Posted on 05/04/2010 2:38:54 PM PDT by speciallybland
Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) said today he doesn't think Senate Min. Leader Mitch McConnell's endorsement of Sec/State Trey Grayson (R) will give Grayson enough of a boost to catch ophthalmologist Rand Paul (R) in the race to replace Bunning.
"I spoke to Rand Paul this morning," Bunning, who endorsed Paul in the race, said in an interview. "His internal polling has him 15 points up. There was a publicly released poll, independent poll, it has him 18 points up. So ... plus or minus four percent, that's a minimum of 12."
"Senator McConnell obviously thinks that by his endorsement he can erase that 12 point margin that Rand Paul has over Grayson," Bunning said.
But Bunning argued the endorsement means little since McConnell has already helped Grayson raise money and has "been endorsing him with his actions."
"Give me a chance to see another week of polling," Bunning added. "There's an awful lot of clutter out there. I'm on radio. I'm on television. McConnell's on television. [Social conservative leader James] Dobson's on the radio."
While the dueling endorsements are widely seen as an extension of the feud between Kentucky's senators, Bunning said his own endorsement was based on Paul's conservative credentials and unrelated to McConnell, even as Bunning did not mask his enmity toward the senior senator.
"I thought it was fitting the way it was announced," Bunning said, citing today's Associated Press story. "That Senator McConnell endorsed the establishment candidate."
Bunning noted Dobson's, claim, which came as he switched his endorsement from Grayson to Paul, that senior GOP officials misled him into believing Paul was pro-choice. Dobson was referring to McConnell, Bunning suggested.
"He said leadership in the Republican Party misled him," Bunning said. "Now who do you think that is?"
Bunning would not say if he himself was misled about Grayson's positions when he initially encouraged Grayson to explore the race.
"That's a personal question and I'm not going to talk about it," Bunning said.
"All I can say is it's going to be an interesting two weeks in Kentucky," he added.
McConnell for his part declined to elaborate on his written endorsement in a news conference Tuesday.
"I did today endorse one of the candidates and I'll be there for whoever wins the primary and we'll find that out two weeks from today," McConnell said.
ping!
Rand Paul is a mistake.
This is the conservative/Palin/Reagan portion of the party against the rino/Rockefeller/Romney part of the party.
You’re misinformed. Badly misinformed.
Since he hand picked him to run I always thought an endorsement was already in hand.
Bravo!
I don't think so. Video tape can be troubling for candidates....
http://publicpolicypolling.blogspot.com/2010/05/paul-continues-to-lead-big.html
People aren't falling for it anymore.
Yep, Barack Obama proved that. People will ignore audio-tape evidence in favor of a politician's stump speech.
Like I said, Rand Paul is not the answer.
On the bright side, if he gets elected, at least Dennis Kucinich will have someone to talk to at lunch.
That video is from 2007, and it is Ron Paul’s campaign staffer speaking in his behalf, yet you were trying to pass it off as Rand Paul giving his own personal view, why is that?
Why do you prefer Trey Grayson and the Kentucky voters don’t, except for the pro abortion ones?
Paul leads Grayson among pro-lifers by a 50%-32% margin. Grayson leads Paul among pro-abortion Republicans by a 42%-27% margin.
Conservatives, Christians, social conservatives, and the statewide Kentucky voting population support Rand Paul.
Conservatives favor Paul by 51 percent to 29 percent with 16 percent undecided. Those who attend religious services regularly or occasionally favor Paul by double-digit margins. Gun owners back Paul 48 percent to 22 percent with 22 percent undecided.
Rand Paul leads by double digits among men and women, among conservatives, pro-life voters, gun owners.
Grayson leads today only among the 1 in 5 Republican primary voters who say they are pro-choice.
I don’t care for him much either, but if he wins the general election, he’ll give raging fits to Marxists like Schumer, Leahy and Durbin...lol.
Paul has a deep history of anti-war sentiments. If you want to ignore them, that's your prerogative. But, a simple google search will lend all the evidence anyone who's not politically naive would need.
I'll say it again, in simpler terms - Paul's foreign policy/national security positions are closer to Code Pinks than they are Dick Cheney's and that scares the hell out of me.
What Arlen Specter did to us on judicial appointments, Paul will do to conservatives on national defense. It's that simple.
After what you tried with that video, you can’t be trusted.
I tried nothing with that video, fool. It speaks for itself, as does David Horwitz. If you're stupid enough to trust a Paul on national security, you're either a paid Paulian, or an idiot - although it's possible they are not mutually exclusive.
Bzzzt. Wrong answer. That video wasn't part of Rand's campaign.
How does that help legitimize your man Trey Grayson?
An establishment hack who worked for Bill Clinton is?
You're confusing the son and the father.
Rand Paul is a newcomer to politics. I suppose he developed his "anti-war" sentiments while performing cataract surgeries as an ophthalmologist?
He doesn't share his old man's foreign policy views.
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