ramsay]

In Iowa, Rand Paul previews 2016 campaign message amid dust-ups

By Ashley Killough, CNN


URBANDALE, Iowa (CNN) -- Rand Paul wears his political ambition for all to see. Look no further than the tie he sported during a three-day trip to Iowa. It had yellow images of corn, the crop that epitomizes politics in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

"And by coincidence, I have one in the shape of South Carolina," the Kentucky Republican said Wednesday, drawing laughs.

He was speaking at a Republican breakfast outside Des Moines at Machine Shed, a Midwest restaurant chain where the waiters wear overalls and drinks are served in Mason jars.

As Paul blitzed across the Hawkeye State this week, holding events at Iowa GOP offices and campaigning for local candidates, he hardly played coy to the question of whether he was running for President. After all, his nine-city trip marked his fourth visit to the state since the 2012 election.

"I don't know why Iowa keeps popping up on my calendar, but it seems to be pretty frequent," he said Monday, clearly with sarcasm.

His itinerary this time included a campaign-style schedule where he continued testing his 2016 message on the road.

From reducing the federal deficit to defending civil liberties and reforming the criminal justice system, Paul mostly stayed on his talking points.

But the trip was not without controversy.

...

More...http://www.cnn.com/2014/08/08/politics/iowa-rand-paul-2016/

[Chef Ramsay]

Why Rand Paul Is Attacking Hillary Clinton

Michael Scherer


Meet the GOP's top Hillary attack dog

Some politicians attack in prose. Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul can do it in poetry—with color, precision and language that’s hard to forget.

Over the last week, he didn’t just blame Hillary Clinton for the current state of Libya, he said she created a “Jihadist wonderland” there. He didn’t just knock her for not fortifying the Benghazi embassy, he said she treated the place “as if it were Paris.”

“While she was turning down request for security, she spent $650,000 on Facebook ads, trying to get more friends for the State Department,” he said. “They spent $700,000 on landscaping at the Brussels embassy. They spent $5 million on crystal glassware for the embassies around the world.”

On Friday, he asked the crowd for a moment of silence, to pray for Clinton’s bank account. “Somebody must have been praying for her, because she’s now worth $100, $200 million,” he followed, deadpan. “I tell you, it was really tough giving those speeches.” Then on Tuesday, at an event for a fellow ophthalmologist running for Congress in Iowa City, offered his crowning rhetorical turn. “Hillary’s war in Libya, Hillary’s war in Syria,” he said. “None of this was ever approved by Congress.”

...

Red meat for republicans during his Iowa trip.

More...http://time.com/3089204/rand-paul-hillary-clinton-2016/

[Chef Ramsay]

Front Cover of the New York Times Magazine
 

And the big article on libertarians on the up and up

“Let’s say Ron Paul is Nirvana,” said Kennedy, the television personality and former MTV host, by way of explaining the sort of politician who excites libertarians like herself. “Like, the coolest, most amazing thing to come along in years, and the songs are nebulous but somehow meaningful, and the lead singer kills himself to preserve the band’s legacy.

“Then Rand Paul — he’s Pearl Jam. Comes from the same place, the songs are really catchy, can really pack the stadiums, though it’s not quite Nirvana.

“Ted Cruz? He’s Stone Temple Pilots. Tries really hard to sound like Pearl Jam, never gonna sound like Nirvana. Really good voice, great staying power — but the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts.”
[...]
But today, for perhaps the first time, the libertarian movement appears to have genuine political momentum on its side. An estimated 54 percent of Americans now favor extending marriage rights to gay couples. Decriminalizing marijuana has become a mainstream position, while the drive to reduce sentences for minor drug offenders has led to the wondrous spectacle of Rick Perry — the governor of Texas, where more inmates are executed than in any other state — telling a Washington audience: “You want to talk about real conservative governance? Shut prisons down. Save that money.” The appetite for foreign intervention is at low ebb, with calls by Republicans to rein in federal profligacy now increasingly extending to the once-sacrosanct military budget. And deep concern over government surveillance looms as one of the few bipartisan sentiments in Washington, which is somewhat unanticipated given that the surveiller in chief, the former constitutional-law professor Barack Obama, had been described in a 2008 Times Op-Ed by the legal commentator Jeffrey Rosen as potentially “our first president who is a civil libertarian.”

