Posted on 11/09/2014 9:12:10 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Ballot propositions and congressional races are sucking up all the political oxygen in the run-up to Tuesday’s elections. They should. Informing ourselves and getting out the vote is critical for the healthy functioning of our democracy.
But for an electorate hoping for post-midterm relief from campaign ads and candidate messaging, that reprieve will be short-lived. Soon after the November ballots are tallied, the 2016 presidential campaign will kick in. Hold on for the ride.
This early presidential cycle will contrast potential candidates’ differences on government’s role, health care and taxes, but nothing will say “I’m running” more than a foray into the world of foreign policy.
Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., is the first out the gate, not waiting for this Wednesday to make it clear he is running for president. He did not declare his candidacy; instead, he declared a reasoned four-point set of foreign policy principles in a mid-October speech at the Center for the National Interest.
Paul’s “conservative realism” is not far from President Barack Obama’s current policy, and they agree on how to deal with ISIS. He is, however, distanced from his political allies: his father and his party. His dad, Ron Paul, a former presidential candidate, believes in a mind-our-own-business (“libertarian isolationist”) approach. Rand Paul also puts arms length distance between himself and the Republican foreign policy establishment’s worldwide Freedom Agenda (“neoconservative interventionist”) philosophy.
In his speech, Paul the younger recognizes America’s limits, but also says “war is necessary when America is attacked or threatened.” A decision to go to war, he says, must establish that “a precondition to the use of force must be a clear end goal.” This and his other three points sound a lot like Colin Powell’s eponymous “Powell Doctrine” and former Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger’s “Six Tests” for going to war.
The recent speech takes a decent shot — two years out — at a coherent foreign policy approach that gives Paul a way to support Obama’s current bombing campaign, but also attack some of his other actions.
Specifically, Paul attacks the president’s Libya policies and the NATO military action that has turned that country into a failed state.
This line of Paul’s argument is a direct assault on Obama, but is intended more as an attack on former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (disclosure: My wife worked directly for Secretary Clinton as U.S. Ambassador to Hungary and is one of her former 2008 presidential campaign national co-chairs). By criticizing American actions in Libya while she was secretary of state, he wants to undermine Clinton’s potential 2016 presidential candidacy.
It is a time-honored campaign political tactic to attack opponents’ strengths and to redefine their personal narratives. In this instance, Paul recognizes that Hillary Clinton and Vice President Joe Biden dominate and outshine the potential 2016 presidential field with their foreign policy experience and expertise.
In our contemporary globalized reality, all presidential candidates are expected to be fluent in foreign policy. In 2016, the United States will still have soldiers in Afghanistan; America’s NATO leadership will check a Russia that ups her game; and this country will need to manage relations with a more muscular China bent on asserting greater economic power.
Presidential candidates rarely win elections based on their foreign policy expertise (George H.W. Bush vs. Bill Clinton in 1992), but they often lose them by flunking at foreign policy. The examples are many, with exceptional stand-outs being Gerald Ford’s flubbing some fundamentals about Poland’s relationship to the Soviet Union and Sarah Palin’s simplistic response to CBS’s Katie Couric’s questions regarding Russia and helping to sink John McCain’s candidacy.
Future presidential candidates need to get some stamps in their passports, bone up on their geography, and feel comfortable not only with foreign leaders, but with the complexities of America’s global power and perception.
That is a tall order for congressmen, senators and governors with national political ambitions. There are few contemporaries who will enter the Oval Office who can bring the type of foreign policy experience that George H.W. Bush had as a former ambassador to the United Nations, director of the CIA and vice president. Time spent on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee helps — Sen. Obama leveraged his stint on that committee as a credential. Time on the Intelligence or Armed Services committees help, too.
A governor needs to take advantage of overseas trade delegations, bilateral state-to-nation agreements and fact-finding missions with ethnic or religious minority groups who make up a state’s diverse populations. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is a Cuban-American with an informed understanding and nuanced approach to Cuba. If former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush is thinking about a presidential run, he will have to update his Latin America policy thoughts and credentials.
On Tuesday, go out and vote. Then scrape off the 2014 bumper stickers for 2016 presidential candidates who act locally, but can think and talk globally.
One side wants a “reprieve” from elections, one doesn’t.
I will agree with his point that, once the new Congress is sworn in, the media and the Democratic party will be trying to finda suitable candidate whether it be Clinton, Warren, or whomever.
Rand Slams Congress for Funding Egypt's Generals: 'How Does Your Conscience Feel Now?'Sen. Rand Paul is hammering his fellow senators for keeping billions in financial aid flowing to Egypt's military -- even as Cairo's security forces massacre anti-government activists. [by "anti-government activists" is meant church-burning Christian-murdering jihadists][Posted on 08/15/2013 5:44:10 PM PDT by Hoodat]
Rand Paul On Shutdown: "Even Though It Appeared I Was Participating In It, It Was A Dumb Idea"I said throughout the whole battle that shutting down the government was a dumb idea. Even though it did appear as if I was participating in it, I said it was a dumb idea. And the reason I voted for it, though, is that it's a conundrum. Here's the conundrum. We have a $17 trillion debt and people at home tell me you can't give the president a blank check. We just can't keep raising the debt ceiling without conditions. So unconditionally raising the debt ceiling, nobody at home wants me to vote for that and I can't vote for that. But the conundrum is if I don't we do approach these deadlines. So there is an impasse. In 2011, though, we had this impasse and the president did negotiate. We got the sequester. If we were to extend the sequester from discretionary spending to all the entitlements we would actually fix our problem within a few years.[Posted on 11/19/2013 12:16:51 PM by Third Person]
Rand Paul: Time for GOP to soften war stance...by softening its edge on some volatile social issues and altering its image as the party always seemingly "eager to go to war... We do need to expand the party and grow the party and that does mean that we don't always all agree on every issue" ... the party needs to become more welcoming to individuals who disagree with basic Republican doctrine on emotional social issues such as gay marriage... "We're going to have to be a little hands off on some of these issues ... and get people into the party," Paul said.[Posted on 01/31/2013 5:08:50 PM PST by xzins]
Rand Paul's immigration speech...The Republican Party must embrace more legal immigration.[Posted on 03/19/2013 7:04:07 AM PDT by Perdogg]
Unfortunately, like many of the major debates in Washington, immigration has become a stalemate-where both sides are imprisoned by their own rhetoric or attachment to sacred cows that prevent the possibility of a balanced solution.
Immigration Reform will not occur until Conservative Republicans, like myself, become part of the solution. I am here today to begin that conversation.
Let's start that conversation by acknowledging we aren't going to deport 12 million illegal immigrants.
If you wish to work, if you wish to live and work in America, then we will find a place for you...
This is where prudence, compassion and thrift all point us toward the same goal: bringing these workers out of the shadows and into being taxpaying members of society.
Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers.12 million more people assimilating into society. 12 million more people being productive contributors.
Rand Paul calls on conservatives to embrace immigration reformLatinos, should be a natural constituency for the party, Paul argued, but "Republicans have pushed them away with harsh rhetoric over immigration." ...he would create a bipartisan panel to determine how many visas should be granted for workers already in the United States and those who might follow... [and the buried lead] "Imagine 12 million people who are already here coming out of the shadows to become new taxpayers...[Posted on 04/21/2013 1:52:42 PM PDT by SoConPubbie]
[but he's not in favor of amnesty, snicker, definition of is is]
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