Mediaboss Marketing

TIME Politics 2016 Election 5:40 PM ET Updated: 6:47 PM ET Mark PetersonRedux for TIME Rand Paul speaks at CPAC in National Harbor, Md. on Feb. 27, 2015.

Sen. Rand Paul won the Conservative Political Action Conference for the third year in a row, but the real action was in second place, where Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker took the honors.

Pauls victory, with 26% percent of the vote, was widely expected due to the throngs of young, libertarian-minded attendees. (He won 25% of the vote in 2013 and 31% in 2014.) But Walkers second-place win showed the Midwesterners growing credibility among conservatives.

In securing 21% of the vote, Walker is sure to ignite more buzz as he seeks to appeal to both the partys wealthy elite and its conservative base. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush may be dominating the fundraising primary, but Walker is picking up support among the partys grassroots.

Walkers continued rise has only pressured the more moderate Chris Christie, who placed 10th with the unfriendly audience and is finding his path to the nomination narrowed by Walker and Bush.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, whose fiery brand of conservatism appeals particularly to the CPAC attendee, placed third with 12% of the vote.

But the straw polls results are hardly predictive of the GOP primaries, providing only a murky window into the polarized political party. Only registered attendees are provided a code with which to vote, turning campaign staffers and volunteers into temporary travel agents.

Bush came in fifth with 8% of the vote. He faced a skeptical crowd at CPAC, where the conservative base views the Bush heir as an establishment figure backed by Washington D.C.s power brokers. Many view his support of the Common Core education standards and immigration reform with suspicion, and his appearance on Friday punctuated was by heckles and jeers.

Busing in supporters to pack the audience and juice the vote in the straw poll is a longstanding CPAC tradition. On Friday crowds of young students descended on the Convention Center, bused in by Bush allies who helped them obtain passes to the conference when he spoke.

Paul and Cruzs PACs organized discounted registrations and hotel rooms nearby for young attendees, who play an outsized role in swaying the polls results.

Read the rest here:
Rand Paul Wins CPAC Straw Poll, Scott Walker Takes Second

This article originally appeared on AlterNet.

Senator Rand Paul, of Kentucky, seems to have no problem contradicting himself. The self-proclaimed constitutional conservative is typically lost in libertarian thought leading him to make inflammatory sexist, racist and overbearingly hypocritical comments on nearly every issue he faces. Whether hes attempting to police womens bodies, ignoring police brutality for stingy tobacco taxes, or speaking out against vaccines and posting himself receiving booster shots only days later, Ron Pauls son is one politician you can unabashedly hate or enjoy laughing at.

1. When Paul spoke outagainst vaccines:

I have heard of many tragic cases of walking, talking normal children who wound up with profound mental disorders after vaccines.

Click to enlarge.

Rand Paul /Twitter

2. When he backedvoter ID laws:

I dont think theres a problem with showing your ID, but I do think theres a problem with Republicans saying, Hey, our big issue for the campaign is going to be voter ID, because what it creates is a lot of African-Americans understandably remember the 40s and 50s in the South, and they remember suppression of the vote.

Read the original here:
21 Rand Paul quotes that expose libertarianism for the con ...

Today we are going to unveil that we are returning $500,000 to the Treasury. We invited several representatives of taxpayers from around the state to receive this check. This is a check for $500,000, or representative of $500,000, that we are returning from our office budget to the Treasury.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), speaking at a news conference, Jan. 13, 2012

Senator Rand Paul returns $480,000 to U.S. Treasury from Office Budget, has returned $1.8 million since taking office.

headline on Rand Paul news release, Feb. 20, 2015

A reader spotted a news item about Sen. Rand Pauls annual announcement that he has saved hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer funds and returned it to the Treasury. He wondered how accurate that statement was, and so we decided to look into it.

Theres actually less to this claim than meets the eye one made by not just Paul but a number of lawmakers. But Paul certainly makes a big deal out of it, including the visual image of a giant check made out to The U.S. taxpayer.

The money that every lawmaker receives is subject to annual appropriations, just like funds for the executive branch. As part of that allotment, each lawmaker in the House receives a members representational allowance (MRA), and each senator receives a senators official personnel and office expense allowance (SOPOEA).

