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As presidential candidates have pushed the limits on the platforms, there have been more than a few missteps.

By NICK CORASANITI

Why serve your friends with ordinary glassware when you could be enraging them by bringing politics to the party?

By ANNA NORTH

Voters this season face a bewildering array of candidate-themed Christmas sweaters. This quiz will help you pick the right one.

By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON

In honor of Festivus, a creation of the Seinfeld TV sitcom, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky partook of that holidays traditional airing of grievances, aiming them at other presidential candidates.

By ALAN RAPPEPORT

With the 2015 legislative session in the books, C-Span has gone to the tape to see which White House contenders had remained productive, and which missed roll-call votes.

By ALAN RAPPEPORT

Rubio supporters sent a mailing to Iowa Republicans this week criticizing Mr. Cruz for not condemning Edward J. Snowden.

By FIRST DRAFT

Star Wars mania even takes hold at the White House, and among leading politicians.

By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

They may be stuck in rope lines rather than movie-ticket lines, but some 2016 presidential candidates certainly have Star Wars on the mind as the latest installment of the franchise is released in the United States.

By NICK CORASANITI

The Timess political editor, Carolyn Ryan, and the national political correspondent Jonathan Martin chat about the Republican field after the partys final debate of 2015.

By SUSAN LEHMAN

The Republican face-off on Tuesday focused on national security, making it clear that the issues of terrorism and immigration had become linked both on the trail and in the polls, a development that seems to favor the current crop of front-runners.

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

How his foreign policy monologue at the debate helps explain his unusual appeal.

By ROSS DOUTHAT

The Republican debate covered mostly national security concerns and was more substantive than previous forums. But there were still plenty of heated moments from the candidates and attempts to get under one anothers skin.

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

Political observers were quick to assess the last Republican presidential debate of 2015, but there was no agreement on a clear victor.

By ALAN RAPPEPORT

On Tuesday night, the other Republican candidates put a few dings in The Donald.

By ELIZABETH WILLIAMSON

The candidates united to attack Mr. Trumps plan to bar Muslims, and Mr. Rubio faced tough questions about his conservative credentials and his judgment.

By PATRICK HEALY and JONATHAN MARTIN

See what the candidates are saying about gun control, immigration and more, and how their positions align with the American people.

By WILSON ANDREWS and THOMAS KAPLAN

Donald J. Trumps support among Republicans has cracked the 40 percent threshold, according to a national poll released on Monday that shows the billionaire real estate mogul pulling away from his rivals after his proposal to bar Muslim immigrants from entering the United States.

By ALAN RAPPEPORT and TRIP GABRIEL

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky will retain his place on the main stage when the Republican presidential candidates debate on Tuesday, CNN said on Sunday.

By THOMAS KAPLAN

Aides to Senator Rand Paul indicated that they would fight any decision by CNN to move him to the so-called undercard stage for the Republican debate on Tuesday in Las Vegas.

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

Seemingly taking a cue from Donald J. Trump, the Republican field is cursing in public at a rate unheard of in modern presidential politics.

By MATT FLEGENHEIMER and MAGGIE HABERMAN

See what the candidates are saying about gun control, immigration and more, and how their positions align with the American people.

By WILSON ANDREWS and THOMAS KAPLAN

We checked the accuracy of candidates remarks in the Republican debate in Milwaukee.

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

For nearly three hours on Wednesday, the Republican presidential candidates sparred over policy, political tactics and, occasionally, physical appearance.

By MATT FLEGENHEIMER and ASHLEY PARKER

The rambunctious presidential debate Thursday night left some Republican candidates shining and others stung. Here are some highlights and low lights from the prime-time showdown.

By MICHAEL BARBARO and NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

Polls get most of the attention, but at this early stage, endorsements and fund-raising are more important.

A look at the line-up for Thursday nights debate in Cleveland, the first of the Republican primary contest, which will be broadcast by Fox News, and how each candidate could gain with a strong performance.

