Rand Paul

Ted Cruz Repudiates His Canadian Citizenship In Ambition To Be President!

Ronald 7 Comments

Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, the bull in the China shop in the Republican Party, who has grand ambitions to be President of the United States, has taken quick action to trash his Canadian heritage, having been born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada in December 1970.

While technically a citizen of both Canada and the US, due to his mother’s American citizenship, Cruz has now declared that he has no interest in remaining a dual citizen, because he knows that could cause him grief as he seeks to take over the Republican Party. He has already made enemies in the GOP establishment with his vicious attacks on other Republican Senators, as well as the opposition Democrats, the news media, and higher education, including his Harvard Law School background, calling the faculty there a bunch of Marxists, reminding us of Senator Joseph McCarthy, who he, ironically, greatly resembles in appearance, demeanor, and behavior!

Cruz represents the calling card of Sarah Palin, Michele Bachmann, Herman Cain and other malcontents,who wants to take the Republican Party to the extreme far Right, and will take no prisoners!

It is clear by his action on his Canadian citizenship that Cruz is running for President without announcing it this early, and that he will do anything and everything to destroy any GOP opponent, and at this point, his key rival seems to be Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, the son of former Congressman Ron Paul, who inherits the allegiance of many young people who see the father as a god like figure with his libertarian beliefs.

Both Paul and Cruz have the allegiance of the Tea Party Movement, but Cruz cannot be called a libertarian, and the holy war that will ensue between the two will, at this point, likely favor Cruz over Paul.

So at this point, it seems a good bet to believe that Cruz will overcome Paul and also, his fellow Cuban, Senator Marco Rubio of Florida, and that he will be the Republican Presidential nominee in 2016, at age 45.

His candidacy will draw a lot of attention and controversy, and Cruz will not care how many enemies he makes on his road to being the opponent of Hillary Clinton, his most likely opponent, or any other Democrat who might emerge, including Joe Biden.

And when one looks at the Electoral College math, it is clear that Ted Cruz is likely to be the GOP Presidential nominee, but his chances of becoming our 45th President are next to zero, and that Clinton, Biden, or whoever the Democratic nominee in 2016 is, will win a landslide victory, greater in electoral votes than Barack Obama in 2012!

And part of that great Democratic victory in 2016 will likely include Texas, as the state is moving toward “Blue” status, and it is ironic that Cruz, easily elected in Texas in 2012, will help create the Democratic majority by his personality, confrontational attitude, and refusal to understand that if one insults Mexican Americans, woman, African Americans, labor supporters, environmentalists, and gays, there is no way that his party can ever win back the White House!

So after a smashing defeat, Cruz will be history as a loser, and the GOP will finally, if it has any common sense, return to the moderate mainstream center, or else it will finally be in the dustbins of history after 2016!

Potential Republican Presidential Candidates And Foreign Policy, As Compared To Hillary Clinton And Joe Biden

Ronald 2 Comments

The Republican Party is offering potential Presidential candidates who have no clue on world affairs, or have dangerous views on foreign policy, and/or have no experience to speak of in diplomatic situations.

The following potential candidates have NO credentials at all in this important area in a world that is changing rapidly:

Rand Paul
Ted Cruz
Marco Rubio
Paul Ryan
Rick Santorum
Rick Perry
Chris Christie
Jeb Bush
Bobby Jindal
Scott Walker
John Thune

it is true that Rand Paul and Marco Rubio sit on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and that Jeb Bush’s brother and father were President of the United States, and foreign policy has been discussed within that family.

But compare that to Hillary Clinton, who was Secretary of State for four years, and learned about foreign policy under her husband, President Bill Clinton, in the 1990s.

And Vice President Joe Biden had 36 years in the Senate, including time as Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and now is in his second term as Vice President, intimately involved in foreign policy issues.

So NONE of the GOP potential Presidential candidates have any real, valuable experience, except in speaking out on issues they know nothing about!

