Free Republic

Republican Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul earned a standing ovation at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) Friday, with members of the conservative activist crowd chanting “President Paul” at one point. Paul made clear overtures to a presidential run. The video of his speech is below. Here are some highlights: “Your rights are in your DNA and the government, quite frankly, can get over it.” “I say that your phone records are yours! I say that the phone records of law-abiding citizens are none of their damn business.” “Hillary’s war made us less safe. … As Hillary was declaring victory in...

Rand Paul’s likely White House foes are looking to end his Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) straw poll hot streak. The Kentucky senator is still the frontrunner to win the annual measure of grassroots support after claiming victory for the past two years. But how deep other potential rivals — most notably Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — cut into his support will show who is on the rise in the 2016 GOP field. “Every year serious candidates come to CPAC and organize and get people to come here for the specific purpose of voting...

The battle for the Republican presidential nomination is beginning to really heat up. The latest log on the fire? Texas has decided to move its 2016 primary to March 1, making it the fifth state to cast votes. Traditionally, small states hold their primaries before the larger ones. This allows candidates to focus on persuading target groups of voters and gain momentum before facing the daunting challenge of wooing the masses. Texas is huge. At 270,000 square miles, a campaign will need a treasure trove of cash to finance television ads across 20 media markets. The presidential candidates are now...

Romney’s out and this weekend marks the pre-presidential election year CPAC straw poll, which is a sort of an unofficial beginning of the “exploratory” phase of the battle for the Republican nomination. As many as two dozen candidates, including governors, senators and media personalities, are hinting, some more sincere than others, at making a run for the White House. Below is a listing of the possible Tier I and Tier II contenders for the GOP nod along with handicapping the probability of making the race and their chances of winning. Rand Paul LIKELY CANDIDATE, TIER ONE CONTENDER The Kentucky US...

“They are really against war because they want all of that money to go to food stamps for people here.” (AUDIO-AT-LINK)Former Republican Rep. Ron Paul, the father of potential presidential candidate Rand Paul and a former presidential candidate himself, said the Congressional Black Caucus does not support war because they want that money for food stamps. “I was always annoyed with it in Congress because we had an anti-war unofficial group, a few libertarian Republicans and generally the Black Caucus and others did not—they are really against war because they want all of that money to go to food stamps...

The New Republic, in its February 8th issue, carries an article by Danny Vinik entitled Rand Paul Has the Most Dangerous Economic Views of Any 2016 Candidate. It appears that TNR’s fact checkers decamped along with its top journalists. Vinik: Speaking in front of more than 150 Iowa activists, Paul ripped into the Federal Reserve and promoted his “Audit the Fed” bill, which he introduced earlier this week. “I think there needs to be some sunshine,” he said, according to reports of the event. …Paul’s bill …would significantly damage the Fed’s independence, which exists so that politicians cannot influence the...

One of the least interesting news manias of the week has been former NYC Mayor Rudy Giuliani discussing his opinion that President Obama doesn't really love America (or you, or me, or him). Obama has been the very living embodiment of American government power for the past 7 years, and not too reluctant to use it against enemies, and just random citizens, both foreign and domestic—whether it comes to foreign policy, spending, taxing, regulating, and arresting. Thus, I doubt any alleged lack of love for the U.S. of A matters in any way that Giuliani or the people delighted to...

The Lone Star State has more than a lone contender in the GOP presidential race, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott pointed out — but he isn't yet declaring a favorite. Abbott appeared Sunday on "Face the Nation," where host Bob Schieffer noted that Abbott's predecessor in the governor's office, Rick Perry, is expected to make a second bid. Then there are Sen. Ted Cruz and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who was born and raised in Texas. "I would not be surprised if they all run," Abbott said, but added there are a couple of more names Schieffer left out. Former...

The Washington Post’s Chris Cilliza explains… A prominent Republican consultant — who isn’t working for any of the 2016 presidential candidates and has been right more times than I can count — said something that shocked me when we had lunch recently. He said that Sen. Ted Cruz (Tex.) had about the same odds of becoming the Republican presidential nominee as former Florida governor Jeb Bush. Jaw-dropper, right? After all, the conventional wisdom is that Bush, the son and brother of presidents, is the Republican standard-bearer, while Cruz, a conservative’s conservative, is a factor, sure, but not someone who could...

Kentucky’s junior senator, Rand Paul, gave a provocative talk at the Heritage Foundation on January 13, in which he discussed the role of the judiciary. During that talk, he said something that most American lawyers have been conditioned to think of as heresy: he said that the Supreme Court’s 1905 decision in Lochner v. New York was right. Saying anything good about Lochner among the vast majority of American lawyers and judges is like telling a group of college history professors that Calvin Coolidge was a great president. Senator Paul has the courage to say controversial things and doesn’t fear...