Meanwhile, the age group most responsible for delivering Obama his two terms may well become a political wild card over time, in large part because of its libertarian leanings. Raised on the ad hoc communalism of the Internet, disenchanted by the Iraq War, reflexively tolerant of other lifestyles, appalled by government intrusion into their private affairs and increasingly convinced that the Obama economy is rigged against them, the millennials can no longer be regarded as faithful Democrats — and a recent poll confirmed that fully half of voters between ages 18 and 29 are unwedded to either party. Obama has profoundly disappointed many of these voters by shying away from marijuana decriminalization, by leading from behind on same-sex marriage, by trumping the Bush administration on illegal-immigrant deportations and by expanding Bush’s N.S.A. surveillance program. As one 30-year-old libertarian senior staff member on the Hill told me: “I think we expected this sort of thing from Bush. But Obama seemed to be hip and in touch with my generation, and then he goes and reads our emails.”
[...]
After eight years out of the White House, Republicans would seem well positioned to cast themselves as the fresh alternative, though perhaps only if the party first reappraises stances that young voters, in particular, regard as outdated. Emily Ekins, a pollster for the Reason Foundation, says: “Unlike with previous generations, we’re seeing a newer dimension emerge where they agree with Democrats on social issues, and on economic issues lean more to the right. It’s possible that Democrats will have to shift to the right on economic issues. But the Republicans will definitely have to move to the left on social issues. They just don’t have the numbers otherwise.” A G.O.P. more flexible on social issues might also appeal to another traditionally Democratic group with a libertarian tilt: the high-tech communities in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, whose mounting disdain for taxes, regulations and unions has become increasingly dissonant with their voting habits.

Hence the excitement about Rand Paul. It’s hardly surprising that Paul, in Ekins’s recent survey of millennial voters, came out ahead of all other potential Republican presidential candidates; on issues including same-sex marriage, surveillance and military intervention, his positions more closely mirror those of young voters than those of the G.O.P. establishment. Paul’s famous 13-hour filibuster last year, while ultimately failing to thwart the confirmation of the C.I.A. director John Brennan, lit afire the Twittersphere and compelled Republican leaders, who previously dismissed Paul as a fringe character, to add their own #StandWithRand endorsements. Paul has also gone to considerable lengths to court non-Republican audiences, like Berkeley students and the National Urban League.
[...]
During the father’s two runs for president as a Republican, in 2008 and 2012, libertarian activists gave him momentum far beyond his popular appeal, packing caucus halls and organizing rallies. But it’s an open question whether these same activists will get off the sidelines and support his son, whose libertarian bona fides are less sure but whose chance of victory is far greater. And if they do, it’s unclear whether G.O.P. establishment figures can put aside their longtime distrust of libertarianism and welcome Paul’s bid to expand the party’s base. If this is indeed the libertarian moment, do either libertarians or Republicans intend to seize it?

More...http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/magazine/has-the-libertarian-moment-finally-arrived.html?_r=1

[Bit_Happy]

Front Cover of the New York Times Magazine
 

And the big article on libertarians on the up and up

“Let’s say Ron Paul is Nirvana,” said Kennedy, the television personality and former MTV host, by way of explaining the sort of politician who excites libertarians like herself. “Like, the coolest, most amazing thing to come along in years, and the songs are nebulous but somehow meaningful, and the lead singer kills himself to preserve the band’s legacy.

“Then Rand Paul — he’s Pearl Jam. Comes from the same place, the songs are really catchy, can really pack the stadiums, though it’s not quite Nirvana.

“Ted Cruz? He’s Stone Temple Pilots. Tries really hard to sound like Pearl Jam, never gonna sound like Nirvana. Really good voice, great staying power — but the whole is not greater than the sum of its parts.”
[...]
But today, for perhaps the first time, the libertarian movement appears to have genuine political momentum on its side. An estimated 54 percent of Americans now favor extending marriage rights to gay couples. Decriminalizing marijuana has become a mainstream position, while the drive to reduce sentences for minor drug offenders has led to the wondrous spectacle of Rick Perry — the governor of Texas, where more inmates are executed than in any other state — telling a Washington audience: “You want to talk about real conservative governance? Shut prisons down. Save that money.” The appetite for foreign intervention is at low ebb, with calls by Republicans to rein in federal profligacy now increasingly extending to the once-sacrosanct military budget. And deep concern over government surveillance looms as one of the few bipartisan sentiments in Washington, which is somewhat unanticipated given that the surveiller in chief, the former constitutional-law professor Barack Obama, had been described in a 2008 Times Op-Ed by the legal commentator Jeffrey Rosen as potentially “our first president who is a civil libertarian.”

