Rand Paul: 'I am running for president'

[Kevin_Kennedy]

I like Paul

He will make the election fun

Pandering to neocons is hardly fun or original.

He has to demonstrate that he is not batshit crazy on foreign policy like his father

Batshit crazy would be to continue the Democrat/Republican foreign policy of intervention, create mess, cause resentment, rinse, repeat. Rand Paul is willing to do that to get political power, whereas his father was not.

Ron Paul was batshit crazy when it came to foreign policy

His son has to break that perception

Oh, I see, you're just going to endlessly repeat yourself because making an actual point is too difficult.

 

[BlueGin]

Rand Paul is a candidate that could seriously earn my vote. I like quite a few of his positions but I need to see a bit more details of his plans for this nation first. I look forward to seeing what he brings to the table.

I would vote for him based on his wanting to do away with career politicians in Washington alone.

I just question his forgein policy stance.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

The neocons will do what ever they can to sabotage Paul because he won't go along with their unnecessary war mongering and there's a lot of money and power to be made for politicians when we're always beating the war drums.

He's announcing here in Las Vegas as well this Saturday and I will be attending.

Except he's voted for sanctions on Iran in the past to please the neocons, signed on to Cotton's letter to disrupt diplomacy with Iran, and did an about face on cutting foreign aid to Israel. He's more than willing to go along with their war mongering.

If you're going to sit around waiting for the 100% pure candidate, you're going to be sitting around your entire life. I voted for Gary Johnson last time, despite knowing he had no real shot of winning. Paul has a much better chance and while he's not a true libertarian he's much closer on those issues than anyone else running with a realistic chance of winning. Rome wasn't built in a day.

You're right, but there's compromising on a decent candidate, and then there's voting for a candidate you can't trust on any issue of importance because you think maybe there's a chance he'll be decent when he's actually in office. You have to draw the line somewhere, and Rand has crossed far too many lines.

There is nothing in Rand Paul's history that leads me to believe he will engage in the same constant war campaigns as the last several presidents have.

There is nothing in his history that leads me to believe he can be trusted not to. All I've seen is a guy who is willing to say and do whatever it takes to gain the Presidency. And it's all well and good to say he has to do these things to get elected, but, say he wins, what is he going to have to do in office to get elected for a second term? What is he going to have to do in that term to play ball with Republicans and help them? I don't see how his constant need to gain and keep power is going to allow him to do anything that the establishment doesn't like. And the establishment likes wars.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

The neocons will do what ever they can to sabotage Paul because he won't go along with their unnecessary war mongering and there's a lot of money and power to be made for politicians when we're always beating the war drums.

He's announcing here in Las Vegas as well this Saturday and I will be attending.

Except he's voted for sanctions on Iran in the past to please the neocons, signed on to Cotton's letter to disrupt diplomacy with Iran, and did an about face on cutting foreign aid to Israel. He's more than willing to go along with their war mongering.

He got two out of three right. Absolute isolation, my friend, will never happen.

It'll happen eventually, when the U.S. empire collapses as all empires must. It won't happen as a result of a politician, however, and that's why Rand will either never get near the Presidency or he'll compromise so much his winning the Presidency will be pointless.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

A race between Rand and Warren would be wild.

I don't think either can get the nomination.

I agree that Rand won't win the nomination. His current strategy makes no sense in that he's actively alienating his base of support while pandering to groups who will never accept or trust him. And even if they did, they have other logical candidates to support over him.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Thanks to Kevin_Kennedy for starting this thread.

I've also noted Rand Paul's entrance into the race here:

The 2016 IN and OUT thread. US Message Board - Political Discussion Forum


I'm writing that not because I would like responses. Actually, the goal of the thread is just to log when candidates jump in and then out, for statistical purposes, so as a form of "log", I think that you all will find it very helpful with time.

It should also be noted that Sen. Paul is simultaneously mounting a Senate re-election campaign for the Commonwealth of Kentucky. That's not totally unusual: in 2000, Vice-Presidential candidate Joe Lieberman (D-CT) also ran for re-election to the Senate that year, and won.

Interesting is that it's currently illegal for Rand Paul to run for both Senate and President at the same time in Kentucky. It looks like they're going to change Kentucky's Presidential primary to a caucus to get around the law.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

So we've got Truthers and Birthers; what are we going to call the Aqua Buddha and "Rand wears a wig!" conspiracy theorists?

