So let’s see…reasons I should take my idiot junior senator seriously from WIN THE MORNING.
Hey, even Mitt got 47% of the vote, right? Just ask his dad, President Ron Paul. Win that there morning, boys!
Open thread.
SASQ Open Thread
by Zandar| 40 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads, Bring On The Meteor, Somewhere a Village is Missing its Idiot, WIN THE MORNING
eric
There are plenty of reasons Rand Paul’s primary opponents should take him seriously. Other than that, not so much.
Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal mistermix
“He has a stronger organization than any other Republican.”
It’s an inch wide and a mile deep – his fanatics will show up anytime, anywhere, and they’re all Paul all the time, but there just aren’t that many of them. Paulism is one of the most sustained and intense recruiting efforts for a minor candidate in recent US political, and no matter how hard they try or how well-organized they are, in the end its the same few guys handing out pamphlets every Saturday at the farmers’ market.
Poopyman
I believe a new category is called for.
“Somewhere a village news source is missing its idiots.”
ShorterLonger Politico: “You should take Rand Paul seriously because we say so.”max
Hey, even Mitt got 47% of the vote, right? Just ask his dad, President Ron Paul. Win that there morning, boys!
Really, they don’t have Palin’s rack to stare at anymore, so it’s all Rubio this and Rand Paul Ryan that.
Score: Dems: have a candidate. And a backup candidate. Reps: don’t have a candidate. Don’t have a potential candidate. Have a potential clown show.
max
[‘Today is the first day of the rest of the 2016 campaign.’]
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
This is one of the reasons why I feel like important things like proper accountability for the disasters of the Iraq War, proper gun control, actually getting our fucking economy , etc. will never get done: The media fellates the GOP so goddamn much that even when the public goes against them, they’re insulated from any fucking accountability whatsoever, and get to maintain effective control over the entire fucking nation even after electoral consequences, because what they don’t actually run, they just run into the ground with obstructionism cheered on by sycophantic morons like Politico.
schrodinger's cat
Is Politico competing with NRO for the stupidest political commentary on the intertoobz?
Short Bus Bully
Here’s to hoping that Rand Paul makes a serious and deep run through the primaries in 2016. If only I could get so lucky…
Suffern ACE
I hope any Iowa posters don’t take what I have to say the wrong way. But I hate your state and it’s promotion of horse race non-sense by your “We have to Be First Cause That’s Why” emotional neediness such that every time someone goes there to give a speech, we need to discuss how important that speech is. Isn’t anyone there tired of attracting pols at this point?
maya
Has the perfect name for a major edifice in his honor: The Rand Paul Grand Ballroom, featuring the All Accordion Libertarian Marching Band.
Suffern ACE
@max:
The most important thing the Dems can do for themselves is not worry about 2016 as that will take care of itself. If they want to win in 2016, they need to insert governors in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida and Virginia next year.
Yutsano
@Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal mistermix: The Paultards are much more enamoured with Paul the Elder than Paul the Younger. Rand has shown betrayal to the One True Cause in the past, and his impurity makes the Cheeto-stained question him. So the Ron Paul folk aren’t going to automatically jump on board with Rand on name alone. He’ll have to do a wee bit more work for that.
Zifnab25
I’d just like to remind everyone that it was Al Gore who won the popular vote. :-p
The Moar You Know
Well under 27%.
Villago Delenda Est
@schrodinger’s cat:
The race to the bottom meme is seriously entrenched now.
Ben Franklin
There seems to be a buzz about him redefining the Republican persona. They’re covering his turd cupcake with a tasty frosting and tasting with licks, not bites. He got a lot of creds for his filibuster, which was a bust.
But I do find it interesting that only Republicans are speaking up about those subjects we fear, drones, Aaron Scwartz.
Issa, Cornyn and Paul; the unholy trinity…….
Violet
REASONS WHY YOU SHOULD NOT READ POLITICO.
Scott S.
@maya: I’m okay with that as long as it has padlockable doors and lots of flammable material in the basement and attic.
Schlemizel
You really need to read this take down of the Washington WhorePost and their POS editorial board
consortiumnews.com/2013/03/19/why-wposts-hiatt-should-be-fired/
I misposted this in the next thread so unless they honor my request to delete it there I apologize for the double posting
danielx
It’s a lot like Scientology that way.