Meanwhile, the age group most responsible for delivering Obama his two terms may well become a political wild card over time, in large part because of its libertarian leanings. Raised on the ad hoc communalism of the Internet, disenchanted by the Iraq War, reflexively tolerant of other lifestyles, appalled by government intrusion into their private affairs and increasingly convinced that the Obama economy is rigged against them, the millennials can no longer be regarded as faithful Democrats — and a recent poll confirmed that fully half of voters between ages 18 and 29 are unwedded to either party. Obama has profoundly disappointed many of these voters by shying away from marijuana decriminalization, by leading from behind on same-sex marriage, by trumping the Bush administration on illegal-immigrant deportations and by expanding Bush’s N.S.A. surveillance program. As one 30-year-old libertarian senior staff member on the Hill told me: “I think we expected this sort of thing from Bush. But Obama seemed to be hip and in touch with my generation, and then he goes and reads our emails.”
[...]
After eight years out of the White House, Republicans would seem well positioned to cast themselves as the fresh alternative, though perhaps only if the party first reappraises stances that young voters, in particular, regard as outdated. Emily Ekins, a pollster for the Reason Foundation, says: “Unlike with previous generations, we’re seeing a newer dimension emerge where they agree with Democrats on social issues, and on economic issues lean more to the right. It’s possible that Democrats will have to shift to the right on economic issues. But the Republicans will definitely have to move to the left on social issues. They just don’t have the numbers otherwise.” A G.O.P. more flexible on social issues might also appeal to another traditionally Democratic group with a libertarian tilt: the high-tech communities in Silicon Valley and elsewhere, whose mounting disdain for taxes, regulations and unions has become increasingly dissonant with their voting habits.

Hence the excitement about Rand Paul. It’s hardly surprising that Paul, in Ekins’s recent survey of millennial voters, came out ahead of all other potential Republican presidential candidates; on issues including same-sex marriage, surveillance and military intervention, his positions more closely mirror those of young voters than those of the G.O.P. establishment. Paul’s famous 13-hour filibuster last year, while ultimately failing to thwart the confirmation of the C.I.A. director John Brennan, lit afire the Twittersphere and compelled Republican leaders, who previously dismissed Paul as a fringe character, to add their own #StandWithRand endorsements. Paul has also gone to considerable lengths to court non-Republican audiences, like Berkeley students and the National Urban League.
[...]
During the father’s two runs for president as a Republican, in 2008 and 2012, libertarian activists gave him momentum far beyond his popular appeal, packing caucus halls and organizing rallies. But it’s an open question whether these same activists will get off the sidelines and support his son, whose libertarian bona fides are less sure but whose chance of victory is far greater. And if they do, it’s unclear whether G.O.P. establishment figures can put aside their longtime distrust of libertarianism and welcome Paul’s bid to expand the party’s base. If this is indeed the libertarian moment, do either libertarians or Republicans intend to seize it?

More...http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/10/magazine/has-the-libertarian-moment-finally-arrived.html?_r=1

If this is indeed the libertarian moment, do either libertarians or Republicans intend to seize it?
I would answer "Yes"
For many libertarians Rand Paul is the best option.
The mainstream Republicans will hopefully jump on board when they see large crowds for Rand at colleges/universities and when they see him doing better than anyone else against Hillary.

[wasserman99]

Why Rand Paul Is Attacking Hillary Clinton

Michael Scherer


Meet the GOP's top Hillary attack dog

Some politicians attack in prose. Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul can do it in poetry—with color, precision and language that’s hard to forget.

Over the last week, he didn’t just blame Hillary Clinton for the current state of Libya, he said she created a “Jihadist wonderland” there. He didn’t just knock her for not fortifying the Benghazi embassy, he said she treated the place “as if it were Paris.”