By MAGGIE HABERMAN

Forget about waiting in line to get your baby kissed or your lawn sign autographed. Here is a gallery of campaign-trail selfies with presidential hopefuls.

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

Heres a look at how some of the 2016 presidential candidates and hopefuls have been telling the tales of their fathers on the campaign trail.

By NICK CORASANITI

The Republican party has 16 major presidential candidates this cycle three times the number of Democrats and more than any other field in recent history.

By ALICIA PARLAPIANO

How the teams behind some likely and announced 2016 candidates are connected to previous campaigns, administrations and organizations.

By GREGOR AISCH and KAREN YOURISH

A selection of clips from presidential hopefuls jockeying to be champions of the middle class without actually using the term, which has now become a precarious word in the American psyche.

See what Americans think about Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Republican candidates and issues like the health care law and same-sex marriage.

Highlights as the 2016 presidential hopefuls make their way down a familiar path, perhaps to yes. There are four loosely defined stages.

Quynhanh Do

Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, spoke about immigration and the Latino vote at the Iowa Republicans Lincoln Day Dinner in Cedar Rapids in May 2013.

Axel Gerdau

Senator Rand Paul has promised to change the Republican party, but he faces challenges bridging libertarian and conservative orthodoxy on four issues.

Quynhanh Do

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky announced his 2016 presidential run at an event in Louisville, Ky.

Reuters

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky declared his candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday in Louisville. Here is a look at what he will need to do if he hopes to win.

By JEREMY W. PETERS

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky declared his candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday in Louisville. Here is a look at what he will need to do if he hopes to win.

By JEREMY W. PETERS

Rand Paul spoke in Lawrenceburg, Ky. in April 2010, during his successful Senate campaign.

Where Republican presidential contenders have traveled to make their pitches to groups of high-level donors.

He was supposed to be the outsider candidate whom voters embraced. Too bad they had lots of other options.

By EMMA ROLLER

Donald J. Trump repeated a debunked claim that vaccines are linked with autism, and health experts worried it might discourage parents from getting them.

By SABRINA TAVERNISE and CATHERINE SAINT LOUIS

Jesse Benton, who was the campaign manager for Ron Paul, is accused of paying a former Iowa state lawmaker for his support in the caucuses.

By ALAN RAPPEPORT

The Paul plan promises a big tax cut for everyone, but analyses show it would be a big tax cut for high earners and a wash for for everyone else.

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

The campaigns of Ted Cruz, Rick Santorum and Rand Paul received donations from the leader of the white supremacist group tied to Dylann Roof, the suspect of the church shooting in Charleston, S.C.

By ERIC LICHTBLAU

A closer look at the presidential candidates new proposal for what he is calling a business-activity tax.

By JOSH BARRO

The partys 2016 field raises the question: How can you be forward-looking if youre backward-acting?

By FRANK BRUNI

Backers of Ron Paul, who had been reluctant to support his son Rand, are warming up to Rand Pauls positions on the N.S.A. and on foreign intervention.

By JEREMY W. PETERS

Mr. Paul took to the Senate floor on Sunday evening to fulfill his promise to use his power as a single senator to try to assure that a data collection program would expire at midnight.

By JONATHAN WEISMAN

The governments authority to sweep up bulk phone data in the hunt for terrorists expired temporarily at 12:01 a.m. Monday, but the Senate indicated that legislation to curtail the program is likely to pass this week.

By JENNIFER STEINHAUER and JONATHAN WEISMAN

A marathon speech on the Senate floor sounded an alarm about civil liberties abuses.

By THE EDITORIAL BOARD

Senator Rand Paul, a Republican presidential candidate, has become an unambiguous opponent of renewing the governments power to collect data on citizens private communications.

By JEREMY W. PETERS

Continued here:
Rand Paul - The New York Times

Rand Paul (born January 7, 1963) is a candidate for the Republican nomination for president in 2016, and currently serves as a conservative United States Senator from Kentucky. Rand is pro-life and spoke at the March for Life rally in 2013. He is also critical of federal spending and is emerging as a movement conservative. Unlike many politicians of both major political parties, Rand Paul supports sharply reducing the size of government. He has criticized pro-war politicians and won the CPAC straw poll in 2013 and 2014.

