Free Republic

The other night as my wife Kelsey and I were getting ready for bed, we were talking about the 2016 presidential race and discussing how things would shape up for the first-in-the-nation caucus state – our home state – of Iowa. We had both heard that Ted Cruz was set to announce his candidacy at midnight, and were keeping a finger on the pulse of the reaction within our liberty-heavy political circles. My wife’s phone buzzed, and then I heard her groan. Another of our friends had asked her who we would be supporting for president in the state where...

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A week after about 150 tea party activists rallied in opposition to U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander's re-election next year, tea party favorite Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky said here Monday that he hopes Alexander doesn't get an opponent and wins re-election. Alexander, R-Tenn., has aroused tea party ire for his votes for the immigration reform bill and other measures opposed by the hard right.

When Rand Paul announced his “official” candidacy for the presidency this week he sparked a number of debates, not only in the media and among his opponents, but inside the GOP. One of the less noticed ones revolved around a comment he made during the speech regarding the institution of term limits for congressional offices, similar to what we have for the Oval Office. This drew a quick response from our friend Matt Lewis, who feels that Rand is missing the mark. "During his presidential announcement on Tuesday, Sen. Rand Paul took a stand for term limits. “We limit the...

Although I'm extremely excited for the 2016 election even without having a particular GOP candidate in mind as my hoped-for annihilator of Hillary Rodham, Rand Paul really ticked me off this week. I mean REALLY ticked me off. It looks like he is not going to play ball with the press. And that's a huge mistake. So what happened? He tussled with Savannah Guthrie, the 'Today' host, over her editorializing rather than simply questioning him. She was pressing him on whether or not he'd changed opinions on foreign aid to Israel and he not only objected to her talking over...

With Hillary Clinton due to declare her presidential intentions on Sunday, we look at the Republicans most likely to block her route to the White House. In what is widely perceived as a mere formality on her way to the Democratic nomination (and possibly, the White House), Hillary Clinton is due to officially announce her second candidacy for US president on Sunday. Underscoring the perfunctory nature of this announcement, Mrs Clinton is expected to launch her candidacy via a video message on social media, which – if true – stands as a stark contrast to the high-profile announcement speeches delivered...

IOWA CITY, Iowa - Sen. Rand Paul called Friday for college tuition to be a tax writeoff in his first direct pitch to young voters of his presidential campaign. Paul used the power of the pocketbook, along with calls for electronic privacy and reforming the criminal justice system, to appeal to what he called the "Instagram generation," a constituency he sees as vital to his nascent presidential campaign. Paul blasted President Obama's plan for free community college, telling the crowd of a few hundred people, mostly students, that it won't work because someone has to pay for professors and facilities....

You probably guessed it...Ted Cruz! At least if we're going solely by the measuring stick of fund raising. Yes Cruz announced his candidacy not much earlier than Paul did, but still he's managed an astounding $31 million in a single week! Which has really turned a lot of heads. Including a good number of people in more traditionally liberal news outlets... (VIDEO-AT-LINK)Notice how they're trying to pin so much of this on the citizens united case? As though that one supreme court decision has allowed for the rise of a principled conservative with real values and beliefs to occur. Only...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., formally launched his presidential campaign Tuesday with a speech in Louisville. Among the notable quotes from Paul's speech was a comment seemingly meant to raise minority support by calling for reform of federal drug laws that disproportionately lead to incarceration of black Americans. "I see an America where criminal justice is applied equally and any law that disproportionately incarcerates people of color is repealed," Paul said. Paul went on to address other topics without expanding much on what kinds of laws he meant. But given his past comments, it's not hard to guess he was talking...

In most presidential primaries, there is a candidate who cannot win. All the other candidates want him to finish second because they are sure that if they can get him one-on-one in a runoff, they will defeat him. The victim must have enough intense support to be able to do well in crowded fields — well enough to make the second round. But he must have sharp limits to his potential vote that doom him to failure. In 1976 it was George Wallace. In 1988 it was Jesse Jackson. In 1992 it was Jerry Brown. In 1996 it was Steve...

Call off the Iowa caucuses. Cancel the New Hampshire primary. Let’s all head to Cleveland to name the 2016 Republican presidential nominee right now. The race is over. Rand Paul has won. There is no way he can be denied. How can I say that before a single vote has been cast, before most of the field has even declared? Simple: Dick Morris has predicted Paul can’t win. Morris’ predictions are almost always wrong. Ergo, Rand Paul is now a heavy favorite to clinch the nomination. Everyone who makes political forecasts with any frequency is going to make mistakes, me...

