Mediaboss Marketing

U.S. Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky gives the keynote speech to the delegates of the Texas GOP Convention in Fort Worth, Texas Friday June 6, 2014.(AP Photo/Rex C. Curry) AP

Two-thirds of registered voters in Kentucky oppose legislation that would ease a potential headache for Republican Sen. Rand Paul should he decide to seek reelection to his current seat while simultaneously mounting a White House bid, a poll out Tuesday found.

Earlier this year the Bluegrass State's senate majority leader sought to clarify an ambiguous law that Paul argued is unconstitutional if it indeed bars running for reelection to the Senate and for president concurrently. The purpose of his proposed legislation, Republican Sen. Damon Thayor said at the time, "will be to make clear that Rand Paul or anything in a smiliar situation in Kentucky can run for both offices in the same year."

Democrats running the state House ultimately blocked the bill, which is a move that seems largely popular among Kentucky voters: Only 15 percent said they believe Paul should be able to campaign for both seats, and a third say the freshman lawmaker shouldn't run for anything.

But among those who back Paul as a voice in the political arena, a slim margin - 24 to 22 percent - favors him in the Senate chamber then in the Oval Office. Some voters who spoke to the pollster, like 67-year-old Harvey Tincher, made the case that Paul's libertarian-guided foreign policy would preclude his qualifications for president.

"He's more of an isolationist, and we don't live in an isolated world," he said. Tincher added that "the fear of losing" shouldn't establish grounds for a candidate to seek multiple offices: "You've got to run for one or run for the other," he said. "If you're going to do it, go all the way."

Of course there are those in the minority who back Paul's potential double candidacy, including Mary Dean, a Kentucky Democrat.

"I do think he's a good senator and I think he'd make an excellent president, if they would change the law to allow that in the state of Kentucky," she said. "I think he's a personable candidate -- you can talk to him and he will answer you."

Paul, who's made no secret of his presidential ambitions, isn't the first potential White House candidate to seek two offices concurrently. Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisconsin, then-Sen. Joe Biden and former Sen. Joe Lieberman all sought reelection while running for vice president.

2014 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Original post:
Kentucky voters oppose Rand Paul running for two offices concurrently

U.S. foreign policy is a bipartisan fiasco. President George W. Bush gave the American people Iraq, the gift that keeps on giving. President Barack Obama is a slightly more reluctant warrior, but he is taking the country back into Iraq.

Hillary Clinton, the unannounced Democratic front-runner for 2016, supported her husbands misbegotten attempt at nation-building in Kosovo and led the drive for war in Libya, which is unraveling. Most of Clintons potential GOP opponents share Washingtons bomb, invade, and occupy consensus.

The only exception is Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul. He stands alone advocating a foreign policy which reflects the bitter, bloody lessons of recent years.

The Islamic State of Syria and the Levant is the latest result of Washingtons incessant and counterproductive meddling in the Middle East. Nowhere has U.S. policy been more disastrous.

But the usual suspects are calling for more intervention, more war. This time, they promise, everything will go well.

This is the Obama administrations position in Iraq and Syria. However, Hillary Clinton has begun maneuvering for 2016 by running to Obamas right.

She consistently promoted a militarist policy in the Balkans and Middle East. She took a hawkish position on virtually every issue within the Obama administration. While she mocked the presidents mantra of Dont do stupid stuff, she spent her career doing just that.

Instead of offering an alternative, leading Republicans are all in for war, more war, forever war. The dual donkeys of the apocalypse, Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham, naturally have been advocating that America intervene more in both Syria and Iraq.

Most plausible Republican candidates are running toward the interventionist sideline. They blame Obama for Iraq, even though it was George W. Bush who invaded that nation and failed to win Iraqi approval for a permanent U.S. garrison.

New Jerseys Gov. Chris Christie has ostentatiously joined the most hawkish GOP elements.

View post:
Can Rand Paul defeat neocon Hillary?

By Ashley Killough, CNN

updated 2:56 PM EDT, Wed September 3, 2014

Sen. Rand Paul will make his third trip to New Hampshire since May 2013.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- Sen. Rand Paul returns to New Hampshire next week, making his third visit to the first-in-the-nation primary state as he prepares for a possible presidential run in 2016.

The Kentucky Republican will appear at a Manchester event on September 11 that's hosted by Generation Opportunity, a libertarian-minded advocacy group for millennials.

Billed as the "First in the Nation Freedom Event," the event takes place at the World Sports Grill.

The next morning Paul plans to attend a New Hampshire GOP breakfast with Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a fellow first-term senator.

Paul was last in New Hampshire in April, in part to speak at a summit hosted by Americans for Prosperity, which is backed by the Koch brothers. He previously went there in May 2013 for an event with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.