In 2010, he won the Republican primary after defeating moderate candidate Trey Grayson by a landslide. Despite intense opposition by liberals and the lamestream media, Rand Paul won by an overwhelming margin first against a RINO Republican favored by the establishment, and then against Democrat Jack Conway in the 2010 Midterm Election. This was the seat formerly held by Jim Bunning, one of the greatest conservative sports stars, who endorsed Paul in the Republican primary.

Rand Paul's father is Ron Paul. Rand Paul was not named after the objectivist and libertarian author Ayn Rand.[1]

On March 2013, Rand led a filibuster of Obama's CIA nomination John Brennan due to the fact that the administration was unwilling to forbid ordering drone targeting of Americans on American territories, in violation of the 5th Amendment. A month of letter writings without a reply and March 6th testimony from Attorney General Eric Holder prompted the filibuster. A number of GOP Senators joined him including Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio, Mike Lee, among others and one Democrat Senator, Ron Wyden. A vote on a non-binding statement clarifying that Obama shall not kill Americans with drone warfare was denied by Democrats in the Senate.

Julian Assange is a admirer of Rand Paul.[2]

On April 7, 2015, Paul announced that he would seek the Republican nomination in the 2016 presidential election.[3][4]

Rand Paul is pro-life. He opposes foreign interventionalism and perpetual war. Paul is against American intervention in the Syrian Civil War[5] and was opposed to the Operation Iraqi Freedom or the Patriot Act. He opposes gun control[6] and same-sex marriage.[7] Paul supports the Pathway to introduce illegal aliens to citizenship.[8] He opposes prison sentences for minor drug offenders.[9] Paul sued the Obama administration because it spied Americans by the NSA.[10] Paul is an opponent of the United States embargo against Cuba.[11]

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Rand Paul - Conservapedia

The Kentucky Republican is languishing in the low single digits in the polls as Trump and Cruz lead the pack in the GOP primary, but Paul said the prospect of a Trump presidency concerns him.

"I do worry a little bit more about Donald Trump," Paul told CNN's Wolf Blitzer on Thursday. "The main reason I do is that I believe he wants more power to come to him and 'he'll take care of us all' if we just give him more power, but I'm from a limited government tradition."

The attack was an echo of attacks Paul made Wednesday, including comparing Trump to Gollum, a villain from "Lord of the Rings" who is corrupted by his quest for the powerful ring.

"I think what Trump wants is bad for America," Paul said.

RELATED: Paul says Trump is Gollum

But Paul said he has concerns about both the billionaire businessman and Cruz, attacking both of them on foreign policy.

"I don't think (Trump) has a consistent foreign policy," Paul said, but "I do think that he and Ted Cruz that want to make the 'sand glow' ... I think if you do indiscriminate bombing in the Middle East, you may well create more terrorists than you kill."

He also attacked Cruz for flip-flopping on issues based on what's politically expedient.

"I think Ted Cruz's problem is one of authenticity right now," Paul said.

He mentioned that the Texas senator voted with Paul on a bill to rein in government surveillance, but that Cruz said in a debate that he voted for the bill because it allows the government to collect more records of terrorists.

Paul said the libertarian-minded voters that support him are turned off by that.

"Our people pause at that and say, 'My goodness, is he trying to have it both ways?'" Paul said. "That kind of leap back and forth and trying to have it both ways really we think is Cruz's biggest problem right now."

Read this article:
Rand Paul: Donald Trump 'little bit' more worrying than ...

Paul discussed the matter with staff Wednesday morning and sent out a statement confirming the decision to drop out of the Republican presidential primary.

"It's been an incredible honor to run a principled campaign for the White House," Paul said in the statement. "Today, I will end where I began, ready and willing to fight for the cause of Liberty."

