Game of Thrones is premiering on a Tuesday? RT @SenRandPaul: pic.twitter.com/6epeNwmIAZ
— Daniel Drezner (@dandrezner) April 3, 2015
Politico, needless to say, is very excited…
Sen. Rand Paul gave POLITICO a sneak peek at the slogan he will unveil at his presidential campaign announcement on Tuesday: “Defeat the Washington machine. Unleash the American dream.”…
Problem is, every one of this year’s many GOP candidates needs to tiptoe along the fine line between appeasing The Base during the primaries and not alienating the average low-info voter during the general election. But RandPaul has the extra burden that his personal base — the Paulistas who kept his old man’s flame alight through so many futile campaigns — is skewed at a sharp angle even from the “average” Talibangelical / Robber Baron / Neocon Warmonger primary-voting Republican. The NYTimes, ever mealy-mouthed, dutifully reports that “Ron Paul Is Expected to Play Little Role in Rand Paul’s Campaign“:
… The elder Mr. Paul, who is known for eagerly commenting on the crisis of the moment, has been much quieter lately. Last week, he was declining all interview requests.
Rand Paul probably cannot win the nomination without support from a large chunk of the 2.1 million voters who helped his father post strong showings, though never a win, in early primary states like New Hampshire. And few believe that Senator Paul, an ophthalmologist who had never been elected to anything, could have won a Senate seat in 2010 without such a famous last name…
Ron Paul, who never had much use for mainstream Republican support and never stood much of a chance at winning the nomination, can be unpredictable. He revels in making provocative statements — which could mean trouble for his son on the campaign trail.
“Ron Paul is a bomb waiting to go off,” said Brian Doherty, an author of a book on the elder Mr. Paul and a journalist for Reason, the libertarian publication. “It would be silly to do this dual campaign thing, and I think they know it. Ron is going to say things that Rand is not going to want to stand behind.”…
Heck, Rand Paul has said enough things that Rand is not going to want to stand behind, per the Washington Post:
…[A]s he prepares to make his formal announcement Tuesday, Paul is a candidate who has turned fuzzy, having trimmed his positions and rhetoric so much that it’s unclear what kind of Republican he will present himself as when he takes the stage.
There are at least two areas where Paul has moved more in line with the conservative Republican base, somewhat to the consternation of the purists in the libertarian movement: adopting a more muscular posture on defense and foreign policy, and courting the religious right.
Where he once pledged to sharply cut the Pentagon’s budget, for instance, Paul late last month proposed a $190 billion increase over the next two years — albeit one that would be paid for by cutting foreign aid and other government programs…
Paul also has been trying to find common cause with evangelical Christian voters, who have been skeptical of and even hostile toward the energized libertarian element of the GOP…
Paul’s statements playing down the threat of a nuclear Iran have put him at odds with conservative Republicans in the past. More recently, he angered noninterventionists when he joined 46 other Republican senators in signing a controversial letter, authored by Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), telling Iran’s leaders that any nuclear deal would not be binding past the end of the Obama presidency if it were not agreed to by Congress.
Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who won the South Carolina Republican primary in 2012, said that the message Paul will send with his event at Patriots Point is unmistakable: “He’s announcing in a place of military strength, and probably will be talking about our need to remain strong.”…
So Rand has ramped up the Christianism just as WalMart and NASCAR are running away from the public hatefulness of Indiana’s Jeebus-fondlers, and embraced Tom Cotton’s paleocon tantrum just as the new framework with Iran gets announced. But he’s got Newt Gingrich’s approval, and we all know how well Mr. Gingrich’s presidential electioneering went!
Right at this moment, pre-announcement, I don’t get the feeling Rand’s campaign is as purely a dogwhistling grift as Tailgunner Ted Cruz’s stands revealed. Paul the Younger, while equally in thrall to a borderline psychotic sire, is nowhere near as IQ-gifted as Cruz, nor has he ever had to hustle as hard as Reince Preibus’s favorite Cuban-Canadian-American. Maybe he thinks he can actually get to the Oval Office through a combination of caucus-packing and self-licensing?
In any case, this should be a genuine sideshow shite-shower…
I want YOUR questions for @RandPaul! Tweet using #Hannity & watch the interview Tuesday at 10p ET. pic.twitter.com/GmXWZwdRID
— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) April 6, 2015
Jim C.
Everywhere I look I see people commenting about how smart Ted Cruz is.
Nowhere I look have I ever seen anything to support this assertion.
