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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...

e is what you need to remember – Rand Paul is never going to get Andy Cable’s, Don Kass’, or Doug Gross’s vote. Spiker is tasked with organizing the people who he has a good rapport with. This is nothing new to politics. Campaigns of every shape and size target certain coalitions of voters, and Spiker is tasked to work with the libertarian leaning voters. Besides all of that, Spiker proved that he was one of the better organizers in Iowa in 2012. People tend to overlook the fact that his candidate received more votes at the Ames Straw Poll...

38,000 FEET ABOVE AMERICA — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), a likely 2016 GOP presidential candidate, tells Breitbart News he’s “gauging support” for a potential White House bid. In an exclusive interview aboard an American Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to Dallas, Texas, he also said he thinks Republicans need to select a conservative — such as himself — as the 2016 GOP nominee for president, rather than a moderate such as former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush or New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. “I think one of the biggest debates we will see is: Do we want the leader of our...

Partial Transcript Courtesy of ABC News of Sunday’s Freedom Partners 2016 Presidential Forum with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Sen Marco Rubio (R-FL), moderated by ABC’s Jonathan Karl, on the issue of Iran sanctions.

Rand Paul has a lot going for him. He inspires the conservative and libertarian wings of the Republican Party. In many ways he’s a breath of fresh air because he’s different than the rest of the GOP. He’s trying to work with constituencies that the GOP normally ignores. He’s making policy arguments that are different than other Republicans and different from other conservatives or libertarians. Rand Paul is personable, which goes a long way on the presidential campaign trail. Rand Paul can unite the right in the GOP. He has the brashness of Ted Cruz and the values of a...

Where his Republican rivals draw attention to themselves with a tuba or a trumpet, Rand Paul puffs his Highland bagpipe. This analogy has little to do with his support for medical marijuana: Paul's sound is so different, it's compelling. As his probable presidential campaign moves forward, don't lump him in with the conventionally conservative gadflies — former Gov. Mike Huckabee, Sen. Ted Cruz, or former Sen. Rick Santorum. The major activists and donors who chase those candidates are Paul skeptics. But he's not a governor (or former governor) with executive experience and a reputation for governing, like Jeb Bush, Mitt...

Jeb Bush is “a Big Government Republican.” Mitt Romney “had his chance.” And Marco Rubio’s recent jabs on foreign policy are “silly” and “childish.” Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul is back in insurgent mode, lobbing bombs at his potential Republican presidential rivals and looking to take back a political spotlight that Bush and Romney have been hogging lately. Paul is also heading to New Hampshire and Nevada this week, hoping to strike a fire with voters who want a new voice to carry the GOP’s message to the White House. Read more: http://www.politico.com/story/2015/01/rand-paul-2016-elections-114243.html#ixzz3OqpqWVHs

There may be disagreements on foreign policy among conservatives, but one thing that there's near universal agreement on is that President Obama's foreign policy has been an abysmal failure. That's why it was especially noteworthy that Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., already facing an uphill battle in winning over conservative primary voters on foreign policy, has embraced the disastrous, John Kerry-led negotiations with the radical Islamic Iranian regime. Speaking at a meeting sponsored by the Wall Street Journal, "Mr. Paul said he doesn’t favor increasing sanctions on Iran as the U.S. continues diplomatic efforts aimed at ending the Iranian nuclear weapons...

Last night, November 14, 2014, Bill Maher had Kentucky U.S. Senator Rand Paul on his HBO show "Real Time with Bill Maher" and many were shocked to hear Maher say he may help Paul with his 2016 run for President of the United States. Maher said last night, "I am available to the Rand Paul campaign."

BOSTON (AP) — Fighting to move beyond his father’s shadow, Sen. Rand Paul is crafting new alliances with the Republican Party establishment during a Northeast tour that began Friday in Boston.The 51-year-old Kentucky Republican, son of libertarian hero and former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, headlined an afternoon luncheon hosted by top lieutenants of former presidential nominee Mitt Romney — a private meeting that comes as Paul weighs a 2016 presidential bid of his own. To succeed in a national campaign, however, those close to Paul acknowledge that he must broaden his appeal beyond the Tea Party and libertarian-minded activists who...