Paul, a Kentucky Republican, is expected to instead place his focus squarely on his Senate reelection bid, where he faces a wealthy Democrat, Lexington Mayor Jim Gray, who has the money to partially finance his campaign.

Paul finished a disappointing fifth place in Monday's Iowa caucuses, registering just 4.5% of the vote despite placing a heavy emphasis on the state's college towns to bring out younger voters inspired by his libertarian-minded message. He promised that night to continue his campaign.

Paul will not make an endorsement in the GOP presidential race before next week's New Hampshire primary, his spokesman Sergio Gor told CNN.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich told CNN he planned to call Paul, and that he wished him the best.

"I don't think he'll be for me, but I like him a lot. And I think he brought a lot to the race and I think the issues about the balance between the need for security and personal liberty was an important one. He's a good man and I wish him nothing but the best," Kasich said, adding that, if needed, he would campaign for him in his Kentucky Senate race.

Sources close to Paul said a review of their results made clear to Paul that there was not a viable path to winning the Republican nomination and that fund-raising was becoming extremely difficult.

Nightcap: Trump regroups in New Hampshire while Clinton and Sanders prepare to clash | Sign up

Indeed, as the New Hampshire primary approaches, where his father Ron Paul won 23% of the vote in 2012, polls have found the younger Paul struggling to gain traction.

Paul's calls for a less aggressive foreign policy, which his critics have dubbed as "isolationist," failed to connect with GOP voters at a time of growing national security fears. Moreover, Paul had a hard time reestablishing his father's libertarian coalition because he had sought to broaden his appeal to more establishment-minded Republicans, hurting his credibility with some in his core base of supporters.

Dropping out this early is a disappointment for Paul. He had engineered a major change in Kentucky's primary system to allow him to run for two offices at the same time, a move aimed at circumventing a prohibition in state law prohibiting candidates from doing so. The state party agreed to change its traditional paper ballot primary to a caucus system in early March, in order to let him avoid the restriction that he couldn't appear on the ballot twice.

Still, as he now focuses on his Senate race, he remains the heavy favorite in a state that has grown increasingly red.

"The Democrat Party in Kentucky has been very wounded by President Obama," Paul told CNN Sunday when asked if he were concerned about Gray's candidacy.

Paul's campaign account tweeted a reminiscent video Wednesday morning, thanking his supporters and featuring highlights from the senator's presidential bid.

CNN's Chris Frates contributed to this report.

See the rest here:
Rand Paul dropping out of presidential race - CNNPolitics.com

The 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, was viewed by some on the Right as the subject of the biggest cover-up in history and a sign of the coming apocalypse, so it came as no surprise that House Republicans eventually organized a special committee to investigate the attack, which had already been examined by several other congressional and executive panels.

Republicans have tried for years to use the terrorist attack which led to the deaths of four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens to go after former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is testifying before the committee today. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy recently admitted that the special committee was formed to bring down Clintons popularity in advance of the 2016 presidential election.

Of course, uncovering facts has never been the GOPs primary motivation when it comes to Benghazi (or much else). As these five instances show, Republicans and their allies in the conservative media have been much more concerned with creating bizarre scenarios to claim that the administration, and fellow Republicans, are suppressing the truth of the attack.

1) No Evidence But What The Hell

Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch unveiled an elaborate conspiracy theory earlier this year, alleging that the Obama administration wanted Libyan militants to kidnap Stevens in order to then do a prisoner swap for terrorist Omar Abdel-Rahman, who was convicted in the U.S. for his role in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing. However, the compound attackers botched the job after Stevens died, Fitton said, and therefore we can never know if the administration was actually ready to release Abdel-Rahman.

Fitton conceded in an interview with WorldNetDailys Jerome Corsi, a fellow Benghazi truther, that there is no evidence to support his theory.

Given what we know now, it is not out of the realm of possibility that the terrorist attack on Benghazi could have been a kidnapping attempt aimed at releasing the Blind Sheik, Fitton said.

