DCPolitics

Rand Paul In 2016?

ACTIVISTS ALREADY PROMOTING A POSSIBLE “FIRST IN THE SOUTH” CANDIDACY  It’s a natural evolution … the father starts the movement, the son picks up where he left off. Such is the thinking of those promoting the 2016 presidential aspirations of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) – son of U.S. Rep….

ACTIVISTS ALREADY PROMOTING A POSSIBLE “FIRST IN THE SOUTH” CANDIDACY 

It’s a natural evolution … the father starts the movement, the son picks up where he left off.

Such is the thinking of those promoting the 2016 presidential aspirations of U.S. Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) – son of U.S. Rep. Ron Paul – who is being touted in some circles as the electoral elixir Republicans need after losing their fifth popular vote in the last six presidential elections.

In fact with millions of votes yet to be counted in the 2012 election, Rand Paul is already being promoted as a leading candidate in the 2016 “First in the South” presidential primary – which until this election cycle was a “must win” for any Republican seeking their party’s presidential nomination.

“It’s time to roll up our sleeves and get to work,” South Carolina Republican operative Daniel Encarnacion wrote on his Facebook Page. “Our efforts will lay the groundwork for a Rand Paul (or other liberty candidate) presidential primary victory in South Carolina.”

“We will use the lessons learned in 2008 and 2012 and we will win South Carolina for liberty in 2016,” Encarnacion added.

What lessons is he talking about?

We’re not sure …

Encarnacion wasn’t the only one drawing that conclusion, though.

“Rand Paul 2016 may be our only hope,” a South Carolina consultant with ties to several Tea Party candidates told FITS.

Meanwhile a limited government advocate in Florida – which also hosts an early primary – predicted that after a “moment of self-reflection” the GOP would “see that it has to change” and look to Rand Paul as “their go-to guy.”

Last time we checked, Rand Paul jumped on board the Romney bandwagon – an endorsement which infuriated fiscal conservatives and social libertarians.

“No true libertarian, no true friend of liberty, and no true blue Tea Partier could possibly even consider, much less actually endorse or approve of, the Father of Obamacare, Big Government tax and spender, Republican Mitt Romney,” Libertarian Party officials said at the time.

We agree … Rand Paul should have taken a page out of his father’s book and refrained from endorsing anyone.  Or he could have done the courageous thing – like we did – and endorsed former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson.  Clearly catering to middling “Republican” politicians is not the answer.  Maybe Rand Paul is the best choice to carry on the movement begun by his father – whose presidential bid we enthusiastically endorsed – but at this point we remain thoroughly unconvinced.

Also … does it really matter?  Based on what we saw during the 2012 election cycle there is no way our nation’s political establishment will ever permit a genuine limited government candidate to emerge as an option in the presidential race – let alone a legitimate contender.

And that’s the real tragedy of our current state of affairs … that the only people offering the solutions necessary to turn things around aren’t even allowed to speak.

***

 

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69 comments

Frank Pytel November 7, 2012 at 11:42 am

Hell no. I’ll not vote for Mitten heavy
Have a Great Day!! Lord knows there won’t be too many of those left with Oshitforbrains in charge. :)

Frank Pytel

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Thebeachisback November 7, 2012 at 1:12 pm

Really, Really????

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Frank Pytel November 8, 2012 at 7:40 pm

yep

Have a Great Day!! Lord knows there won’t be too many of those left with Oshitforbrains in charge. :)

Frank Pytel

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GreenvilleLwyr November 7, 2012 at 11:42 am

Yes! Please run Rand Paul in 2016. If he is the GOP nominee, a Dem would almost be guaranteed to win the White House.

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MountainPenelope November 7, 2012 at 1:42 pm

I’m looking for a Hillary Clinton/Elizabeth Warren Ticket, or a Tammy Duckworth/Warren ticket, or any combination of the three.

What a sweet day that will be.

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Uncle Remus November 7, 2012 at 3:02 pm

Why not a Brea Bennett / Brea Olson combo ticket!

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? November 7, 2012 at 11:44 am

Rand Paul is a chump.

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The Colonel November 7, 2012 at 11:48 am

Please just kill me now. What is it with you and the Pauls Will?

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? November 7, 2012 at 11:52 am

Just for the record there is a significant ideological difference between the two Paul’s.

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Frank Pytel November 7, 2012 at 12:11 pm

@?

oooohHHHHHHH yyeyeeeaaaaahHHHHHH!!!!!