 

[Lakhota]

So we've got Truthers and Birthers; what are we going to call the Aqua Buddha and "Rand wears a wig!" conspiracy theorists?

Are you saying the Aqua Buddha event never happened? As I recall, the girl involved spoke out.

The Plum Line - Exclusive: Rand Paul's accuser clarifies kidnapping

 

[skye]

In all honesty..... I am beginning to think there will be no election in 2016....

this monster in the White House....might stay for A third term...

I'm worried....

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

So we've got Truthers and Birthers; what are we going to call the Aqua Buddha and "Rand wears a wig!" conspiracy theorists?

Are you saying the Aqua Buddha event never happened? As I recall, the girl involved spoke out.

The Plum Line - Exclusive: Rand Paul's accuser clarifies kidnapping

Oh, she spoke out? Well that changes everything. Much like all those real life engineers saying 9/11 was an inside job. Yep. I'm thoroughly convinced that some woman with no evidence whatsoever is completely trustworthy, and not fame-seeking at all.

 

[JWBooth]

Except that he's nowhere near as principled as his father was.

Those lacking principles are always more popular.

 

[JakeStarkey]

The event happened, Rand's base is more conservative than libertarian, and, kk, you are wrong; he has played his cards well.

 

[ScienceRocks]

Paul sucks!

Time for the democrats or moderate republicans to come out and promise to double our science budget and to rebuild our infrastructure. We should hit assholes like Paul with good things and show him to be the idiot he is.

 

[JWBooth]

Paul sucks!

Time for the democrats or moderate republicans to come out and promise to double our science budget and to rebuild our infrastructure. We should hit assholes like Paul with good things and show him to be the idiot he is.

What? No Star Trek marathon to keep you occupied tonight?

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

Except that he's nowhere near as principled as his father was.

Those lacking principles are always more popular.

I think in absolute numbers he's obviously much more popular than his father, but he's alienating his base and he's not convincing the people he's trying to.

 

[JWBooth]

Except that he's nowhere near as principled as his father was.

Those lacking principles are always more popular.

I think in absolute numbers he's obviously much more popular than his father, but he's alienating his base and he's not convincing the people he's trying to.

His base appears to be made up mostly of well cooked oatmeal.

 

[Lakhota]

So we've got Truthers and Birthers; what are we going to call the Aqua Buddha and "Rand wears a wig!" conspiracy theorists?

Are you saying the Aqua Buddha event never happened? As I recall, the girl involved spoke out.

The Plum Line - Exclusive: Rand Paul's accuser clarifies kidnapping

Oh, she spoke out? Well that changes everything. Much like all those real life engineers saying 9/11 was an inside job. Yep. I'm thoroughly convinced that some woman with no evidence whatsoever is completely trustworthy, and not fame-seeking at all.

Fame-seeking? To my knowledge, she has only spoken anonymously without giving her name.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

The event happened, Rand's base is more conservative than libertarian, and, kk, you are wrong; he has played his cards well.

Rand is polling well, but he's not winning over hawks to his so-called "realist" foreign policy, and as you pointed out he's lost a large part of his libertarian base going after the hawks. In other words, he lost his base for nothing. Rand needs to completely dominate among libertarians, which he does, but not as much as he could, young independents, civil libertarian Republicans, and fiscal conservatives. Those are the people Rand has the best chance with, and while he needs to win over Evangelicals and neocons to some degree he shouldn't be spending his campaign focused almost solely on them while taking the others for granted. I think the polling also indicates that despite his general popularity, most Republicans have more logical candidates to support. Maybe it'll work out in the end for him, but I don't think so.

 

[Kevin_Kennedy]

So we've got Truthers and Birthers; what are we going to call the Aqua Buddha and "Rand wears a wig!" conspiracy theorists?

Are you saying the Aqua Buddha event never happened? As I recall, the girl involved spoke out.

The Plum Line - Exclusive: Rand Paul's accuser clarifies kidnapping

Oh, she spoke out? Well that changes everything. Much like all those real life engineers saying 9/11 was an inside job. Yep. I'm thoroughly convinced that some woman with no evidence whatsoever is completely trustworthy, and not fame-seeking at all.

Fame-seeking? To my knowledge, she has only spoken anonymously without giving her name.

I won't claim to be the most witty person when it comes to naming conspiracy theorists. Should we go with Aqua Buddhists? Any other ideas?

 

[JWBooth]

He excites nobody, occasionally talks a good game, but no rational person could argue that he generates enthusiasm among young people like pappy did,