Chapter 8: Rand Paul
The idiot son of the GOP's crazy uncle Ron Paul just announced his candidacy for President. here is the first reason he will never achieve that goal.
Because the very day he announced his quixotic candidacy, this was the headline over at C&L:
Conservative Group Launches Attack Ad On Rand Paul
Yes, the "conservatives," aka right-wing extremists, aka Republican primary voters hate Rand Paul.
As Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is set to announce his presidential campaign on Tuesday, a television ad tethers him to President Obama’s policy on Iran as part of a $1 million advertising buy painting him as “dangerous.”
The ad is a 30-second spot that will run on broadcast networks and on Fox News this week in the first four early primary states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, according to a person familiar with the buy, who provided the spot. It is unusual for an outside group to try to swamp a candidate’s announcement day, but Mr. Paul has been viewed with deep concern by foreign policy hawks for his non-interventionist views.
Although, if they really have a problem with Rand's non-interventionist views, they could just wait a week and he'll have completely new positions.
Seriously, though, Senator Paul has taken a principled stand on every issue, and that stand is "splunge!"
Which, if you remember your Monty Python, means "it's a great idea, but possibly not and I'm not being indecisive!"
MPS just ran a partial list of issues on which Paul has taken both sides, including:
- Defense Spending – he was against it before he was for increasing it.
- Privacy – He says that he wants to dismantle the entire NSA, but then he had to go on record and vote to reform it and instead, he punted.
- Drones – Gee, that 13-hour filibuster he references was back when he was principally against the use of drones, domestically and abroad. He is now in favor of drones domestically and abroad.
He can't even give anyone a straight answer as to his supposed libertarianism, recently declaring “I’m not a libertarian. I’m a libertarian Republican. I’m a constitutional conservative.”
Which is not going to help him with any constituency, but might cost him the votes of college freshmen who are halfway through Atlas Shrugged, who were really the only ones inclined to vote for him anyway.
Also, for someone who is supposedly ready to enter the bare-knuckled rough and tumble world of Presidential politics, Rand is remarkably thin-skinned. (see http://wwwirritant.blogspot.com/2013/11/rand-paul-is-whiny-little-crybaby.html)
He's only been a candidate for about two days now, and already stories like this have been popping up:
Rand Paul goes full mansplainer on “Today”: “That would be a better way to approach an interview”
It's another CNBC moment, one day into the campaign as the senator gets nasty with Savannah Guthrie
Geez, this was the Today Show, not Firing Line. Who could possibly get this flustered by a Today Show interview?Rand Paul Gets 'Testy' With Male AP Reporter On Abortion Rights
The Kentucky Republican on Wednesday got into a "testy" exchange about abortion bans with an Associated Press reporter, just hours after clashing with NBC's Savannah Guthrie, whom Paul accused of "editorializing" while trying to correct her interviewing technique.
Oh, right!
Also, Lindsey Graham hates him, apparently, because he's not a super-macho he-man war-monger like him:
“The best deal, I think, comes with a new president. Hillary Clinton would do better. I think everybody on our side, except maybe Rand Paul, could do better.”And I think it's pretty safe to say that if you are a Republican, and Senator tough guy prefers Hillary Clinton to you, just go ahead and assume that you will never ever ever be President.