He noted, however, there is no evidence that the Obama administration may have been complicit in any kidnapping plot related to the Benghazi attack.

And since he cant find any evidence to substantiate this claim, Fitton is pretty sure that there must have been a cover-up, insinuating that the State Department was trying to stop his group from receiving corroborating information.

2) Cover-Up Of The Cover-Up!

When President Obama first proposed bombing the Syrian regime after it used chemical weapons on civilians in Ghouta, Glenn Beck knew that Obama didnt want to stop such war crimes but instead wanted to cover up what really happened in Benghazi.

According to one conspiracy theory, Stevens was actually organizing an operation to transfer weapons from Libya to Syria to aid Islamic extremists (which of course raises the question of why these extremists would then want to attack the American post in the first place).

Seizing on that conspiracy theory, Beck speculated that it wasnt the Assad regime that used the chemical weapons in Ghouta, but rebels using weapons delivered from the U.S. via Benghazi. Now, Beck reasoned, Obama wanted to bomb Syria because he was covering the trail of the lost weapons from Benghazi.

Beck later claimed that David Petraeus stepped down as CIA director not because he leaked classified information to his mistress but because he was about to blow the Benghazi scandal wide open. Becks theory ran into a slight hitch when Petraeus publicly praised Clintons response to the attack.

Beck has also alleged that the administration let them die in Benghazi after issuing a stand-down order, an accusation refuted on his very own news website.

3) I Dont Have Any Proof

The arms-running conspiracy theory cited by Beck emerged in the right-wing outlet WorldNetDaily, a home of credible journalism such as Is Obama Biblical Lord of the Flies? and Does Bible Code Predict President Romney?.

While we werent surprised that Beck would pick up a conspiracy theory from such a website, it was a bit more shocking when a U.S. senator brought up WNDs conspiracy theory in a hearing with Clinton. At a 2013 hearing, Sen. Rand Paul demanded that a dumbfounded Clinton tell him if the U.S. was transferring weapons from Libya into Syria via Turkey.

Paul admitted that he didnt have any proof before suggesting that the gun-running scheme was what was really happening and the cover-up was an attempt to massage and get over this issue without getting into the gun trade.

Investigations, including one led by Republicans, have found that Stevens was trying to find weapons, but in order to keep them out of the hands of extremists, with no evidence at all that he then sent those weapons to Syrian groups.

4) Marijuana A Benghazi Distraction!

Ben Carson is very upset about the Obama administrations push to reform American drug laws. The GOP presidential candidate told Joseph Farah, the editor of WorldNetDaily (notice a theme?), that the administrations push to liberalize laws on marijuana, along with its stance on the trademark of the Washington Redskins, is all part of a plot to distract people from the Benghazi attack.

Carson told Farah last year that most people now just think Benghazi is a singer.

And these people vote and they have no idea, he lamented.

Carson isnt the only one to latch onto the distraction theme. Conservative activist Robert Knight of the American Civil Rights Union dedicated a column in the Washington Times about New England Patriots quarterback Tom Bradys since-lifted suspension by insisting that the Deflategate scandal was part of an effort to distract people from Benghazi. Iowa radio broadcaster Steve Deace similarly wonder if NFL prospect Michael Sams decision to come out of the closet was also just a Benghazi distraction.

5) Benghazi Special Committee Is Part Of The Benghazi Cover-Up!

Since every single official committee, including ones led by Republicans, that has investigated the Benghazi attack has ended up debunking the conspiracy theories percolating through the right-wing media, a group of conservative activists has launched theCitizens Commission on Benghazi to find the real truth.

This unofficial committee has embraced so many conspiracy theories surrounding the attack that its members even believe that the GOP-led Benghazi Special Committee is aiding the cover-up!

One member, Ret. Navy Adm. James Ace Lyons, told, guess who, WorldNetDaily, that committee chairman Trey Gowdy needs to go, lamenting that this is a continued cover-up.

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Rand Paul | Right Wing Watch