Amir Khalid
Hmm. The New York Times is ordinarily a stickler for calling physicians and doctorate holders Dr. The star of The Big Bang Theory is Dr Mayim Bialik and the guitar player from Queen is Dr Brian May. So why not Dr Paul for Ron and Rand?
My hunch about Dr Rand is that he’s not going to be as far out on the fringe as Dr Ron. But he’s not going to stand out as a mainstream candidate, either. His libertarian tendency doesn’t have the numbers of the Tea Party, or the dollars of the Republican moneybags tendency. And the more he triangulates to avoid giving offence, the more likely he is to fade into the background.
Oh: is that a rapidly receding hairline I see in that banner image from Hannity’s tweet?
Amir Khalid
@Jim C.:
Well, Ted fucks up like a high-IQ person: arrogance and overconfidence seem to be his defining traits. He believes he is right and everyone else is wrong. He consistently misoverestimates his chances of succeeding with any political tactic, and refuses to change even after defeat.
*If misunderestimate is a cromulent word, so is this.
Bobby B.
Why do MSM “pundits” spend so much time discussing GOP candidates? “Your Honor, I’m so confident of my client’s guilt I can waste valuable court time rating the superhunks.”
Randy P
He looks like a Martin Short parody of a politician.
Hmm… are we sure he’s not?
Baud
I’m not ready. Need to stock up on duct tape.
David Koch
He’ll never get the nomination. There’s no way the party that worships Netanyahu would nominate him.
Baud
@Baud:
And get a shovel.
oldster
I hope Hannity asks him why he is silencing his dear old dad.
Come on, Rand! Unleash the power of Ron!
Don’t tell me that you are turning your back on your neo-Confederate, white-supremacist roots!
Bystander
If I had more confidence in HRC, I’d be more ready than I am now. But duct tape and shovel sound like a plan.
Mustang Bobby
I think the biggest problem Rand Paul has is that when he speaks he sounds like he’s stoned.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
BillinGlendaleCA
@David Koch: He’s walked back the cutting of aid to Israel, he’ll eliminate foreign aid to everyone else.
JPL
@BillinGlendaleCA: Maybe Hannity will ask if we don’t send foreign aid, who will?
Sherparick
There has always been a strong Christianist as well as Neo-Confederate edge in the Libertarianism of the Pauls. “Freedom” from Government is the freedom of the local bigshots to impose their views on on religion on their subordinates/serfs and discriminate against people who don’t look or worship like you do. Same kind of the Freedom that existed in 14th Century in other words.
rikyrah
Rand is in it for the grift…just like Dad.
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: Rand Paul’s biggest problem is that he is Rand Paul.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@Sherparick:
Or in the Germanies during the Thirty Years War.
MomSense
The thought of Rand Paul running for or being president is ridiculous, but then I’m a somewhat rational person. Who the hell knows what the Republican base will do in the primaries. As absurd as the Republican candidates for president were last time, they were not as horrific as those debate audiences. They were scary.
I’m going to have to go with Baud’s duct tape and shovel plan.
BillinGlendaleCA
Glendale with Downtown Los Angeles in the background.
MomSense
I noticed on Sunday afternoon that when the news headlines were read they would mention the US and Iran reaching a controversial agreement and then go straight to Bibi’s statement about it from Meet the Republicans but they didn’t actually come back with anything positive about the agreement.
Now I’m reading about the Dems who are going to join with the Repubs to pass veto proof legislation to override the agreement?? How is this possible? Are these people all insane?
JPL
@MomSense: During the primaries, the group of candidates will fight over their share of the evangelicals and tea party members. Hopefully, there will be blood because that would help Hillary.
It is scary though to imagine a world where Paul, or any republican is sitting in the oval office.
BillinGlendaleCA
@MomSense:
They’re talking about a vote to require the President to submit the agreement to Congress, not whether to override the agreement. Though depending on how that’s structured, the results could be the same.
Mustang Bobby
Since this is an open thread, how about a little theatre to start the day…
Coming to a stage near you.
MomSense
@BillinGlendaleCA:
These congressional fuckers spent months fear mongering about ISIS and couldn’t be bothered to take a vote on military action. The only reason they have to require the deal go to congress is so they can scuttle it.
Peale
@MomSense: yep. I think they might be. I’m fine with us losing our “leader of the free world status” and I’m pretty certain as a tight fisted, small minded people, Americans haven’t deserved the respect that we have felt entitled to, but it is still amazing to watch us stumble over ourselves as we exit the restaurant after having thrown soup on the other patrons, leaving a nickel tip, and interpreting the disdain people feel for us as ‘jealousy’.