Have a Great Day!! Lord knows there won’t be too many of those left with Oshitforbrains in charge. :)

Frank Pytel

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The Colonel November 7, 2012 at 12:55 pm

?,

I know they’re night and day on many issues but Rand will be smeared with “Tea Party” slime, “Ron Paul’s son” slime, “heartless cold cruel conservative” slime, “really bad hair style” slime, “outrageous statements slime” and “he looks like he has the third flag pole stuck up his 4th point of contact” slime.

We need a fresh face, someone with no real record, someone who’s never had a real job – you know like the President.

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MountainPenelope November 7, 2012 at 1:47 pm

Colonel,

Just because Rushbo and Glenda and Joe Scarborough say it, doesn’t mean it’s true.

Google Obama Job History and you will find he WORKED his way through college and worked for several companies while saving for law school.

His first job was at an ice cream store in Hawaii when he was 16 years of age. He worked construction. He worked as a telemarketer. He worked in entry level management.

See? He has always worked, just like everyone else (except, perhaps Mittsie).

So, get off that tired ol’ “he’s never had a real job” story.

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Frank Pytel November 7, 2012 at 3:50 pm

Frack Obutthead in the face. Google me and I worked too. So fracking what. I scooped Ice Cream when I was 14 so that qualifies me to be da man??

Have a Great Day!! Lord knows there won’t be too many of those left with Oshitforbrains in charge. :)

Frank Pytel

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The Colonel November 7, 2012 at 8:09 pm

Penelope or cantalope whatever – next time you use the Summer’s Eve let the solution out a little sooner your brain is water logged. When we talk about real jobs, we’re talking about real jobs that responsible adults hold. Ice cream in high school really? Did you really offer that up? I guess he was scooping between tokes.

Obama has about a twenty year work history (that can be reconstructed – there are still unaccounted for periods he glosses over in Dreams (someone wrote for me that I’ll say were) of my father. During those twenty years he guest lectured, went to law school and misc BS jobs that were characterized this way:

To get to 20 years of experience, we still need eight years from Obama’s career prior to holding public office. Obama graduated from Columbia University in 1983. He worked for a year as a financial analyst; in his memoir he said he spent his days behind a computer terminal, “checking the Reuters machine that blinked bright emerald messages across the globe” and feeling like “a spy behind enemy lines.” He gave up that job to go into community organizing, work he felt was more important politically. He worked three years as a community organizer in Chicago before going to Harvard Law School. We won’t count the junior-level business experience as working “on behalf of families who are having a hard time,” but the community organizing work does seem to fit the bill. That brings his work experience to 15 years.

At Harvard, Obama began to receive national attention. He became the first black president of the Harvard Law Review and was recruited heavily by law firms around the country. (He met his future wife, Michelle Robinson, as a summer associate at the Chicago firm Sidley Austin.)

He graduated in 1991. He ran Illinois Project Vote, a voter registration drive, for much of 1992, and then accepted a position with the Chicago firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland. The firm specialized in political and civil rights work and neighborhood economic development work. He also began teaching at the University of Chicago in 1993. He was elected to the Illinois state Senate in 1996 and took office in 1997, so his full-time work after law school comprises five years. That gets us to 20 years.

No managerial jobs, no businesses run – no at risk leadership demonstrated.

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Ken E. November 7, 2012 at 9:03 pm

No managerial jobs, no businesses run – no at risk leadership demonstrated.

I believe he was president most of the last 4 years? Talk about at risk leadership. Either way, based on the history of elected presidents, being a successful businessman is in no way a driver of success at the presidency.

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The Colonel November 7, 2012 at 11:05 pm

Ken, we were discussing the qualifications for a new Republican candidate and I simply stated he shouldn’t have a meaningful record of any kind, sort of like the President in oh eight.

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Ken E. November 7, 2012 at 11:22 pm

But specifically you thought he should have managerial experience or experience running a business. My point is that experience has not been shown to produce successful presidents. In fact, it has shown the opposite.

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The Colonel November 8, 2012 at 7:52 am

Lets examine your assertion:

On a list of “effective presidents” the following Presidents would surely appear:

Theodore Roosevelt
Experience:
Police Commissioner
Asst. Sec of Navy
Governor of New York
Colonel US Volunteers

Andrew Jackson
Experience:
Major General
Hugely successful plantation owner
Prosecutor
Judge

FDR
Experience:
Governor of New York
Asst Sec Navy during WWI
Senator

Washington
Experience:
Surveyor
Lieutenant General – commander in chief
Successful Farmer

Polk
Experience:
20 years in congress – speaker of the house
Governor

Reagan
Experience:
Successful Actor
Pres. Screen Actors Guild
2 term Governor of CA

Occasionally teaching a college class, working as a minion in a law firm and community rabble rousing doesn’t compare.