“While she was turning down request for security, she spent $650,000 on Facebook ads, trying to get more friends for the State Department,” he said. “They spent $700,000 on landscaping at the Brussels embassy. They spent $5 million on crystal glassware for the embassies around the world.”

On Friday, he asked the crowd for a moment of silence, to pray for Clinton’s bank account. “Somebody must have been praying for her, because she’s now worth $100, $200 million,” he followed, deadpan. “I tell you, it was really tough giving those speeches.” Then on Tuesday, at an event for a fellow ophthalmologist running for Congress in Iowa City, offered his crowning rhetorical turn. “Hillary’s war in Libya, Hillary’s war in Syria,” he said. “None of this was ever approved by Congress.”

...

Red meat for republicans during his Iowa trip.

More...http://time.com/3089204/rand-paul-hillary-clinton-2016/

I would very much be surprised if Clinton would be able to win the presidential election. She is much too liberal to appeal to the moderate liberal base and has way too many skeletons in her closet (some of which are already out) for her to be able to win the national election. If she is nominated I would expect the election to be a landslide for her GOP opponent.

[beetcoin]

huge gaffe by rand paul.. i guess he felt comfortable saying incendiary things since it was fox news after all. even if it wasn't what he meant, it doesn't matter, because the media will spin it on him.

“Now you know my life…I just can’t eat a burger made by an immigrant, but I have my reasons. It has nothing to do with them being here illegally, it’s just an attack on our American culture to do so.” Paul said, before explaining that while the confrontation with King was happening, he was a mere 10 feet away giving another interview he had promised earlier.

http://cnr9.com/rand-paul-i-wont-eat-a-burger-made-by-an-immigrant/

[Chef Ramsay]

Pretty good coverage of the Iowa trip by the big paper in the major city there.
7 take-homes from Rand Paul's Iowa journey

After Rand Paul's three-day mad dash across Iowa last week, zigzagging around the presidential testing grounds for 800 miles, he appears the most likely to declare a White House bid among all the politicos putting out feelers in the first-in-the-nation voting state.

Paul is a Republican U.S. senator from Kentucky and the son of three-time presidential candidate and former Texas U.S. Rep. Ron Paul.

Here are some observations from his visit last week:

1. He showed he can draw a crowd here.

Some of Paul's stops piggybacked on events that had ties to other Iowa politicians, which helped boost the numbers.

Paul's audience at an event at the lakeside Barefoot Bar in Okoboji on Monday night was a couple hundred strong, but it was hard to tell how many people had just docked their boat for some umbrella drinks and dinner. And Republican U.S. Rep. Steve King, who is wildly popular in northwest Iowa, organized the fundraiser, so some people likely showed up simply out of loyalty to King.

But at the Davenport GOP victory headquarters Tuesday, people were there just to see Paul — and the crowd, estimated at 250, packed the building and poured out the front door. News about the event made the front page of the Quad City Times.

Tom Wassenaar, 36, a power company lineman from Spirit Lake, sipped a Bud Light after Paul's speech in Okoboji. "I think he stands out amongst a lot of the other people," he said.

"It was pretty inspirational," said Wassenaar's friend, Chad Thompson, a 35-year-old mortgage lending company vice president from Okoboji. "He's fun to listen to. I'd come back tomorrow if he were going to speak again."

2. Paul went out of his way to meet with every faction of the GOP in Iowa.

Business leaders got Paul's undivided attention at a roundtable at the headquarters of the Von Maur department store chain in Davenport on Tuesday afternoon. Meredith Corp. brass got a private audience in Des Moines on Wednesday morning.

Paul did a one-on-one at a Starbucks coffee shop with GOP heavyweight David Oman, who later told the Register: "Paul is an engaging guy who is saying some of the right things on entitlements, poverty, privacy, debt, limited government, and smart national security vs. nation building."

Evangelical pastors got a read on Paul over lunch Wednesday at the Holiday Inn by the airport.

Christian conservative Sam Clovis, the GOP state treasurer candidate, was invited to ride along between two Des Moines events. State Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, a property rights advocate and son of the Iowa GOP chairman, was on board for Tuesday's leg between Iowa City and Davenport.