MomSense
@MomSense:
The deal not going through Congress is perfect for the republicans because they can sound dire warnings continuously. If nothing bad happens after the deal they can keep their base in a holding pattern waiting for things to go bad. If anything bad happens they can do the see we told all y’all this was a bad deal. Not having this deal go to congress should be the republican sweet spot.
Amir Khalid
@MomSense:
I remember reading about that Republican debate in 2012 where the audience booed a gay soldier/Marine who had called in from Iraq with a question. The candidates were all cowed. None had the courage to speak out against the booing. A damning moment for the lot of them.
Kay
Still, I don’t think it helps Democrats that Republicans are completely dominating the media coverage as far as 2016. Every GOP voter who becomes engaged during the primary will be one more likely voter for the general. Every one of these candidates is generating a list of supporters.
I wish we had a couple of high profile liberal governors who were running, quite frankly. It seems like a gaping hole to me. Clinton probably agrees. She will be the singular focus of attention on the “D” side the minute she announces. It’s a big job to cover the entire side of the aisle like that.
I saw the NYC Mayor convened some meeting of liberal politicians to plan how to push that message- Sherrod Brown went. That’s a good idea.
ThresherK
Anyone have experience with the combination of bromelain, rutin and trypsin for knee pain?
I’ve read benign-to-good things, and the knee pain sufferer in our home wants to try everything possible after she was pronounced “not a good candidate for scoping”.
MomSense
@Peale:
It is a crazy spectacle watching this Republican driven downfall. I feel like we need to make all new vote counting lists. We have to add categories for the end times true believers, and the Adelson money bunch to the defense contractor bitches and the rest of the usual influence groups.
Baud
@Kay:
The one and only time I bothered to watch Lanny Davis on MSNBC, the message was to encourage others to run.
Baud
@Kay:
BTW, where you been?
OzarkHillbilly
@Mustang Bobby: You have been spying on my wife and me! And I only did that once!
BillinGlendaleCA
@MomSense: Or, like the authorization for military force do nothing.
MomSense
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Remember Syria? Another republican whiplash moment.
Patricia Kayden
No, Sean doesn’t want my questions for Paul. I’d ask him about his stance on the Civil Rights Act and his hiring of Confederate supporters. Plus, he has made ugly comments about the LGBT community. Thankfully, there is zero chance of him getting into the White House.
BillinGlendaleCA
@OzarkHillbilly: Spying on you and your wife? Is Mustang Bobby the NSA?
BillinGlendaleCA
There are persistent rumors that water may fall from the sky this afternoon here; I’m quite concerned.
Baud
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Mustang Bobby haz all ur dic pics.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Baud: A collection of zero. First rule of Mustang Bobby not getting my dic pics is don’t take dic pics.
ETA: Nobody deserves to have that much laughter this early in the morning.
OzarkHillbilly
@BillinGlendaleCA: He probably hacked them.
Kay
@Baud:
We went on vacation for spring break. We went to a state park in Kentucky first and then on to Florida. It was really nice at the park- very friendly people. It’s flat here so it’s a real change to see all that hilly country. However. We took a tour of the caves, and the park ranger told me and my 12 year old that he, the ranger, believed white nose syndrome (a disease that has killed a million North American bats) was a government conspiracy. Invented by the government. Not real. He believed this until he SAW a bat suffering with the disease. I felt put upon that he chose me to confess this. I was thinking “do I look like I would be open to this theory- why sidle up to me out of this whole tour group?”
raven
@Kay: It was probably your Che t-shirt.
Baud
@Kay:
That story is apropos for a Rand Paul thread.
You must have that unfortunate disease known as approachability.
Glad you’re back.
Amir Khalid
@Kay:
Did you happen to be carrying an old copy of The Lone Gunman?
Kay
@raven:
The politicians don’t want us to go in the caves when the disaster comes because they want to hide there themselves. I’m literal, so I’m immediately thinking “the caves are 6 hours from me. I was never going to the caves in a disaster- never occurred to me”
Is that a regular thing people think – “disaster! everyone head to the caves!” WTF? It’s news to me. Now I know of course so it’ll be more crowded.
BillinGlendaleCA
@Amir Khalid:
I never leave home without it.
germy shoemangler
@Kay: It’s sad when actual government employees embrace madness.