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The Colonel November 8, 2012 at 7:55 am

I listed “effective presidents” here – not presidents I personnaly approved of necessarily here for the sake of the argument. The Roosevelts were both progressive socialist and we would have probably been better off without them.

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sweepin November 7, 2012 at 11:49 am

Damn! Y’all still drunk or doing cocaine? Yesterday’s debacle wasn’t enough?

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Jan November 7, 2012 at 12:01 pm

Yes, the logical response to this election is to double down on the Tea Party. These guys are so smart.

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? November 7, 2012 at 12:05 pm

Mitt was “tea party”? lol

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vicupstate November 7, 2012 at 12:25 pm

The 2012 GOP primary Mitt was tea party. Who the hell knows what the REAL Mitt is.

Any discussion of other candidates is a waste of time. The GOP is a club, not a political party. The nomination goes to whomever has ‘paid the most dues’. In other words, the runner-up from the last nomination. In 1980 it was Reagan, in 1988 it was Bush 41, in 1996 it was Dole, in 2000 it was Bush 43(Kemp didn’t run and W was a surrogate for dad), in 2008 it was McCain, in 2012 it was Romney.

That means Rick Santorum in 2016.

And that means Hillary wins in 2016 !!!

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? November 7, 2012 at 2:19 pm

Let us take a sample of what platform points consist of *tea party* shall we? Then let us see how many of them Mitt ascribes to without a record of flip flopping and decide.

I will bet we can not even get a consensus list of platform points for a *tea party* candidate.

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Pappy O'Daniel November 7, 2012 at 12:43 pm

Didn’t Rand lend his support to Toad Akin when everyone else jumped ship? Loons can’t win (see Gingrich). The sooner you get to this the better. Voters reject crazy people, so quit nominating idiots who can’t win national elections. Stick with Chris Christie, Marc Rubio or even Jon Huntman-thats the path to the WH in 2016.

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The Colonel November 7, 2012 at 12:59 pm

If Huntsman is the path, I think I’ll avoid the journey altogether…

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Ken E. November 7, 2012 at 1:04 pm

Oh, yeah. He’s so liberal. Why, because he doesn’t reject scientific findings?

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The Colonel November 8, 2012 at 7:58 am

No – mostly because he lacks the courage of his convictions:

I think we’re going to have problems politically until we get some sort of third party movement or some voice out there that can put forth new ideas. Someone’s going to step up at some point and say we’ve had enough of this. The real issues are not being addressed and it’s time that we put forward an alternative vision, a bold thinking. We might not win, but we can certainly influence the debate. Jon Huntsman

If he really believed in conservatism he’d work to change the party or admit he’s really a liberal not exibihit sour grapes when his moderateness was soundly rejected by his party.

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I am the horseman called war November 7, 2012 at 12:57 pm

Most of us are still too bleary eyed from last night’s results to give any thought to 2016. As a long time politico lets all take a breath, step back and get through the holidays before we start looking 2014 much less 2016.

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jeffy01 November 7, 2012 at 1:03 pm

oh yeah…thats a great idea to show the country that the party in moving back to the middle to represent more than a few angry white dudes. genius
Tea baggers will kill the repubs forever

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teapartyfool November 7, 2012 at 1:05 pm

Hahahaha yes you “liberty” tea party idiots and your website Fits, please keep thinking this! You morons are what cost the Rs the election this time! What a bunch of knuckle draggers.

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Thebeachisback November 7, 2012 at 1:14 pm

Too true!

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The Colonel November 7, 2012 at 1:27 pm

Wait – Fits is a TEAper now?

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MountainPenelope November 7, 2012 at 1:50 pm

Colonel, quit sipping juleps and keep up. Fits has a PAC called Liber-TEA or something like that.

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? November 7, 2012 at 2:16 pm

I would be very surprised if you could get the same definition for *tea party* from 2 of 10 people in a room comprised of 2 GOPers, 2 Dems, 2 Indepedents, 2 self inden2ified tea partiers, and 2 political atheists.

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Jan November 7, 2012 at 5:09 pm

So you are saying the Tea Party is the same as Occupy Wall Street.

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? November 7, 2012 at 5:18 pm

You and I agree once again Jan. We better stop.

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The Colonel November 7, 2012 at 8:41 pm

Penelope – FITS would call his organization “Muhammed Mosque # 50” if he thought it would bring in the Benjamins (Franklin, not Lil’Stevie). He’s as big a TEAper as T is a liberal.