In his scheduled speech to the Democratic National Committee's 2016 winter meeting on Friday, President Barack Obama is expected to reclaim some ownership over an issue that is suddenly a hot topic among top Republicans -- income inequality. Recent comments from potential 2016 Republican presidential contenders about the growing gap between wealthy and working class Americans in the United States have not gone unnoticed at the White House. "Income inequality has worsened under this administration," Sen. Rand Paul, R-Kentucky, said after the president's State of the Union speech. "We're facing right now a divided America when it comes to the...

Gannet paper, link only: http://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/politics/2015/02/19/kent-sorenson-sentencing-iowa-caucus-2012-paul/23684721/

No Republican presidential hopeful since George W. Bush in 2000 has generated widespread support across the party's class and cultural divides. The next GOP nominee may be the candidate who most closely matches his success. The Republican presidential primary electorate now divides about evenly between two factions. The GOP's "managerial" wing consists of voters who are generally more affluent, better educated, more secular, and somewhat less ideological. The party's "populist" wing draws on the overlapping circles of evangelical Christians, blue-collar voters, and the most committed conservative believers. As a Harvard MBA who memorably identified "Jesus" as his favorite philosopher, Bush...

The United States’ political parties have always been amalgams of factions rather than vehicles for any single interest. Partly because of the pressures of the electoral system and partly because of the republic’s vastness, forging either of the two major parties into a political monolith has been impossible; the need to cater to a wide base of Americans tends to keep the parties broad and relatively inclusive. This embedded pluralism of the U.S. party system has diminished somewhat in the current era of polarization but it has not evaporated entirely. The parties are still relatively broad churches. This is clearest...

Fun stuff via BuzzFeed, portending an exciting “whose close relative is more of a devastating electoral liability?” primary for the GOP if the two men left standing are Jeb Bush and Rand Paul. I don’t understand this even within the parameters of the Ron Paul worldview. I thought hardcore isolationists — sorry, “non-interventionists” — believe that the war machine will always find a new pretext to keep rolling even if the current one goes bust. Obama, for instance, did eventually get Bin Laden, along with many other Al Qaeda capos … and yet at this very moment there’s an AUMF...

Overall mentions of potential 2016 candidates on Twitter.If name mentions on social media were a gauge of how well a candidate’s message was being received, the 2016 race would be a battle between Hillary Clinton and Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas). On Twitter, Mr. Cruz is the most-mentioned potential presidential candidate. On Facebook, Mrs. Clinton wins. Both have significant leads over the other, according to data provided by the social networks. The two differ on their approach to social media almost as much as they differ in politics. Mr. Cruz, with more than 404,000 followers, tweets about 31 times a...

Former Rep. Ron Paul said he believes the U.S. government had prior knowledge of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and has kept this information hidden in a classified section of the 9/11 Commission report. Paul, who made the comments during a radio interview last Friday, also argued that the crimes of Osama bin Laden were “minor” compared to the harm the U.S. government has caused since the 2001 attacks. “I believe that if we ever get the full truth [about 9/11], we’ll find out that our government had it in the records exactly what the plans were, or at least...

It's still early, but the future candidate is in serious trouble. Here's why his beloved Tea Party is to blame. Just before sundown on Monday, Politico unveiled a report on how Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul’s support for auditing the Federal Reserve has been received thus far on Wall Street. “Very poorly” seems to be the answer. According to Politico, in fact, the likely presidential candidate’s attempts to bring “the Fed” into the light may have permanently lowered the stock of “the most interesting man in politics” — at least among the conservative members of the 1 percent. “The Fed is...

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is leading a delegation to Cuba on Tuesday while Congress is out on recess. It is the first official House delegation trip to Cuba since President Obama announced lifting certain restrictions on Cuba in December. The delegation, which is comprised of eight other Democratic lawmakers specializing in foreign affairs, trade and agriculture, will meet with Cuban government officials, local community leaders, American officials stationed in Cuba, and Cardinal Jaime Ortega y Alamino, the archbishop of Havana. Pelosi said the lawmakers will discuss potential changes in U.S. policies toward Cuba regarding agriculture and trade issues....

It’s far too early to guess intelligently about who will be elected president next year or whom the Republicans will nominate, but this doesn’t seem to be stopping many pundits. Fox News has its Special Report panels lay odds on the Republican field once a week. The Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza handicaps the Republican field once a week. And the Weekly Standard’s Steve Hayes has just produced an assessment of that field so exhaustive that it includes Donald Trump. Memories of eight years ago prevent me from joining in the fun. At this time in 2007, and for a considerable...