Mediaboss Marketing

Sen. Rand Paul ran an infamously inept campaign for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016 when he was under the delusion that the time had arrived when the nation couldnt live without him.

So, having fallen on his face in pursuit of the White House once, might he settle for the number two job instead?

The Republican race for president in 2024 is undoubtedly going to heat up sooner rather than later with the primary season less than a year away. Several contenders are indicating they arent intimidated by the presence of former President Donald J. Trump who, as the result of pending criminal investigations, may face reduced time on the campaign trail anyway.

Former United Nations Ambassador and South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has already entered the contest with Trump, maintaining the time has arrived for a new generation to take command, contrasting her relative youth with The Donalds 76 years. But theres questions about her appeal to the new, confrontational, and aggressive Republican Party that Trump has wrought.

That old book banner, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, Trump without the personality, is also taking a look-see and is expected to take the plunge.

Others more in the also-ran category are trying to keep their names above sea level hoping for some opportunity to present itself. That list includes former Vice President Mike Pence, who likely will be the target of Trumps wrath if he dips his toe in, former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who is an unlikely recipient of unbounded GOP adoration, and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, who may throw her name out there if she believes it will place her on a glide path to the vice presidency.

Of the bunch youd have to like Trump, who has created a real cult of personality within the party, as unsettling as that reality might be. Hes obviously the best known, hell have plenty of dough as long as no one asks where it came from, and if more than two or three others enter the race theyll likely knock each other out. DeSantis is thought to be gaining ground, but how much appeal he might generate among general election voters might scare some GOP regulars off.

Regardless, whoever grabs the ring is going to need a running mate and Paul, R-Bowling Green, is a name making the Republican rounds. Paul Bedard, a writer for the Washington Examiner, sort of a house organ for DC right-wingers, recently claimed that Paul, according to the headline accompanying the article, could be the secret to winning the White House.

While there are a lot of choices, the early betting is on a Capitol Hill firebrand uniquely poised to bring in the libertarian wing of the GOP, a bump of potentially 3%-4% of the vote, Bedard wrote.

And that firebrand? Rand Paul, of course.

Bedard quoted an individual he identified as an adviser to House Republicans who is also close to several past conservative presidential candidates, unidentified, of course, who said Paul as VP eliminates the need for a libertarian nominee or third-party candidate. And having that extra 3 percent-4 percent moving to the Republican ticket in 10-12 key states would be the margin of victory.

Well, maybe. But any party counting on the vice-presidential nominee to bolster the vote by more than a handful of votes, not to mention his or her home state, probably is whistling past the graveyard.

But it figures that Paul, at this stage, merits consideration in a party where cruelty and callousness are considered assets. He has frequently shown that he is more than willing to take on the so-called deep state, harassing Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Bidens one-time chief health advisor who led that fight against COVID-19, in an unusually nasty fashion. He undoubtedly will be willing to take on woke Democrats whatever the hell woke is supposed to mean and he is not particularly fond of government even though he is part of it.

It should also be noted that he was most recently re-elected to the Senate in 2022 for a third term, which means he will retain his seat for four more years should any ticket hes hooked on lose. Hes palsy-walsy with Trump, even though the two insulted each other incessantly during the 2016 campaign. They kissed and made up where every Republican works things out on the golf course. DeSantis might want him, should he win the nomination, as a means of convincing Trump loyalists, whose hair will be on fire should their messiah lose, to jump aboard.

Thats not to say Paul would be a perfect choice. He is not the chambers biggest supporter of the military, taking, for the most part, an isolationist view and heres the rub suggesting that it might be necessary to cut the defense budget to bring spending under control.

Paul is not thrilled with the situation in Ukraine. He once held up $40 million in aid to Kyiv and has in the past been blacklisted by the government there. It should be noted that status may not hurt him with Republican primary voters, who are growing in their opposition to U.S spending and involvement. At the same time it might be poison to be considered pro-Russia, something any intraparty opposition that crops up will be sure to use against him.

In his most recent phony-baloney budget proposal something he offers to reduce the debt every year Paul suggested 6 percent cuts across the board, excluding Social Security but including Medicare and Medicaid. In the past, however, he has suggested raising the age for Social Security eligibility and some sort of means testing for the program. That might not play well.

But Paul is a White guy from a reliably Republican state with a modest national following, an ultra-conservative voting record on domestic issues and a mean streak. If that doesnt fill out the partys job requirements nothing does. If he can somehow develop a personality within the next few months you might have a winner.