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Raspy November 7, 2012 at 1:34 pm

Rand Paul has serious credibility issues. I think his daddy was the last hope we had for getting our country and its financial issues back on track. The Republican hierarchy pushed Ron on a back burner at every opportunity and gave us a flip-flopping RINO that nobody could really trust. The RINO was so terrible he lost out to an economic and foreign policy train wreck like Obama.

Rand sold out to the globalist neocons and the Romneyites. Sorry but I cannot muster much enthusiasm for Rand, who also is one of the panderers to the religious zealots who have destroyed much of the credibility of the Republican Party.

There is currently a good article on infowars dot com about Rand and his credibility issues.

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MountainPenelope November 7, 2012 at 1:40 pm

Rancid has no more chance than his doofus daddy.

But you would think that now that he’s drawing down a half-million a year courtesy of the taxpayers, he’d buy a better rug.

God, he looks like the love child of his daddy and Donald Trump!

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Lorri November 7, 2012 at 4:39 pm

@ Mount a penis & elope

Name calling and mocking a persons physical appearance seems to be your strong point. I’ll bet it makes you feel really good about yourself.

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MountainPenelope November 8, 2012 at 12:58 am

I feel very good about myself Lorri. Sorry you can’t say the same, but I understand why.

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Shaniqua123 November 7, 2012 at 2:44 pm

Y’all idiots on this comment chain sound like every other stupid American that I meet who continue to elect people like Bush, Clinton, Bush and Obama. This people aren’t any different. They are all pathological liars who say whatever people want to hear in order to get elected. And you people on this chain buy it every time – hook, line and sinker….the Pauls are the only representatives who don’t pander to the idiot masses like you people…period

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Andy November 7, 2012 at 2:54 pm

Idiots make up the Republican party. Who else would Republicans pander to?

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TontoBubbaGoldstein November 7, 2012 at 4:47 pm

@ Shaniqua123

Word!!

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toyota kawaski November 7, 2012 at 3:43 pm

at least birds would have a place to nest in his dome

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SCBlues November 7, 2012 at 4:38 pm

FITS –

You have a great track record of picking losers . . .

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Sailor November 8, 2012 at 6:26 pm

Almost as good as Big T(urd)!

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TontoBubbaGoldstein November 7, 2012 at 4:44 pm

Ok…I’m gonna make some naked assertions here, cuz I’m in a hurry…..

*Deep breath ala Ace Ventura*

Rand Paul had to “make nice” to the GOP establishment to have any shot of running and winning in 2016.

The apple DID NOT fall very far from the tree….and the younger folks in thw GOP trend more libertarian than their elders, many who (to be blunt), won’t still be around to vote in 2016.

A third party is not the way to go…and will not come close to being successful at a national level in the foreseeable future. I say this as someone who has voted Libertarian in every presidential election since (and including) 1984, ‘cept for 2008, when I did not vote at all.

The economy is going to be worse in 2016 which will hurt the Democrats chances. Same would be true for the economy if Romney had been elected. Anyone paying attwntion knows this. The incedible national debt incurred by decades of the bipartisan welfare/warfare state will be paid for … through inflation, taxation or something much worse.

RAND PAUL 2016!!

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tomstickler November 7, 2012 at 5:01 pm

Would he pull a Ryan and run for reelection in his junior Senate seat in Kentucky at the same time?

Why has no one commented that DeMint went 0 for 5 on his endorsements?

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Jan November 7, 2012 at 5:15 pm

I will, Jim DeMint was the biggest loser in the country last night. He wasted all of his political contributions. Perhaps the billionairs that gave billions to Carl Rove are bigger losers. I’ll bet they would love to see their bank acounts several hundred million higher today.

Do you think a man who takes hundreds of millions of dollars from very powerful men, spends it all, and has nothing nothing to show for it really safe?

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sweepin November 7, 2012 at 5:51 pm

DeMint was a big loser and so were the Koch Bros. and their assorted allies.

The biggest loser was Karl Rove. Those billionaires didn’t get where they are by throwing good money after bad. I hope Rove was smart enough to bank big bucks for his efforts because he will never again have that much money at his disposal.

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BigT November 7, 2012 at 5:56 pm

You forgot to Slam the 24 million w/o a job and no hope…what about all the single-mothers who cannot afford food…???

And I be you LYAO at all the food stamp familes we get to add to Obama’s millions….

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TontoBubbaGoldstein November 7, 2012 at 7:24 pm

No. The biggest losers were the American people, consumers and taxpayers who will wind up paying for everything). Made no difference who won.

Also, y’all don’t worry too much about the Kochs, the Roves, the Adelsons, the Buffets and the Soroses of the world. They gonna be alright!

