Tuesday, November 13, 2012

No Wonder Bill Kristol Sorta Endorsed Rand Paul

Politico reports:


In the wake of Barack Obama’s reelection win and ahead of a possible 2016 White House bid of his own, the Kentucky Republican plans to mix his hard-line tea party conservatism with more moderate policies that could woo younger voters and minorities largely absent from the GOP coalition...


Paul appears to want a more influential role in his party than simply the bomb-throwing back-bencher with a penchant for grabbing headlines. Unlike his father, retiring Texas Rep. Ron Paul, who toiled on the GOP fringes for years and battled with the party establishment, the younger Paul seems to have developed political savvy in dealing with GOP leaders...

The establishment has also brought Paul into the fold. Jesse Benton, a former political aide to both Pauls, is running Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s reelection campaign in 2014. McConnell and Rand Paul have become increasingly close political allies after the minority leader strongly backed Paul’s primary challenger in 2010...Paul said he would support McConnell’s run for a sixth term in 2014

11 comments:

  1. "The establishment has also brought Paul into the fold."

    Heh, somehow this doesn't surprise me. Rand is either painfully naive or something much worse. Not sure which.

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  2. Wow, this headline is pure hogwash. Complete propaganda. The kind of stuff Kristol engages in regularly.

    He never "sorta" endorsed Rand.

    Kristol says specifically that he doesn't like Rand influencing the GOP on foreign policy and that he'd take it in the opposite direction of which Kristol would like it to go. It's obvious from watching the clip that Kristol is speculating on Rand's viability in 2016 as a political analyst, not endorsing it. He specifically says it would be bad for his vision of the GOP. Watch it yourself:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gaY0GU_vWQ&feature=youtu.be

    Criticize Rand when he violate libertarian principles. This makes it look like you're just trying to smear him in anyway you can. Attack him for what he actually deserves to be attacked for.

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    Replies
    1. "Criticize Rand when he violate libertarian principles."

      He has.

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    2. Rand has REPEATEDLY violated the political principles his father upheld. His "hawkish" behavior is just one example.

      I would vote for Rand in 2016, and think he is better than any other potential candidate, and I'm as far anarchist as it gets. Wenzel is just pointing out how far "down the rabbit hole" this game is going.

      Meh. At the rate we are going the economy is going to be so shitty by 2016 Hitler will be the front runner.

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    3. ...except Rand is not a libertarian.

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    4. "Rand has REPEATEDLY violated the political principles his father upheld."

      Sigh...yet you would vote for him, eh? Yeah, I know..."lesser of the two evils" and all that nonsense. Voting for evil is still evil (gosh do I REALLY have to point this out....AGAIN?).

      Sorry, I don't vote for establishment hacks or traitors. Or fools for that matter.

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  3. Good idea of Rand to come up with "moderate" positions to lure in young voters and minorities to the GOP, since I can't think of anyone else associated with the GOP who had to beat back the droves of young people and other non GOP groups like minorities with his views and policies. Oh, wait....

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  4. Blog posts like this one always brings out Randroids of the other kind.

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  5. Blog posts like this bring out people who value honesty. None of what anyone said changes the fact that the title of this blog post is a complete lie. No need to correct misinformation I guess, or even defend it.

    I know Wenzel criticizes Rand for violating libertarian principles, as he should.

    Seems to me some libertarians care more about ego rubbing rhetoric and posturing than Rand's actual voting record, or actually winning elections and implementing policies that advance liberty. It's going to take a long time to convince enough people to become libertarians and change policy across the board. This goal shouldn't be abandoned but in the short term it's worth trying to ingrain libertarian principles gradually into both parties and change individual polices one at a time. It's simply a different strategy.

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    Replies
    1. Full agreement. Rand is solid and Ron still associates with him.

      Ron also endorsed lots of GOPers this year, who were not 100% Rothbardian. The liberty movement includes Miseians, Friedmanites, and Rothbardians. It is reality.

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  6. "The establishment has also brought Paul into the fold."

    Don't you mean "bought"?

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