There is one good thing if Paul is the GOP candidate for vice president somebody even worse wont get it.

Its been suggested that Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA, and erstwhile Arizona Republican gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, two legitimate whackos, are thought to be jockeying for the slot. And if Trump takes the crown, anything is possible.

In that case, no matter how hard it might be, its a case of Go Rand Go.

See more here:
Bill Straub: As 24 Republican race for president heats up, is Rand ...

Sen. Rand Paul examines a patient's eyes in his Bowling Green, Ky., office in 2010. Paul, an ophthalmologist, worked on his father's campaign while in medical school. Joe Imel/AP hide caption

Sen. Rand Paul examines a patient's eyes in his Bowling Green, Ky., office in 2010. Paul, an ophthalmologist, worked on his father's campaign while in medical school.

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul announced his bid for the White House Tuesday on his website. The 52-year-old former ophthalmologist's libertarian roots sets him apart from the expansive field of Republican hopefuls, most notably in foreign policy and issues like defense spending.

His father Ron Paul, also a physician, gained notoriety in the late-1980s as a presidential nominee for the Libertarian Party, but there are signs the younger Paul is moving more mainstream Republican.

Here are five things you may not know, or remember, about Rand Paul:

He doesn't have a bachelor's degree.

Paul holds a medical degree from Duke University, but he was a few courses shy of earning a bachelor's degree from Baylor University. The Kentucky senator was enrolled at the Texas Christian college, where he studied biology and English, from fall 1981 to summer 1984. He left the program after receiving his acceptance to medical school. At the time, Duke did not require a bachelor's degree for admittance, but the policy has since changed.

A fact-check conducted by The Washington Post revealed two instances on the same day in February where Paul stated that he held degrees in biology and English. A spokesman for the senator later argued to the paper that a medical degree is a biology degree.

He worked on his father's presidential campaign while attending medical school.

Despite the demanding workload of medical school, Paul worked as a volunteer for his father, Ron Paul's 1988 Libertarian Party campaign for president. According to The New York Times, the two would hold regular debates during road trips on topics such as foreign policy and military interventions, with the younger Paul taking stances that skewed closer to Republican ideology.

His father's campaign ultimately garnered less than 1 percent of the vote.

He founded an eye care clinic to aid low-income people.

Paul founded the Southern Kentucky Lions Eye Clinic, which provides free exams and surgeries to those in need, in 1995.

The senator told National Review in 2013 that he has performed more than 100 pro bono surgeries.

"There's a philosophic debate which often gets me in trouble, you know, on whether health care's a right or not," he said at a Q&A at the University of Louisville. "I think we as physicians have an obligation. As Christians, we have an obligation. ... I really believe that, and it's a deep-held belief."

He stood on the Senate floor for nearly 13 hours during a filibuster.

In March 2013, Paul took the Senate floor for 12 hours and 52 minutes in what Slate called a "(mostly) one-man show" of a filibuster, ahead of a vote to confirm John Brennan as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. The speech aimed to increase criticism of the Obama administration's drone policy.

Still, the diatribe was just over half the time spent by record-holder Strom Thurmond, the late South Carolina senator, who spoke for more than 24 hours nonstop in opposition to the Civil Rights Act of 1957.

He's faced multiple plagiarism accusations.

Charges of plagiarism first arose in October 2013 when MSNBC host Rachel Maddow pointed out that a portion of Paul's speech supporting gubernatorial candidate Ken Cuccinelli bore a striking resemblance to the Wikipedia page for the dystopian science fiction film Gattaca. Speaking against abortion rights activists, the senator allegedly lifted four lines from the entry.

BuzzFeed later found another similar instance where Paul recited word-for-word text from the Wikipedia entry for the movie Stand and Deliver in a June 2013 speech on immigration.

But the most damning incident occurred when The Washington Times ended the senator's weekly column after a review of his work found that he copied a passage from The Week magazine that had been published a week prior.

According to The Washington Times, Paul took some responsibility but mostly blamed the episodes on staff providing him background material that wasn't properly footnoted.

Here is the original post:
5 Things You Should Know About Sen. Rand Paul - NPR

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

February 23, 2023

Contact: Press_Paul@paul.senate.gov, 202-224-4343

BOWLING GREEN, KY Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul issued the following statement after announcing his nominations to the U.S. service academies, consisting of 37 nominations to individuals from across the Commonwealth of Kentucky:

A very rewarding aspect of being a United States Senator is the opportunity to nominate young men and women from across the state to attend our nations prestigious service academies. I commend each of these students for their dedication and desire to serve in the United States military, and I wish them the best through the remainder of the selection process. I have no doubt the students chosen will proudly represent the Commonwealth of Kentucky in the service academies,said Dr. Paul.