The senator's upcoming trip was first reported by Politico.

Read the original post:
Rand Paul to head back to New Hampshire

A member of Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Tex.) family was in the news again Tuesday. Unfortunately for the senator, it was not his two adorable daughters, made famous when he read them a bedtime story during his anti-Obamacare filibusterlast fall. Instead, it was his father, Rafael.

The headline at BuzzFeed: "Ted Cruz's Dad: 'The Average Black Does Not' Understand The Minimum Wage Is Bad." The elder Cruz made the comments at a Republican meeting in Wisconsin last month. Nor was this the first time Rafael Cruz had said things that some (or most) Americans might find unappealing; he's reached the point of having his controversial remarks gathered into collections.

Happily for Ted Cruz, though, he's not the only one with a family member whomight not be an asset on the campaign trail. And with basically everything else about the 2016 field already on focus, we decided it was time to evaluate the extent to which each candidate's family might help or hinder his or her chances.

This couldn't be more subjective, so allow us to articulate the standards we applied. The first metric is how much of an asset or liability the member of the family is likely to be, on a scale of1 to 10. The second metric: The extent to which the candidate or his or her opponents are likely to employ the family member on the campaign trail. We tripled the asset/liability score (to give it more weight) and added in the likelihood, giving us our totals.

And here they are, from family as biggest liability to family as biggest asset...

Pro: His father, Ron Paul Asset: 4/10. Likelihood:10/10

Rand Paul owes his current position -- at least in some small measure -- to his father having gone before him. His initial campaign for the Senate, as we've mentioned before, leveraged Ron Paul's relationships and base of support. It's clear that Rand Paul will again hope to tap into that base for his presidential race. That base won't be quite as vehement and energized as it was for Ron Paul, it seems safe to assume, but it will still be a boost.

Con: His father, Ron Paul Liability: 9/10. Likelihood: 10/10

And then there's the flip side. Ron Paul's willingness to stand on the outer edge of political rhetoric is a key reason heearned that enthusiastic support, but it also means that he keeps saying things that his son might find embarrassing. For example, his proclamation recently that the government knew exactly what would happen on 9/11. Having himself run for president twice, Ron Paul is a pretty well-known name. That's not helpful for his son.

Pro: His daughters Asset: 5/10. Likelihood: 6/10

Read the original here:
Rand Paul has the biggest family problem of anyone in the 2016 field

A member of Sen. Ted Cruz's (R-Tex.) family was in the news again Tuesday. Unfortunately for the senator, it was not his two adorable daughters, made famous when he read them a bedtime story during his anti-Obamacare filibusterlast fall. Instead, it was his father, Rafael.

The headline at BuzzFeed: "Ted Cruz's Dad: 'The Average Black Does Not' Understand The Minimum Wage Is Bad." The elder Cruz made the comments at a Republican meeting in Wisconsin last month. Nor was this the first time Rafael Cruz had said things that some (or most) Americans might find unappealing; he's reached the point of having his controversial remarks gathered into collections.

Happily for Ted Cruz, though, he's not the only one with a family member whomight not be an asset on the campaign trail. And with basically everything else about the 2016 field already on focus, we decided it was time to evaluate the extent to which each candidate's family might help or hinder his or her chances.

This couldn't be more subjective, so allow us to articulate the standards we applied. The first metric is how much of an asset or liability the member of the family is likely to be, on a scale of1 to 10. The second metric: The extent to which the candidate or his or her opponents are likely to employ the family member on the campaign trail. We tripled the asset/liability score (to give it more weight) and added in the likelihood, giving us our totals.

And here they are, from family as biggest liability to family as biggest asset...

Pro: His father, Ron Paul Asset: 4/10. Likelihood:10/10

Rand Paul owes his current position -- at least in some small measure -- to his father having gone before him. His initial campaign for the Senate, as we've mentioned before, leveraged Ron Paul's relationships and base of support. It's clear that Rand Paul will again hope to tap into that base for his presidential race. That base won't be quite as vehement and energized as it was for Ron Paul, it seems safe to assume, but it will still be a boost.

Con: His father, Ron Paul Liability: 9/10. Likelihood: 10/10

And then there's the flip side. Ron Paul's willingness to stand on the outer edge of political rhetoric is a key reason heearned that enthusiastic support, but it also means that he keeps saying things that his son might find embarrassing. For example, his proclamation recently that the government knew exactly what would happen on 9/11. Having himself run for president twice, Ron Paul is a pretty well-known name. That's not helpful for his son.

Pro: His daughters Asset: 5/10. Likelihood: 6/10

Continued here:
The Fix: Rand Paul has the biggest family problem of anyone in the 2016 field