I was raised to believe park rangers were wise and wonderful.
What’s next: Smokey Bear raving about chemtrails?
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: As of right now, it is fairly certain that white nose syndrome came over from Europe where the fungus that causes it is quite common (European bats are immune to it). It first showed up in a New York tour cave so the theory is that someone visiting and touring European tour caves came here and did the same while wearing the same boots they wore over there.
It is as good a theory as any other. And a real pain in the arse for cavers ’cause now we have to sterilize all our gear and clothing after every trip to insure we don’t spread it.
Cervantes
@David Koch:
That statement is from years ago. Has he opined on the subject more recently? (I have no idea.)
Cervantes
@Mustang Bobby:
Yes, but one would think a web-browser, especially one called “Internet Explorer,” would recognize a URL (even in the search box) and act accordingly. That it helplessly throws up an error message instead is disgraceful.
Keith G
@Kay: @raven: I think that there is an aura of approachability present in many who are from rural NW Ohio. When traveling far and wide with my Mum, back in the day, I found it so interesting that she would meet folks who would then engage in conversations boarding on TMI.
I had noticed that in many others in my old stomping ground in Lucas, Wood, Fulton and Henry counties.
Patrick
Funny stuff coming from the guy who signed the anti-American letter to the leaders of Iran…
Cervantes
@Peale:
Not to worry, we’ll get the last word.
Er … last two words: Predator. Hellfire.
sm*t cl*de
That is to make up for all the times when he stood behind things which turned out to have been originally said by someone else.
Cervantes
@Amir Khalid:
Cows are productive.
MomSense
@Amir Khalid:
That incident wasn’t even the worst of those debates. I loved how our media let Republicans get away with saying they would do fewer debates next time (this time!) as if it were a scheduling matter. If it were reported honestly they would have reported that the debates were attended by crowds of psycho killers who lacked the personal responsibility and, in some cases, the physical fitness necessary to carry out their evil desires.
At least we will have Charlie Pierce to keep us somewhat sane although I do worry for him. We’ll have to send him care packages or pre-paid spa weekends so he can make it through this campaign season.
MomSense
@Kay:
You should have told him it was a little known side effect of the haarp rings.
boatboy_srq
@Jim C.: He completes his sentences. For the GOTea that’s brilliance. See: Palin, Sarah; Bachmann, Michele; Walker, Scott; et al.
boatboy_srq
@Kay: Interesting, no, how primary experiential evidence-gathering is true and accurate for these idjits, but not so much for anyone else that tells them about it? hundreds of observers, mountains of collected data (frequently involving capturing bats and testing them, no doubt), and it’s all BIG GUMMINT SCAREMONGERING until he runs into an infected creature? Geez.
raven
@Keith G: If you got a dog I’ll talk to you.
Kay
@OzarkHillbilly:
That’s funny, the “carried on shoes”, because they had us walk over what is a cattle mat that was soaked with cleaner of some kind when we left.
The park is in the middle of nowhere and it’s probably one of the few employers. The restaurant was staffed entirely by older women. They made a big fuss over my son because he’s tall and skinny and looks like he needs to be fed. They kept asking him if he was hungry :)
He’s easy. He ate pie and pancakes and everything else they insisted he needed. They love to feed people, which always seems generous to me.
Cermet
@Kay: Or he has discovered that saying this allows him to both undermine the right-wing nut jobs he often has to deal with relative to other topics (since no right winger cares about this topic concerning bats, they will listen to him now.) Maybe by saying he too thought that this bat illness was all made up by government scientist he gets on their good side but then, he saw that the illness does occur and is destroying bats. So, in conclusion, government scientist were really correct after all and should be believed in general… or maybe he is a nutcase, too. I’m over thinking this …
boatboy_srq
@Amir Khalid: Something tells me Senator Paul is getting the lukewarm shoulder because while he may have studied for his advanced education, his experience with the professional certifying body was a bit different:
Emphasis added.
SuperHrefna
@ThresherK: I haven’t tried that combo, but as a many-year vet of knee pain can I tell you that the best thing for me was physical therapy. PT got me to a place where I could do the right kind of activities for me, and there is nothing as good as exercise for knee pain. I’ve heard the same thing from other knee pain sufferers in my circle. Surgery is good as far as it goes but it doesn’t remove the pain entirely, for me tidying up my meniscus tear left me with arthritis. PT is the jam.( having said that I will add that the surgery to remove the neuroma was the second best thing for my knee, third best was lidocaine patches. Pills just made me dizzy and miserable)
jibeaux
Real bridge to the 20th century, that guy.