Foreign policy will be a most important issue in 2016, so who could the GOP run who could compete with either Hillary or Joe, and give them a real challenge?

The only person who fits this profile is former Utah Governor and Ambassador to China, and earlier Ambassador to Singapore, Jon Huntsman, who is a moderate mainstream conservative. He is very talented, brilliant, multilingual including Chinese, and knows and understands world affairs!

But would the Republican Party have the brains and intelligence to choose Huntsman as their Presidential nominee?

The answer is ZERO, and because of that, the GOP does not offer experienced, qualified candidates for the Presidency on foreign affairs, such as Richard Nixon, George H. W. Bush, Bob Dole, and John McCain in the past!

The Democratic “Farm Team” Or “Bench” For National Office

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When one looks at the Democratic Party, most of the attention for the 2016 Presidential Election centers around Hillary Clinton and Joe Biden, both exceptionally qualified and popular political figures, with tremendous experience in government.

But both Hillary and Joe are getting on in age, with Hillary to be 69 in 2016, and Joe to be 74 in 2016.

Either would face a much younger Republican opponent in 2016, so one has to wonder whether it might be preferable to go for “new blood” for the Democratic nominee.

If that was to occur, there would be a fantastic “farm team” or “bench” for the Democrats, including:

Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts
Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York
Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota
Future Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey
Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts
Governor John Hickenlooper of Colorado
Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York
Governor Martin O’Malley of Maryland
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia

This list of nine potential President candidates includes three women; two African Americans; and four white men, with seven states represented, and five US Senators and four Governors.

Any of these nine would be preferable, by far, to any Republican nominee for President, with many of the potential Republicans being horror stories, including Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, Governor Rick Perry of Texas, former Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, and Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin.

Quinnipiac National University Poll Puts Hillary Clinton And Chris Christie Ahead In Popularity, And Elizabeth Warren A Surprising Third!

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Public opinion polls are endless, and often are believed to be a poor barometer of future political success, but they are fascinating as a moment in time in how those polled see political leaders and issues.

We are still in the first year of the Presidential term, but already there is speculation as to who has the advantage for the Presidential nominations for 2016, as well as interest in how politicians come across to the American people in general. In other words, which politicians are the “hottest” is part of many surveys.

So the latest Quinnipiac National University Poll puts New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ahead of all other politicians in the “hotness” question, with Christie somewhat surprisingly being ahead of Clinton in precise numbers, with Christie at 53.1 and Clinton at 52.1.

Right behind them are Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren at 49.2 in third place, and President Obama and New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand tied for fourth with 47.6.

Then comes Senator Ted Cruz of Texas, with 46.8; Senator Marco Rubio of Florida with 46.5; Vice President Joe Biden at 46.2; Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley with 45.7; and Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal rounding out the top ten with 45.2.

Others further down include potential Presidential candidates, including Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky with 44.8; New York Governor Andrew Cuomo at 43.9; Wisconsin Congressman Paul Ryan with 43.0; Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker with 41.1; former Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum with 40.7; former Florida Governor Jeb Bush with 40.4; and Virginia Senator Mark Warner with 39.4.

If one is to take this poll seriously, that would put Chris Christie in a very good position for 2016, but the poll also indicates that his popularity is as high as it is because of independents and Democrats, and he ranks only eighth in this poll among fellow Republicans. How could Christie win the GOP nomination, by having to fight in Iowa’s caucuses and New Hampshire’s primary, where the right wing Republicans tend to win, and how could he carry enough delegate votes if he is well received by Democrats and Independents?

This poll also draws attention to two women other than Hillary Clinton, who could be other choices in replacement of her–Elizabeth Warren and Kirsten Gillibrand, both who rank ahead of Joe Biden, Andrew Cuomo, Martin O’Malley, and Mark Warner, alternative Democratic possibilities. all male.

At this point, the poll is basically food for thought, as it is still much too far ahead to make a judgment as to what is likely to be the scenario for 2016 for the Presidential race. But certainly, it should, as it always is, be a fascinating series of events and personalities that will emerge over the next three years!

