Tag: Rand Paul

Paul Would Be the ‘Most Right-Wing’ Presidential Candidate Ever

Buck Banks

I think if you look at his statements and you look at his record he would be the most right-wing candidate any major party has nominated, including Barry Goldwater. He is that far off the spectrum. … I think his chances of winning swing votes in battleground states are my chances of being the starting quarterback for the Denver Broncos.

— Former Obama campaign manager Jim Messina, telling OZY that Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) would be “the most right-wing” presidential candidate in history if he won the GOP nomination in 2016.

Paul: Midterms a Repudiation of Clinton

Buck Banks

She’s said to be the front-runner for the nomination for their party. So really elections are about who the leadership is in a party, and it’s about either accepting or rejecting those leaders. And frankly, I think that yesterday was a repudiation of Hillary Clinton.

— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), quoted by The Week, on the meaning of the midterm elections.

You Think Ebola Is Scary? Check Out How Many People Die from Plain Old Flu Every Year

Jon Ponder

Be afraid: The influenza virus kills thousands of Americans each year
Be afraid: The influenza virus kills thousands of Americans each year
Five cases of Ebola have been treated in the United States so far this year. Three were contracted in Africa. Two of these victims were Americans who were flown home for treatment. The other was the Liberian national, Thomas Duncan, who developed symptoms after he arrived in Texas from Africa. The last two were healthcare workers who treated Duncan in Dallas. Of the five, only one patient has died — Thomas Duncan.

Tragic as these cases are, the hysteria they have unleashed in the media and among Republican politicians is beyond over the top. The Ebola “crisis” has topped the hour on cable news channels for days. The lowest point, so far, was when news choppers tracked an ambulance for an hour or so one early evening last week as it transported one of the nurses to a hospital, bringing to mind the infamous “slow speed chase” on L.A. freeways that kicked off the O.J. Simpson murder scandal in 1994.

Meanwhile, with the midterm elections a few weeks away, Republicans have worked nonstop to blame the Ebola outbreak on Pres. Obama and, by extension, the Democrats. They have also incorporated the outbreak into their get-out-the-vote strategy by fanning the flames of fear to get their easily terrorized followers to the polls. Their unified message on Ebola — a call to ban flights into the United States from the affected areas in Africa — is typically anti-scientific and counterfactual. Experts say such a ban would likely create a bona fide crisis here, and there is the embarrassing fact that there are no direct flights into the United States from the affected countries.

[…]

Rand Paul Is Willing to Kill ISIS

Buck Banks

Some pundits are surprised that I support destroying the Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) militarily. They shouldn’t be. I’ve said since I began public life that I am not an isolationist, nor am I an interventionist. I look at the world, and consider war, realistically and constitutionally. … I still see war as the last resort. But I agree with Reagan’s idea that no country should mistake U.S. reluctance for war for a lack of resolve.

— Sen. Rand Paul, in a Time magazine op-ed, explaining why he favors destroying Islamist militants.

Rand Paul Labels Hillary Clinton a ‘War Hawk’

Buck Banks

I think that’s what scares the Democrats the most, is that in a general election, were I to run, there’s going to be a lot of independents and even some Democrats who say, ‘You know what? We are tired of war. We’re worried that Hillary Clinton will get us involved in another Middle Eastern war, because she’s so gung-ho.

— Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), quoted by the Associated Press, labeling Hillary Clinton a “war hawk.”

Rand Paul Not Appealing to Young Voters

Buck Banks

It’s a tantalizing theory for the right and a fun story for the media. But the data suggests that the senator from Kentucky has his work cut out for him. So far, Paul isn’t doing much better among young voters than the Republican nominee in 2012, Mitt Romney, or than Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, is currently doing.

— Harry Enten, writing on FiveThirtyEight.