Dr. Paul nominated the following individuals to the U.S. Air Force Academy, the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, the U.S. Military Academy, and the U.S. Naval Academy:

United States Air Force Academy

United States Merchant Marine Academy

United States Military Academy

United States Naval Academy

###

See the article here:
Dr. Rand Paul Announces 2023 Service Academy Nominations

Provided by Washington Examiner

With two Republicans already in the 2024 presidential race and potentially a half-dozen more in spring, some forward-thinking strategists are already looking to next year, when the eventual nominee will pick a running mate.

While there are a lot of choices, the early betting is on a Capitol Hill firebrand uniquely poised to bring in the libertarian wing of the GOP, a bump of potentially 3%-4% of the vote.

There are only two realistic GOP nominees: Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis, said an adviser to House Republicans who is also close to several past conservative presidential candidates.

GET THE INSIDE SCOOP FIRST WITH WASHINGTON SECRETS

Since neither is likely to pick the other as a running mate, the adviser offered Kentucky libertarian Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) as a good fit.

Rand Paul as VP for either eliminates the need for a libertarian nominee or third-party candidate. And having that extra 3%-4% moving to the Republican ticket in 10-12 key states would be the margin of victory, he said.

Washington Examiner Videos

Tags: Washington Secrets, 2024 Elections, Rand Paul, Donald Trump, Joe Biden, Ron DeSantis

Original Author: Paul Bedard

Original Location: Rand Paul could be the secret to winning the White House

Read more:
Rand Paul could be the secret to winning the White House

Rand Paul continues to be one of the few sane voices left in the US Senate. Unlike 18 of his GOP colleagues, he lobbied and voted against the just-passed omnibus bill, complete with its expenditures for LGBT pride centers and another $45 billion to Ukraine. The overall price tag came in at a whopping $1.7 trillion, with the national debt heading over $31 trillion.

With that setting the stage, its only fitting that Paul would release his annual Festivus report a day later, and boy, are the grievances aplenty.

For example, did you know that the federal government spent $140 million in COVID relief funds to build a spa facility? Or that the NIH spent $519,828 using mice to study racial aggression? Or that $175 million was spent to upgrade and expand the DC street car system (when I was there, almost no one used it).

Those things are just a drop in the bucket, of course.

Naturally, the biggest expenditure was the $475 billion the government spent on servicing its debt, which just continues to spiral out of control. The United States also sent $210 million to Jordan for education projects, and for some reason, $50 million was used to boost Tunisias travel sector during COVID. Why is that in US interests? Thats a good question and one that will never be sufficiently answered.

The US government is a joke. Its run by a bunch of self-aggrandizing politicians who treat themselves as heroes for spending other peoples money. They then vote themselves raises, completely insulated from the consequences of the policies they push. Id say their malfeasance is going to crush future generations, but given the continuing inflation crisis, these spending binges are crushing the current ones.

And what did Republicans do upon finally halfway winning an election and retaking the House of Representatives, partly by promising to rein in this insanity? Mitch McConnell and company join with the Democrats to pass a $1.7 trillion omnibus that gives Joe Biden everything he wants for the next ten months, neutering the ability of the new GOP congress to govern. Keep in mind that Pauls report, as bad as it already is, does not include that.

It doesnt have to be this way, but it is this way because Washington is a bubble that absorbs most who go there. Paul is one of the few who hasnt succumbed to its siren song. For that, he deserves a lot of credit, and though his Festivus report will fall on deaf ears in congress, hes still doing good work in putting this stuff out there.

The broader Republican Party doesnt deserve to win elections. Every two years, they make false promises, insisting that if you just give them power, theyll use it to push the priorities of their voters. That never happens, though. Instead, its business as usual, with massive omnibus bills, gun control bills, and infrastructure bills, among other betrayals. Whats the point of winning if you lose anyway? Whats the point of voting for people who would just as well spit in your face and tell you its raining?

No one should give a dime to the Republican Party at this point. Give to individual candidates who have shown that theyll actually do what they say theyll do. Other than that, let it burn.

Trending on Redstate Video

Read more:
Rand Paul Releases His Yearly Festivus Report, and the Grievances Are ...