Republican Party Attempt To Defund “ObamaCare” Does Not Offer Alternative Program For Millions Of Americans!

Ronald 1 Comment

The battle is on within the extreme right wing of the Republican Party to defund “ObamaCare” in the upcoming budget battles, or shut down the government.

Leading the charge are the Tea Party Republicans in the House of Representatives, and 12 Senators, including Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, and Mike Lee.

A majority of Senate Republicans are loathe to do what the Tea Party wants, figuring it will cause electoral defeats for the Republicans in the midterm Congressional elections of 2014.

But what this is doing is putting Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, and other more mainstream conservatives, including Speaker of the House John Boehner, in a tough situation, which is causing Tea Party challenges to McConnell, Graham, and others.

But ultimately, the biggest problem is that the Republican Party used to say they supported an alternative to “ObamaCare”, but now there is no such talk, and that means, were “ObamaCare” to be defunded by some manipulation, that millions upon millions of American citizens, who have not had health care insurance, and expected they would now have such coverage, would end up NOT having it!

And that means the Republican Party is saying, “To hell with these less fortunate people! Let them rot, let them do without, let them have to deal with a situation that denies them the “American Dream!””

Is that a message to draw voters, to show that government, and really all of us, have no compassion, and concern for those less fortunate? Is it a good thing to say to children, the elderly, the disabled and sick, and poorer citizens that they do not matter? That all that matters is acquisition of wealth and assets by the fortunate minority of Americans?

Is this the kind of country we want in the future in the 21st century?

Republicans And Medical Doctors In Congress: Do They Care About Health Issues?

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When one looks at the 113th Congress, one discovers that there are 17 medical doctors in the House of Representatives, and three medical doctors in the US Senate.

Of these 20 physicians, 16 are members of the Republican Party—13 in the House and all 3 in the Senate.

And all of these Republican medical professionals are the type that any intelligent, informed person would avoid like the plague, as they have shown in their votes, their statements, and in their actions, that they do not have the well being of the American people in mind, but rather are simply capitalists who were in medicine for the profit, rather than for the well being of their patients! They are all anti abortion, and many have no concept of what rape is, and the issue of a woman having a right to an abortion under such circumstances!

So we have Congressman Scott DesJarlais of Tennessee, who like all the GOP doctors, is an anti abortion, “family” doctor, who not only condemns abortion but also adultery, but is known for having cheated on his wife, had asked a mistress to undertake an abortion, and has had numerous affairs, all the time invoking Jesus Christ and claiming he has been forgiven for his sins. His stupid constituents proceeded to reelect him to his House Seat, so what can one say?

And we have Congressman Paul Broun of Georgia, whose specialty is Family Medicine, running for the US Senate in 2014, who condemns science, believing it is the devil’s work! He rejects evolution and yet is representing the congressional district which includes Athens, Georgia, where the University of Georgia is located. He has been reelected by his district, and is a member of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, even though he rejects the concept of science and space!

And we have Texas Congressman Michael Burgess, Georgia Congressman Phil Gingrey, and Tennessee Congressman David Roe, all of whom are Obstetrician-Gynecologists, but have no understanding of what rape is, and how a woman should have the right to an abortion resulting from abortion!

It is interesting to point out that of the 13 Republican Congressmen who are medical doctors, 9 are from the South—three from Georgia, two from Tennessee, three from Louisiana, and one from Texas! With the kind of record these Southern Congressmen have on the issue of science and medicine, one has to wonder about their credentials, and why they keep on being reelected by their constituents!

And then there are the three Republican doctors in the US Senate—Wyoming Senator John Barrasso who is an Orthopedic Surgeon; Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, who is a Family Medicine specialist; and last, but not least, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, an Ophthalmologist, who has accreditation from his own created organization, rejecting the national organization that accredits eye doctors!