A variety of non-Paul folks — meaning those who weren't among the elder Paul's supporters in 2012 — sized up the Kentucky senator at a gathering Wednesday afternoon organized by Lowell Scott, husband of Iowa's GOP national committeewoman.

Ron Paul-backing liberty movement conservatives were invited to a private reception at the Embassy Suites in Des Moines on Tuesday night. Among the 70 or so who showed up were at least a couple of registered libertarian party members. And Paul had dinner with his father's 2012 Iowa campaign chairman, Drew Ivers, on Centro's patio Tuesday night.

The whole time, Paul and his advisers took the temperature on how he was received.

3. He got a taste of the pressure he'd deal with should he run.

Paul's Iowa political advisers crafted a schedule that was so jammed with back-to-back events that Paul and aides either skipped meals or bolted down power bars and deli sandwiches in the car. Paul could be heard doing radio interviews as he rode between stops.

The number of news reporters he attracted — from the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, CNN and the major TV networks — resembled coverage of a presidential campaign 100 days out from the Iowa caucuses.

Paul continually had cameras on him, not only from journalists but from Democratic trackers hoping to catch him making a gaffe. The video that got the most buzz was of Paul leaving his table in the middle of dinner with King, seemingly to avoid a confrontation with an activist who immigrated illegally from Mexico at age 11. Observers viewing the viral video on the Internet noted he grabbed his beer as he left.
...

The rest...http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2014/08/10/rand-paul-white-house/13818523/

[Chef Ramsay]

And another one that focuses mostly on his alleged missteps

The glare of Iowa’s bright lights this week shows Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has work to do if he wants to win the GOP nomination.

The likely 2016 contender spent the first half of the week barnstorming the Hawkeye State, traveling 800 miles to meet with the divergent tribes that make up the state’s Republican base.



But while Iowa Republicans give him credit for reaching out to voters outside his natural base, they say he needs to polish his message after a series of missteps that drew local and national attention.
Paul spent much of his week trying to explain his view on Israeli foreign aid, at first claiming he’d never supported cutting it — which he has, repeatedly — before walking back those remarks

...

More...http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/214768-paul-faces-tough-road-to-2016

[Bit_Happy]

Pretty good coverage of the Iowa trip by the big paper in the major city there.
7 take-homes from Rand Paul's Iowa journey

After Rand Paul's three-day mad dash across Iowa last week, zigzagging around the presidential testing grounds for 800 miles, he appears the most likely to declare a White House bid among all the politicos putting out feelers in the first-in-the-nation voting state.

Paul is a Republican U.S. senator from Kentucky and the son of three-time presidential candidate and former Texas U.S. Rep. Ron Paul.

Here are some observations from his visit last week:

1. He showed he can draw a crowd here.

Some of Paul's stops piggybacked on events that had ties to other Iowa politicians, which helped boost the numbers.

Paul's audience at an event at the lakeside Barefoot Bar in Okoboji on Monday night was a couple hundred strong, but it was hard to tell how many people had just docked their boat for some umbrella drinks and dinner. And Republican U.S. Rep. Steve King, who is wildly popular in northwest Iowa, organized the fundraiser, so some people likely showed up simply out of loyalty to King.

But at the Davenport GOP victory headquarters Tuesday, people were there just to see Paul — and the crowd, estimated at 250, packed the building and poured out the front door. News about the event made the front page of the Quad City Times.

Tom Wassenaar, 36, a power company lineman from Spirit Lake, sipped a Bud Light after Paul's speech in Okoboji. "I think he stands out amongst a lot of the other people," he said.

"It was pretty inspirational," said Wassenaar's friend, Chad Thompson, a 35-year-old mortgage lending company vice president from Okoboji. "He's fun to listen to. I'd come back tomorrow if he were going to speak again."

2. Paul went out of his way to meet with every faction of the GOP in Iowa.

Business leaders got Paul's undivided attention at a roundtable at the headquarters of the Von Maur department store chain in Davenport on Tuesday afternoon. Meredith Corp. brass got a private audience in Des Moines on Wednesday morning.