Woodrowfan
same here. I find swimming helps…
Ruckus
@boatboy_srq:
Maybe he was from MO.
The Show Me State.
SuperHrefna
@Woodrowfan: Swimming is bliss! Swimming and yoga are my exercises of choice.
OzarkHillbilly
@Kay: Yeah, the shoes are the one thing guaranteed to come into contact with biological contaminants in a tour cave. For cavers, everything does.
dnfree
I have received over the past few years several mailings from Rand Paul, on his senate letterhead, with scary statements about how Obama is going to take all my guns. The letters contained verifiable lies about the United Nations as well. I’m surprised not to read more in the national media about Rand’s tendency toward paranoia and fear-mongering. This article is from 2011.
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/10/united-nations-small-arms-treaty-rand-paul
“Paul was writing on behalf of the National Association for Gun Rights, a Second Amendment organization that considers the National Rifle Association too moderate. The two have a mutually beneficial relationship: NAGR endorsed Paul and donated $1,000 to his 2010 campaign through its political action committee; in September, Paul sent out another email blast, this time to shill for the organization’s “Frontline Defenders” newsletter, which serves as a fundraising tool for the NAGR. “There’s an all-out WAR going on for our gun rights,” the newsletter warned, reprising, once more, the specter of a “Small Arms Treaty” bent on mass confiscation.”
dnfree
According to this guy, the relationship between Rand Paul and the National Association for Gun Rights is still going on and has some elements of graft.
http://mikethegunguy.com/2014/05/12/hey-rand-time-to-stop-scamming-gun-owners/
srv
@Woodrowfan: I see Rand as more of guiding influence on the coming Constitutional Convention, like a Alexander Hamilton, than as a President.
Mike in NC
Only Newt would call Patriot’s Point a place of military strength. Most anybody else who’s been there would call it a sad collection of rusting relics that are slowly falling apart.
Woodrowfan
@srv: ew
J
@Amir Khalid: A revelatory experience for me: trapped by the rain in a cottage in the summer of ’76, I spent hours watching Republican convention in fascinated horror. Ford got the nomination, but the Reagan forces which would triumph the next time came very close. A then very elderly Senator Jacob Javits, in a wheelchair, addressed the convention and said ‘we must not forget those less fortunate than ourselves’ or words to that effect. They booed him.
Cervantes
@Mike in NC:
Whatever Gingrich said about the place is best ignored. Paul is there because Fort Sumter itself was unavailable.
Origuy
@Kay: Was that Carter Caves? I was there the last weekend of March. I was there for the US Orienteering Championships. We had a bat biologist at our dinner Saturday night, talking about White Nose and bats in general.
Chris
@Amir Khalid:
The problem with the Pauls’ “libertarian tendencies” is that they either fail to make them stand out, or they’re a net negative.
Being against the war on drugs and the war on terror (although the extent to which either Paul is either is vastly overstated) isn’t an asset in a Republican primary. It’s how they got their “blame America first” reputation.
And the other parts of their libertarianism – the pro-gun, anti-tax, anti-federal-government, Christianist neo-Confederate fascism – what’s special about that? It makes them just like every other candidate in the Republican field.
NotMax
Rand Paulsy – a disease of the body politic.
rk
Maybe he can declare himself the president just as he licenced himself as a certified ophthalmologist.
rk
@ThresherK:
I’ve not had experience with any of these for knee pain, but
the best thing for knee pain for me has been physical therapy. The theory is that for bad knees you have to strengthen the muscles which support the knee. I had a meniscus tear 5 months ago and have been doing strengthening exercises for 4 months. The recovery has been slow (I feel around 60% better). I had a cortisone shot to the knee, anti-inflammatories for a month and nothing since then. Medications take away the pain for a bit, but the pain comes back unless the underlying issue is treated. I don’t want to go for surgery. Physical therapy has helped a lot. Initially the physical therapy also caused a lot of pain, but if you persevere (give knees a rest for a few days and start back again) things do improve. I’m hoping that I get at least 80-90% recovery by the end of the year. It’s a slow process. But I prefer it over surgery. As a side effect of doing exercises for my left knee for meniscus tear was that my right knee which had mild osteoarthritis also started feeling better
Elizabelle
Andy Borowitz has this:
Rand Paul Joins Crowded Field of People Who Will Never Be President
pseudonymous in nc
FTFY, NYT.