Sen. Rand Paul spent part of his second day as an officially declared presidential candidate hinting that big revelations are coming "soon" about the foundation headed by the Clinton family, but declined to divulge specifics, pointing out "it wouldn't be a secret anymore" if he did. "I think there are things that went on at the Clinton Foundation that are going to shock people, and I think they're going to make people question whether or not she should be president or not," the Kentucky Republican said, speaking to reporters after his first campaign rally in New Hampshire, ABC's JORDYN PHELPS...

The Left has become very devoted to the strategy of defining Republicans with early hits. Conventional wisdom holds such tactics were particularly effective against Sarah Palin as the vice-presidential candidate in 2008, and Mitt Romney on the top of the ticket in 2012. That’s why we have overheated and dishonest attempts to portray Senator Rand Paul as a short-tempered misogyinst, and a crusade to discredit Senator Ted Cruz as a spinner of tall tales, disconnected from reality. The interview between Cruz and CNBC’s John Harwood I mentioned yesterday – in which Harwood asked, “Why shouldn’t somebody listen to you and...

IOWA CITY, Iowa—Rand Paul kicked off his first public appearance in the Hawkeye State since launching his anti-establishment presidential campaign with a question that was meant as a rallying cry. “Do we have any liberty lovers here?” he asked a crowd composed mostly of University of Iowa students, who sported Rand stickers and responded with cheers and whistles. But if Paul’s going to have any chance of contending for his party’s nomination, he better hope their nonlibertarian-leaning parents feel the same way. The Iowa caucus will, of course, be the first major test for the entire GOP field—but the first-in-the-nation...

A new poll shows New Hampshire Republicans leaning toward Scott Walker over Jeb Bush, with Rand Paul, who announced his candidacy and visited the Granite State this week, in third place. The NH1 poll released Friday shows Walker, the Wisconsin governor, leading Bush, 23 percent to 17 percent – outside the margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points. Paul, the first-term Kentucky senator, is at 15 percent. The three leaders are the only candidates to register in double figures. The next tier is led by Texas Sen. Ted Cruz (9 percent), who entered the race last month,...

So far, the 2016 presidential campaign is not about anything very much, excepting issues specific to the leading and emerging candidates. It has been mostly about controversies swirling around Hillary Rodham Clinton, including the legacy question, which she shares with Jeb Bush. And more recently the focus has turned to the qualifications and electability of the emerging GOP newbies, from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, to Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., who stand in the way of a possible third Bush presidency. In none of this do we see anything that speaks to the general state of...

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz chose a conservative, evangelical Christian university as the setting for his announcement that he was running for president. This underscored his apparent strategic decision to focus relentlessly on the conservative, highly religious segment of his party, both in terms of attempting to become their candidate of preference, and also in terms of maximizing their turnout in the 2016 primary elections. The Republican Party in general has a disproportionate percentage of conservative and highly religious Americans in its ranks, so Cruz's strategy would appear to make numerical sense -- as it would for other conservative politicians, like...

The same mainstream media that regularly gives tongue baths to Barack Obama is currently coordinating a narrative around Republican Senator Rand Paul’s temperament. Earlier this week, NBC’s Chuck Todd and the Washington Post’s Chris Cillizza denigrated their female colleagues by suggesting Paul needs to be nicer to them. This line of attack paints Paul as both a sexist and temperamental. Friday, The Guardian tried to join this Ready-For-Hillary pile on but was caught lying.

South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham may still be weighing whether to run for president, but he already has a strategy — distancing himself from fellow senator Rand Paul. In TV appearances, on the campaign trail, and even in private fundraisers, Graham, an Air Force reservist and one of his party’s most prominent defense hawks, has gone after Paul repeatedly and by name, casting him as weak-kneed and unwilling to protect the country from aggressors. In interviews, Graham aides said he was laying out a plan to position himself as Paul’s foil, and will repeatedly contrast his foreign policy positions to...

Five reasons why the Kentucky senator trails Ted Cruz in fundraising, but is still stealing the spotlight. If you’re a member of the Washington media, odds are you’ve spent at least some time over the past 48 hours discussing Rand Paul’s entry into the presidential race and his testy exchanges about abortion with an Associated Press reporter. Reporters and pundits have covered Paul’s debut for The Washington Post, NPR, The Huffington Post, and the Today Show. The Daily Beast offered space to the libertarian Cato Institute’s David Boaz to argue that yes, Paul can do it. In The Hill, Dick...