Paul did a one-on-one at a Starbucks coffee shop with GOP heavyweight David Oman, who later told the Register: "Paul is an engaging guy who is saying some of the right things on entitlements, poverty, privacy, debt, limited government, and smart national security vs. nation building."

Evangelical pastors got a read on Paul over lunch Wednesday at the Holiday Inn by the airport.

Christian conservative Sam Clovis, the GOP state treasurer candidate, was invited to ride along between two Des Moines events. State Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, a property rights advocate and son of the Iowa GOP chairman, was on board for Tuesday's leg between Iowa City and Davenport.

A variety of non-Paul folks — meaning those who weren't among the elder Paul's supporters in 2012 — sized up the Kentucky senator at a gathering Wednesday afternoon organized by Lowell Scott, husband of Iowa's GOP national committeewoman.

Ron Paul-backing liberty movement conservatives were invited to a private reception at the Embassy Suites in Des Moines on Tuesday night. Among the 70 or so who showed up were at least a couple of registered libertarian party members. And Paul had dinner with his father's 2012 Iowa campaign chairman, Drew Ivers, on Centro's patio Tuesday night.

The whole time, Paul and his advisers took the temperature on how he was received.

3. He got a taste of the pressure he'd deal with should he run.

Paul's Iowa political advisers crafted a schedule that was so jammed with back-to-back events that Paul and aides either skipped meals or bolted down power bars and deli sandwiches in the car. Paul could be heard doing radio interviews as he rode between stops.

The number of news reporters he attracted — from the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, CNN and the major TV networks — resembled coverage of a presidential campaign 100 days out from the Iowa caucuses.

Paul continually had cameras on him, not only from journalists but from Democratic trackers hoping to catch him making a gaffe. The video that got the most buzz was of Paul leaving his table in the middle of dinner with King, seemingly to avoid a confrontation with an activist who immigrated illegally from Mexico at age 11. Observers viewing the viral video on the Internet noted he grabbed his beer as he left.
...

The rest...http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2014/08/10/rand-paul-white-house/13818523/

"The number of news reporters he attracted — from the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, CNN and the major TV networks — resembled coverage of a presidential campaign 100 days out from the Iowa caucuses."

^^ Great to see so much interest. With that kind of momentum, he can can probably overcome a couple mistakes.

[beetcoin]

And another one that focuses mostly on his alleged missteps

The glare of Iowa’s bright lights this week shows Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has work to do if he wants to win the GOP nomination.

The likely 2016 contender spent the first half of the week barnstorming the Hawkeye State, traveling 800 miles to meet with the divergent tribes that make up the state’s Republican base.



But while Iowa Republicans give him credit for reaching out to voters outside his natural base, they say he needs to polish his message after a series of missteps that drew local and national attention.
Paul spent much of his week trying to explain his view on Israeli foreign aid, at first claiming he’d never supported cutting it — which he has, repeatedly — before walking back those remarks

...

More...http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/214768-paul-faces-tough-road-to-2016

better that it happens now than when his campaign is fully-fledged. he's getting his practice in after all. those were really bad gaffes though, and if we were a few months away from election and he said that stuff.. it would really hurt his chances.

[Mobius]

And another one that focuses mostly on his alleged missteps

The glare of Iowa’s bright lights this week shows Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has work to do if he wants to win the GOP nomination.

The likely 2016 contender spent the first half of the week barnstorming the Hawkeye State, traveling 800 miles to meet with the divergent tribes that make up the state’s Republican base.



But while Iowa Republicans give him credit for reaching out to voters outside his natural base, they say he needs to polish his message after a series of missteps that drew local and national attention.
Paul spent much of his week trying to explain his view on Israeli foreign aid, at first claiming he’d never supported cutting it — which he has, repeatedly — before walking back those remarks

...

More...http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/214768-paul-faces-tough-road-to-2016

I really don't see Paul as a serious contender for the 2016 GOP nomination. I don't think he is well known enough throughout the Conservative base to win the nomination. With the exception of Huckabee I think he is the least well known person on this list.

[Bit_Happy]

I really don't see Paul as a serious contender for the 2016 GOP nomination. I don't think he is well known enough throughout the Conservative base to win the nomination. With the exception of Huckabee I think he is the least well known person on this list.