The money is intended to be used for office and staff expenses; the procedures and formulas for determining the amount for each lawmaker are slightly different in each legislative body.

The average amount for House members was $1.255 million in fiscal year 2014, while senators will receive an average of$3.24 million in fiscal year 2015, according to the Congressional Research Service. Few lawmakers spent every cent of their allotment, and some (especially in the Senate) leave hundreds of thousands of dollars unspent.

Continued here:
Did Rand Paul really return money to the Treasury ...

TIME Politics 2016 Election Rand Paul Just Lost the Bulgaria Primary Andrew HarrerBloomberg/Getty Images Senator Rand Paul, a Republican from Kentucky, listens to a question during an interview at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in National Harbor, Maryland, Feb. 27, 2015. U.S. ally hits back after the presidential hopeful's dismissive remark

Bulgaria has a bone to pick with Rand Paul.

The countrys Embassy in Washington hit back Friday at comments the Republican presidential hopeful made earlier this week, in which he seemed to dismiss the countrys importance while mounting an attack against Hillary Clinton.

It goes without saying that Senator Rand Pauls remark is inappropriate, the Bulgarian embassy in Washington told TIME in a statement. His dismissive attitude towards a US and NATO ally and a friendly country and his foreign policy record is to be judged by the American people.

Paul on Wednesday reiterated his criticism of the former Secretary of State for not paying more attention to the situation on the ground in Libya ahead of the September, 2012 attack on a Benghazi compound that killed U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. Clinton has said she didnt read a diplomatic cable requesting increased security at the compound.

MORE: Republicans Rediscovering Their Old Hawkish Message on Foreign Policy

I could expect her not to read the cables from Bulgaria, Paul told Yahoo on Wednesday. But absolutely its inconceivable she didnt read the cables coming from Benghazi.

Bulgaria had kinder words for Clinton.

Not that long time ago Secretary Clinton was on an official visit to Bulgaria, the embassy added, referring to a 2012 visit by the now-presumptive Democratic presidential front-runner. She stays engaged with us and is very well aware of the geopolitical realities of the region.

Pauls campaign declined to comment Friday on the Bulgarian embassys statement. He has long seized on Clintons tenure at the State Department and the Benghazi attack in particular as fodder for criticism and to tout his anti-interventionist, libertarian foreign policy ahead of a likely presidential run. Last year, for example, he came out swinging at a talk in Kentucky by pointing to the State Departments spending bill on embassy dcor.

Go here to see the original:
Rand Paul Just Lost the Bulgaria Primary

World News Videos | US News VideosCopy

Sen. Rand Paul got a rousing reception this afternoon at the Conservative Political Action Conference, lighting up a crowd that tends to have a libertarian streak to it, saying, In the coming weeks, I will propose the largest tax cut in American history.

Speaking with rolled-up sleeves, he promised to pitch a tax cut that will leave more money in the paychecks of every worker in America. My tax plan will keep the IRS out of your life and out the way of every job creator in America. My plan will also cut spending and balance the budget in just five years.

Paul, R-Ky., blasted Congress, now controlled by Republicans, calling it dysfunctional.

Often, bills are plopped on our desk with only a few hours to review, he said. No one, and I mean no one, is able to read what is in the bill. I propose something truly outrageous: Congress should read every bill.

The crowd was packed with supporters, and Paul was interrupted by chants of President Paul, President Paul. He perhaps received the loudest applause when talking about personal privacy and going after the woman he may face if he they both choose to run in 2016: Hillary Clinton.

Hillarys war in Libya is a perfect example, he told the CPAC crowd in National Harbor, Maryland. Hillarys war made us less safe," adding, "Libya's less stable."

He said to cheers: Its time for Hillary Clinton to permanently retire.

Calling the crowd lovers of liberty, he asked them to rise to the occasion.

You do have a right to privacy," he said. "Your rights are who you are, your rights are what you are, your rights are in your DNA -- and the government can, quite frankly, get over it.

The rest is here:
Rand Paul at CPAC Promises 'Largest Tax Cut in American History'