The messages from Sen. Rand Paul seem to get less conservative whenever he speaks to students on liberal college campuses, Boston Herald columnist and radio host Howie Carr says. On Friday, Paul, a Kentucky Republican who is considering a run for the GOP presidential nomination in 2016, tested his libertarian-leaning brand of politics on students at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government. . . . Carr told J.D. Hayworth and John Bachman on "America's Forum" on Newsmax TV on Monday that Paul has that appeal to young voters because he tells them what they want to hear, not necessarily the...

Mother Jones does love found footage, doesn't it? The progressive mag's airing of Mitt Romney's "47 percent" comments at a fundraiser definitely hurt the former Massachusetts governor in his attempt to boot President Obama in 2012. Now Mojo is back with the vid above, which the mag must hope will discombobulate Republicans and help put the brakes on a libertarian-leaning senator whose anti-war and anti-NSA stances draw long looks from disaffected liberals and lefties."Rand Paul: Jimmy Carter was better on the budget than Ronald Reagan" is how the vid begins. It shows the Kentucky senator in a variety of settings...

<p>David Corn over at Mother Jones unearths a 2009 video of Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), in which Paul suggests that former vice president Dick Cheney wanted to invade Iraq in order to benefit his former employer, Halliburton.</p> <p>In the video, shot at Western Kentucky University, Paul argues that Cheney thought the invasion was a bad idea in the first Bush administration but changed his tune after working for Halliburton.</p>

Sen. Rand Paul has become the first Republican to assemble a network in all 50 states as a precursor to a 2016 presidential run, the latest sign that he is looking to build a more mainstream coalition than the largely ad hoc one that backed his father’s unsuccessful campaigns. Paul’s move, which comes nearly two years before the 2016 primaries, also signals an effort to win the confidence of skeptical members of the Republican establishment, many of whom doubt that his appeal will translate beyond the libertarian base that was attracted to Ron Paul, the former Texas congressman. Rand Paul’s...

January 15-19, 2014 833 Republicans +/-3.4% Rand Paul: 13% Paul Ryan: 13% Chris Christie: 12% Jeb Bush: 11% Ted Cruz: 9% Marco Rubio: 8% Scott Walker: 6% Bobby Jindal: 3% John Kasich: 2%

Rand Paul shook off an awkward comment comparing same-sex marriage to beastiality and made a trip Friday to the early primary state South Carolina in the early stages of a potential presidential campaign. The Kentucky senator, reacting to a comment from Glenn Beck wondering if the Supreme Court's decision to strike down the bulk of the Defense of Marriage Act could lead to legalized polygamy, Paul extended Beck's logic. "This is a conundrum, and it gets back to what you were saying… whether or not churches should decide this,” Paul said. “And it is difficult, because if we have no...

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, popular with conservatives and libertarians in the GOP, said Wednesday he is considering a presidential campaign in 2016 but will not make a decision before next year. Paul said at a breakfast sponsored by The Christian Science Monitor that he wants to be part of the national debate and said that remaining open to a presidential bid would give him a broad audience on a number of policy issues. …

Thank you Rand Paul! (CNSNews.com) - While some Republicans have indicated they may break their no-tax-hike pledge, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is not among them: "I made a pledge to the people of Kentucky that I'm not raising taxes. I took a pledge. I signed a statement, an oath that I wouldn't raise taxes, and I'm going to adhere to it," Sen. Paul told Fox New's Greta Van Susteren Monday night. In fact, if Paul had his way, he says he'd lower taxes: "I think you should balance budgets, not spend more than comes in, and I think you should...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is not hiding his interest in running for president four years from now. “I want to be part of the national debate,” Paul told ABC News’ Jonathan Karl. ”I’m not going to deny that I’m interested.” Paul’s father, Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) is retiring after 23 years in Congress (over a 36-year period) and three presidential bids.

Results as of 3:42pm. ROMNEY: 37% PAUL: 26% HUNTSMAN: 21% GINGRICH: 11% PERRY: 9% BACHMAN: 0% SANTORUM: 0%