His massive filibuster was a huge mainstream, headline story. Also, you would be amazed by how many Americans (outside of Florida) have never even heard of Jeb Bush.  
In the primaries a modest % of highly committed people can make a substantial impact.

[beetcoin]

And another one that focuses mostly on his alleged missteps

The glare of Iowa’s bright lights this week shows Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) has work to do if he wants to win the GOP nomination.

The likely 2016 contender spent the first half of the week barnstorming the Hawkeye State, traveling 800 miles to meet with the divergent tribes that make up the state’s Republican base.



But while Iowa Republicans give him credit for reaching out to voters outside his natural base, they say he needs to polish his message after a series of missteps that drew local and national attention.
Paul spent much of his week trying to explain his view on Israeli foreign aid, at first claiming he’d never supported cutting it — which he has, repeatedly — before walking back those remarks

...

More...http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/presidential-races/214768-paul-faces-tough-road-to-2016

I really don't see Paul as a serious contender for the 2016 GOP nomination. I don't think he is well known enough throughout the Conservative base to win the nomination. With the exception of Huckabee I think he is the least well known person on this list.

if there is any lesson to take away from 2012 for the GOP, moderate republicans should be endorsed. romney had to prove how "deeply conservative" he was during the primaries, and then when the presidential elections came rolling around, he had to prove how much of a centrist he is. too much crazy shit is said by the a "normal" extremist republican that it just kills all their chances of winning. maybe being an extremist is beneficial when you are trying to pander to the base, but it comes back to bite you in the ass after the primaries are done.

do you really think independents would vote for michell bachman, rick santorum, or rick perry?

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul Comments on Military Strikes in Iraq[/b

...

Paul spoke to several from the Campbellsville Chamber of Commerce about a number of issues including the situation in Iraq.

"I have mixed feelings about it. I'm not saying I'm completely opposed to helping with arms or maybe even bombing, but I am concerned that ISIS is big and powerful because we protected them in Syria for a year. Do you know who also hates ISIS and who is bombing them? Assad, the Syrian government. So a year ago, the same people who want to bomb ISIS wanted to bomb Syria last year. Syria and ISIS are on opposite sides of the war. We're now bombing both sides of one war that has spread into another country," said Paul.

...

More...http://www.wbko.com/home/headlines/Sen-Rand-Paul-Responds-to-Flip-Flopping-Criticism-270818741.html

[Bit_Happy]

Rand Paul Comments on Military Strikes in Iraq[/b

...

Paul spoke to several from the Campbellsville Chamber of Commerce about a number of issues including the situation in Iraq.

"I have mixed feelings about it. I'm not saying I'm completely opposed to helping with arms or maybe even bombing, but I am concerned that ISIS is big and powerful because we protected them in Syria for a year. Do you know who also hates ISIS and who is bombing them? Assad, the Syrian government. So a year ago, the same people who want to bomb ISIS wanted to bomb Syria last year. Syria and ISIS are on opposite sides of the war. We're now bombing both sides of one war that has spread into another country," said Paul.

...

More...http://www.wbko.com/home/headlines/Sen-Rand-Paul-Responds-to-Flip-Flopping-Criticism-270818741.html

Time to bring the troops home, and defend our country!
"We're now bombing both sides of one war that has spread into another country," said Paul.
^^^When Rand explains things that clearly you really see how he can be a great candidate.

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul Comments on Military Strikes in Iraq[/b

...

Paul spoke to several from the Campbellsville Chamber of Commerce about a number of issues including the situation in Iraq.

"I have mixed feelings about it. I'm not saying I'm completely opposed to helping with arms or maybe even bombing, but I am concerned that ISIS is big and powerful because we protected them in Syria for a year. Do you know who also hates ISIS and who is bombing them? Assad, the Syrian government. So a year ago, the same people who want to bomb ISIS wanted to bomb Syria last year. Syria and ISIS are on opposite sides of the war. We're now bombing both sides of one war that has spread into another country," said Paul.

...

More...http://www.wbko.com/home/headlines/Sen-Rand-Paul-Responds-to-Flip-Flopping-Criticism-270818741.html

Time to bring the troops home, and defend our country!
"We're now bombing both sides of one war that has spread into another country," said Paul.
^^^When Rand explains things that clearly you really see how he can be a great candidate.

