Posted on 05/17/2010 9:46:12 AM PDT by TSgt
LOUISVILLE - Riding high in the polls, Rand Paul the son of libertarian firebrand Ron Paul and the insurgent Senate candidate who has upended the Kentucky GOP primary offered a preview of his anticipated triumphant message Tuesday night. "This has enormous implications for the power and the impact of the Tea Party movement," he declared. "If we win Tuesday, it will be the biggest victory for a Tea Party candidate in the country...It will show that the Tea Party can elect somebody." These words were delivered not on a campaign stage surrounded by sign-waving supporters, but over lunch Saturday in a tiny Subway restaurant in the back of a gas station on the outskirts of Florence in northern Kentucky. The 47-year-old sandy-haired, Sarah Palin-endorsed candidate, wearing a pumpkin-colored buttoned-down Polo dress shirt and a blue tie, slipped into the Subway incognito and never introduced himself to anyone behind the counter. In fact, when I requested that the recorded music be turned down so I could tape my interview, the store manager came over to the table and asked suspiciously why I was conducting job interviews with unknown people in his restaurant. Yet Rand Paul is also on the cusp of becoming a national celebrity the dragon-slayer who defeated in a primary up-and-coming Trey Grayson, the 38-year-old Kentucky secretary of state and the anointed pick of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. All recent independent polls in Kentucky show Paul with a double-digit lead and Republicans insiders who unaffiliated with either candidate tend to take on a funereal tone when discussing Grayson.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
Basically true, except that Sen. DeMint didn’t get in to the race until relatively lately.
Not at all. He has had to track right since the last election, but he did support amnesty, the prescription drug entitlement, and ‘No child left behind’.
Amnesty got him crossways with KY voters, but he was still re-elected with a huge majority in 2008. He has become exceedingly unpopular with the advent of Glenn Beck, the tea parties, and his hesitancy to move from mild dissension to attack-dog mode. Angered conservatives do not see his role as that of opposition leader a’ la Bob Dole, but rather they see a full scale desecration of the US Constitution that must be vigorously countered and remedied.
McConnell can make up his lost ground to some extent, but 90% of his support comes from corporations whose interests are not similar to those of alarmed ‘Partiers.
Dittos. And thanks for your service and sacrifice. ALL THE WAY!
Nucluside, 82nd Abn, ‘70-72
Wrong. There is no Tea Party to endorse candidates. If a group claims to be a Tea Party they are not.
This isn’t a pro/con of Rand Paul (I hope he wins) but the Tea Party movement is leaderless for a reason.
ALL THE WAY AND THEN SOME!
Avoid anything stating “Tea Party” as a political party.
This is intended to be a spoiler.
The Tea Party endorses conservative candidates,
and eventually will take over the GOP.
Wrong. While the tea party is NOT a political party, it was a loosely organized gathering of people of diverse political beliefs, primarily conservative Republican and libertarian, who find in common a strong desire to preserve the US Constitution and Western Civilization.
These people are a group paradoxically acting individually in Kentucky to elect Rand Paul, a Republican, to the US Senate.
In no way do I consider the tea parties an organized political party. I would deem a third party a disaster; and at this point in our history, even more idiotic an idea than that behind the coterie of idiots who voted for Ross Perot.
My personal efforts are directed towards purging the Republican Party of RINOS and fools, because it is their existence in the Party that drove away the conservative Reagan Democrats and independents.
Yes, unfortunately. See: http://floridateaparty.us/home.php
On the other hand, the Orange Country, Florida GOP is controlled by slimey, crooked RINOs and deserves some kind of come-uppance, so maybe there's a method to the madness...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.