Todd
@Short Bus Bully:
Seriously. If he crowds out Chris Christie, Susana Martinez and Brian Sandeval, we may get super lucky.
Team D has a decent bench. Dunno if Hillary is still up to it, but I think someone can step on up to the plate pretty handily sometime in the next 18 months.
Splitting Image
I think the bobbleheads think Rand Paul is auditioning for the part of Rudy Giuliani in the next election, but he’s more likely to be the next cycle’s Ron Paul.
Which is to say that when the bobbleheads say that they think Paul will do well, they are actually predicting that he will flame out faster than he actually will.
Your country has a lot of Dick Morrises.
kerFuFFler
I can’t hear Rand Paul’s name without thinking of that supporter of his who stomped on that lady’s head at his rally. Seriously, the hatefulness of so many of his supporters disgusts me—-though to be fair, one of them did tell the “stomper” to cut it out.
Ted & Hellen
A country that “elected” GWB is certainly capable of doing the same with Rand Paul.
cmorenc
Weird as it would be, should the catastophe of the GOP nominee winning the White House in 2016 come to pass, it would actually be far better it be Rand Paul than Maco Rubio. Paul would be stubborn enough in his glibertarianism to frustrate some (though alas, not all) of the authoritarian/social conservative agenda, and stubborn enough in his fiscal policies and neo-isolationism to frustrate a potential neocon revival toward reckless military adventures and expanded bloat at the Pentagon. Who knows, we might even get far more widespread quasi-legalization of weed out of a Paul Presidency. OTOH, Marco Rubio would more likely be successful (at least for awhile) at putting a seemingly kinder, gentler face on the same pro-one percenter policies Mitt Romney would have pursued, combined with a far more broadband adoption of the social conservative authoritarian agenda. Rubio also has a better chance of conning a larger segment of Latinos to at least temporarily support him and the GOP.
Don’t get me wrong: either one of them in the White House would result in a huge swath of disastrously regressive, damagingly stupid and shortsided ideology and policies being imposed on the nation. But if I had to name my choice of poisons, I’d vastly prefer Rand Paul to be President in 2016 under the hypothetical assumption that the GOP wins it. Let’s do our best to keep that from happening. But just saying, what if….
Flying Squirrel Girl
@maya: The Rand Grand Marching Band!
Chris
@cmorenc:
The military industrial complex is one of the senior partners in the Party. No fucking way in hell do they allow Paul’s brand of isolationism to take hold. It’s almost as unlikely as them growing an anti-Wall Street wing in the LaGuardia tradition.
burnspbesq
Has McConnell come out yet and publicly blamed Obama for UK losing to (bwahahahaha) Robert Morris?
Zifnab
@Todd:
Who? :-p I suspect Mitch Daniels will throw his hat in the ring. Marco Rubio has been running for President since around 2010. Rand Paul is almost certainly running, now that his father is out. And Jeb Bush is making a lot of noise.
What do Martinez or Sandeval bring to the table? Are they Evangelicals, like Santorum (or stealth Evangelicals like Bush), at least? It’s not like they even come from big states like California, Florida, or Texas. I’m just not seeing where they get their momentum from.
Maybe as a VP pick, one of them might make it.
cmorenc
@Chris:
The party’s “senior partners” and establishment is likely in for a rude re-awakening in the runup to 2016 if they think they can successfully contain and control the Tea Party monster they helped create. The Tea Partiers already reluctantly got on-board with Mitt in 2012 at the urging of the party establishment, and weren’t very impressed afterward with the benefits of doing so. If Prince Reibus and the establishment think they’re going to successfully deflect any tea party insurrection in the presidential or congressional candidate nomination process by imposing constraints on the process designed to grease the path for safely establishment candidates and block the path for nutjob extremists…they’re going to be disappointingly frustrated. The backing of deep-pocket financiers like Sheldon Adelson may be a requisite to mount competitive campaigns in many races, but as 2012 proved, it’s enormously short of sufficient to control either the process or the result.