True, you don't have to show your hand like his dad did/does regarding foreign policy and allow people to outright dismiss you or allow the media to demagogue you. Just let the facts speak for themselves w/o giving a one-sided radical statement. It's the chamber of commerce republicans that he needs to not be actively against him like they were his old man. Thread the needle when needed.

[Chef Ramsay]

Rand Paul Would Forgo Using Executive Orders as President

U.S. Senator Rand Paul speaks with students at the Village Learning Center at Midwest Church of Christ in west Louisville.

Republican U.S. Senator Rand Paul said Tuesday that if he is elected to the White House, he would only use his executive authority to revoke previous presidential orders.

Kentucky’s junior senator, who is gearing up for a 2016 presidential run, made the comments at a luncheon for the Louisville chamber of commerce, where he addressed a range of topics, from local issues to world affairs.

Asked directly if he would issue executive orders as president, Paul said the only circumstance would be to overturn the ones made by his predecessors.

“Only to undo executive orders. There’s thousands of them that can be undone,” said Paul. “And I would use executive orders to undo executives orders that have encroached on our jurisprudence, our ability to defend ourselves, the right to a trial, all of those I would undo through executive order.”

More...http://wfpl.org/post/rand-paul-would-forgo-using-executive-orders-president

[Chef Ramsay]

By unleashing her inner hawk, is Hillary helping Rand Paul?

Anyone think Hillary will update her face come 2016?

For a while it seemed as if Hillary Clinton had learned her lesson and caged her inner hawk. After all, she would have won the Democratic presidential nomination—and likely the general election—in 2008 if she had voted against the Iraq war.

Instead Clinton, a liberal interventionist like her husband, voted in favor of invading Iraq. Barack Obama opposed the war, albeit from the safety of the Illinois state legislature. The rest was history.

In an illuminating interview with The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, Hillary lets the hawk out of the cage. She blames the chaos unfolding in Iraq not on the war she voted for but on the Obama administration’s failure to intervene more heavily in Syria, such as by arming the rebels.

“The failure to help build up a credible fighting force of the people who were the originators of the protests against Assad—there were Islamists, there were secularists, there was everything in the middle—the failure to do that left a big vacuum, which the jihadists have now filled,” Clinton told Goldberg.
...
But it’s worth noting that her overall framing of the threat posed by radical Islam differs little from the neoconservatives and their liberal hawk little buddies. When the former advocates war, the latter usually goes along for the ride.
...
Many Americans, particularly independents and swing voters, are war-weary. They will want an alternative to Clinton’s foreign policy.
...
Might this alternative come from the Republican Party? The potential presidential candidate best situated to take advantage of Hillary’s hawkish turn is Rand Paul.
...
Paul will be positioned to be the anti-Hillary: anti-Obamacare, anti-big government and relatively antiwar. In a Republican primary, being anti-Hillary is not a bad thing.

The senator from Kentucky may be able to demonstrate that Clinton’s politics and foreign policy are indeed yesterday’s news.
...

More...http://rare.us/story/by-unleashing-her-inner-hawk-is-hillary-helping-rand-paul/

[Chef Ramsay]

PPP 2016 GOP Poll - Alaska (Aug '14)

Alaska
July 31-August 3, 2014
337 Republican primary voters
+/-5.3%

            Aug '14May '14Feb '14Jul '13
Cruz           16%   15%   13%   8%
Paul           15%   11%   15%   18%
Huckabee   14%   11%   11%   n/a
Bush           12%   14%   12%   11%
Christie   12%   14%   10%   13%
Palin           11%   12%   13%   14%
Walker   7%   4%   4%   n/a
Ryan           6%   4%   4%   9%
Rubio           5%   3%   6%   9%
SE/NS*   4%   12%   12%   19%

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/main/2014/08/alaskans-remain-down-on-palin.html
Paul/Cruz/Palin 42%
Christie/Bush/Bubio not so much

Almost meaningless, I know.

[Chef Ramsay]

Dr. and Sen. Rand Paul performs pro bono eye surgery in Lousiville, KY recently.


Also, 2 of the largest local news stations covered his surgeries and mentioned his upcoming trip to do the same in Guatemala in a week or so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2CqN4amn-A