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dwb619 November 7, 2012 at 7:36 pm

big idio”T”,
When ya mama come home, get her to give ya a hand job.
Should relax ya enough to get some sleep, that or get off the METH!
YOU BETCHA!
YOU BETCHA!

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Jan November 8, 2012 at 3:10 pm

By BigT November 7, 2012 at 5:56 pm

“You forgot to Slam the 24 million w/o a job and no hope…what about all the single-mothers who cannot afford food…???”

No one needed to. Mitt said they were unimportant and you said they were worthless takers who needed to find a job or starve.

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fishy smelling coot November 7, 2012 at 5:13 pm

Rand is the new Neocon poster boy because he had to play ball to get ahead, as anyone in the game has to do. Wear your knee pads and bring a towel so you can wipe your chin. Who gives a fuck what happens in 2016 anyway, by then we will most likely have a third Obama term, followed by a fourth as the Constitution and it’s Amendments matter little when it comes to matters of policy and the “public good.”

To all the liberal trolls who have made this website almost unreadable due to their retarded hate inspired name calling and misguided propaganda regurgitation: Give yourself a good finger or two and fuck yourself. You deserve it for consenting to the rape of this nation and it’s citizenry, as well as the continued enslavement of the disenfranchised “victims” of Western Civilization.

Oh, and no, im not mad bro. I’m having my kicks before the shithouse goes up in flames to quote Jimbo.

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sweepin November 7, 2012 at 5:53 pm

Anybody ever call you a pussy? Or is that your breath we’re smelling?

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Old Bike Dude November 7, 2012 at 9:49 pm

If the little curly haired sweetheart isn’t a poopchute cosmonaut ill eat my hat. Three dollar bill I say.

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TontoBubbaGoldstein November 7, 2012 at 10:29 pm

OBD,

I don’t think he is and it pains me to admit it….but, yes, he sets off my GAYDAR, also.

Not as much as Miss Lindsey, though…

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MountainPenelope November 8, 2012 at 1:01 am

Loved it when Colbert called out Lindsey last night.

And, no, I don’t care one way or another about his sexual orientation. In fact, I would admire him more if he just admitted it, not a whole lot, but a bit more.

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Raspy November 8, 2012 at 4:37 am

What did Colbert say? I didn’t see it. Agree about having “more” respect if Lindsey just admitted it. It might be the difference in .0005 microns of respect and .0010 microns of respect, but it would be more.

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Brett Stubbs November 8, 2012 at 9:04 am

I find it rather hypocritical that anyone in the Liberty movement would NOT endorse the HELL out of Rand Paul because he verbally endorsed Mitt Romney!!! It’s ridiculous. WHO has done more in the Senate (or House for that matter – outside of his dad) for Liberty? NO ONE. NOT EVEN CLOSE. Mike Lee is the closest comparison as a libertarian Senator, and he still left Rand voting alone on some measures. It’s not backstabbing. It was planned. Look, in politics, you have to play along sometimes. Now MOST assholes play along when it comes to real substantiative change, like on the Senate floor, or during the voting/authoring/co-sponsoring of a bill. Rand just SAID something. An endorsement to make his party happy. That’s not a traitor to Liberty. Are you kidding me? He’s done more for liberty in his pinky than you will do your entire life. You are all tinfoil idiots if you think otherwise, and unworthy/unfit to call yourselves part of the Liberty R3volution.

RAND PAUL 2016

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? November 8, 2012 at 9:49 am

He is the libertarian version of Mitt Romney and being used now as an establishment tool.

You’ll get no where with him.

Hate to break it to ya, but politics is not the answer nor faith in a soundly corrupt gov’t(s).

As evidenced even by the GOP primary process you can’t hope to take control of a corrupt organization by playing by its own maleable(and corrupt) rules.

That’s aside from all the philosophical issues surrounding the cult of Rand. Carry on though.

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Old Bike Dude November 8, 2012 at 9:57 pm

As I think back on all the sweeping legislation authored by and championed to passage by Ron Paul I’m thoroughly baffled as to why he s not on Mt Rushmore, thought no one ever.

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chris November 8, 2012 at 11:34 pm

Omg so many sheeple here. O i forgot morons.

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John Adams November 9, 2012 at 12:13 am

No! He’s NOT going 2 b blessed by God!

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Linda L Hill August 14, 2013 at 6:04 pm

Rand Paul speaks truth and has wisdom far beyond his years. I would vote to make him President; I wish he was our President now, instead of this Fraud.

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Linda L Hill August 14, 2013 at 6:04 pm

Rand Paul speaks truth and has wisdom far beyond his years. I would vote to make him President; I wish he was our President now, instead of this Fraud.

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