Wendell
@Chris: I would have agreed with you, until the Sequester didn’t go away, and Paul Ryan’s new budget doubled down on tax cuts. In the current GOP, when push comes to shove, cutting taxes for the rich trumps every other priority, even the defence contractors payday. To be fair, I don’t think the GOP itself knew that tax cuts beat everything else up until the moment it actually had to choose, but that choice is made, and it is clear that the military -industrial complex is not the senior partner anymore. Their strength was tried and found wanting. Besides, complaining about American weakness is more important than doing something about it, so defence cuts are more valuable to the GOP than actually spending that money, i.e. since America’s military is always “weak and underfunded” regardless of the actual level of spending, there is no connection between Republican rhetoric and the money spent, it’s always inadequate. Since the point is to complain about military spending, while no amount of spending will be enough, they also don’t have any incentive to defend a specific level of spending.
TL;DR Tax cuts and talking points trump defence industry
Trollhattan
“Please proceed, senator.”
Yeah, run the living shit out of that vile spawn of estimable nitwit, Ron Paul. Make it so. Engage. To infinity, and beyond. So say we all.
The nation will just wove him.
I recall a scattering of “Jeb!” bumper stickers–in California for pity’s sake–soon after Dubya’s reelection. How’d that work out?
Chris
@cmorenc:
That would only be a problem if those insurgencies were ever going to be directed against the MIC. Not much chance of that. The Republican base loves it, which is one of the reasons it’s a senior partner (the other being money), and the Afghanistan and Iraq experiences haven’t put much of a dent in it – Ron Paul’s view of foreign policy is generally accepted as a “Blame America First” heresy on the right. I don’t see that changing.
Turgidson
Here’s Rand’s problem:
GOP primary debate question: “Do you think the Civil Rights Act is unconstitutional, Senator Paul?” “Yes, I do.”
…followed by thunderous applause and a bump in the primary polls. Maybe he even gets the nominataion, though I think that’s somewhere between not bloody likely and no fucking way. But for the sake of irresponsible-not-to-speculate, we move on to a later chapter where he’s the nominee:
“Senator Paul, you said the Civil Rights Act is unconstitutional back in December. Do you stand by that?” “uhh…I uh, well what I was saying is….uh, yes, I stand by that comment….” awkward silence, and Hillary gives a cagey smirk.
….and the entire nation outside the 27% goes “WTF?!?!” in unison and Hillary surges into the lead in a number of red states and ends up winning 400EVs or more. Hell, even one of the boring-as-paint-drying Dems who might run in her absence should be able to crush Rand just by having a pulse.
And listening to Rand-y boy explain his batshit insane crackpot economic ideas would be a hoot, unless Mittens and lyin Ryan give him comprehensive lessons in how to bullshit his way through those questions without saying anything substantive or remotely true. And to our great relief, even their slick lying routine wasn’t good enough to convince 50+1% of the people they weren’t granny-starving sociopaths.
Joel
I’ve been reading Sinclair Lewis’ “It Can’t Happen Here” and I have to say, it’s one of the great overlooked works of American satire. I mean, it’s not even considered one of Lewis’ best three books (Babbitt, Elmer Gantry, Main Street) but it’s pretty freakin’ sharp. And it captures right-wing populism from generations ago, which is basically identical to right-wing populism today, although the modern version is less overtly anti-semitic.
Apparently the mini-series “V” was supposed to be a TV version of the book, except NBC executives wanted the story dumbed down for Amurrican viewing audiences.
Chris
@Joel:
And then there was a reboot with a bunch of viewers going “ZOMG they’re invading Earth by promising free health care IT’S ABOUT OBAMA!”
Jebediah
@Schlemizel:
I just did… I was, and still am, flabbergasted that any administration, even one as corrupt as W’s, would countenance blatant treason. What else can you call DELIBERATELY outing a covert agent in order to score some political retribution? Not because I thought they had any moral core, but just because “the optics” would be so bad. But I guess having a prominent bucket of loose stool like Fred Hiatt covering for you helps quite a bit.
cckids
@Trollhattan:
Yep. I remember seeing quite a few bumper stickers reading “Bush & Sons, Inc. Formerly Known as the United States of America”. I’m sure if Jeb makes a serious run for it those will be dusted off & reprinted quickly.
David Koch
Paul can win the nomination.
But he’ll be crushed by Hillary, especially given his position to defund Israel. Every reactionary Likudnick like Sheldon Aldelson and the WaPo editorial board will pour tens of millions into savaging Paul.
David Koch
@Turgidson: I don’t know. He’s gonna pick up chunk of the left wing PUMA/Firebagger vote because of his Dr0nez! stunt.
kabiddle
Win what?