Need more be said about Medical Doctors and the Republican Party? No wonder that comedian Bill Maher ridiculed them on a recent show!

Sniping Back And Forth Among Republicans: Wonderful To Witness!

Ronald 8 Comments

It is very clear that the Republican Party is bitterly divided on strategy toward President Obama, and on the issue of foreign policy and national security.

So we are witnessing sniping back and forth, and this is a hint of what is to come, as the Presidential rivalries heat up in the coming months!

Examples of the sniping are that between Arizona Senator John McCain and Texas Senator Ted Cruz, with it being clear that the two Senators have no love lost for each other.

At the same time, we see Governor Chris Christie supportive of the gathering of intelligence by the National Security Agency and Central Intelligence Agency, due to the reality that New Jersey suffered the second most losses on September 11, 2001, and being critical of those who are libertarian, such as Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky!

Also, New York Congressman Peter King of Long Island has attacked the Tea Party Movement Republicans who were against aid to New York and New Jersey after Super Storm Sandy last fall!

And Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee of Utah, and Marco Rubio of Florida have been criticized for their threat to shut the government down if ObamaCare is not defunded, with major critics being John McCain, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Roy Blunt of Missouri, and Richard Burr of North Carolina!

And Establishment Republicans such as former Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, former Utah Governor and Ambassador to China Jon Huntsman, former Republican National Chairman Michael Steele, and George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove are shaking their heads at the splintering of the party, and the recklessness of many of the younger members of the party in the House of Representatives and Senate, as they well know that the future of the party is in tatters, if this extremist wing is allowed to become the face and image of the party! Finally,

Finally, Iowa Congressman Steve King’s ranting against immigrants has led to condemnation by Speaker of the House John Boehner and others in the Republican Party.

It looks more than ever as if the GOP is on the way to the worst Presidential defeat for their party since the demise of Barry Goldwater in 1964, nearly fifty years ago, and even Goldwater now looks “moderate” by comparison, and far less reckless!

Defunding ObamaCare Demonstrating Cracks In Republican Party And Its Final Demise!

Ronald 25 Comments

It looks more than ever that a full scale civil war is erupting in the Republican Party in Congress, with 60 Tea Party radicals in the House and 12 Senators joining together to create a new budget and financial crisis with President Obama and the Democrats, unless defunding of ObamaCare is accomplished, but facing vehement opposition from the majority of Republicans in the Senate, and leaving Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican leader, trying to avoid the crossfire and save his own seat in next year’s midterm elections!

The Tea Party is a bunch of anarchistic lunatics, and prominent Senators, including Senators Rand Paul of Kentucky, Ted Cruz of Texas, and Marco Rubio of Florida, by allowing themselves to associate with this extremist group, are setting up. not only a political donnybrook among their own competing desires to be the GOP Presidential nominee, but insuring a conflict of massive proportions with “Establishment” Republicans, and even, fellow conservatives, who see what they are attempting to do to destroy funding of ObamaCare as suicidal, giving the Democrats a fantastic platform which could help to wipe out the Republican majority House of Representatives, and any chance of the GOP to gain six seats and control of the US Senate!

Among the Republicans who have denounced any move on defunding ObamaCare, while not agreeing with the program, are:

Tom Coburn of Oklahoma
Ron Johnson of Wisconsin
John McCain of Arizona
Roy Blunt of Missouri
Richard Burr of North Carolina

Mitch McConnell is trying to stay out of the crossfire, and so is Speaker of the House John Boehner, who is facing pressure from Michele Bachmann and other Tea Party House members.

The more rational Republicans listed above, while certainly strong conservatives, see the GOP being portrayed as reckless and being run by the inmates of an insane asylum, if they were to create a new fiscal crisis, at a time when they desperately want to have the possibility of Republican control of both houses!

Can one just imagine now what it will be like when the ambitious Tea Party Presidential seekers compete against each other, and face the Establishment types in the caucuses, primaries, and national convention three years from now?

It will be great entertainment, great political theater, and we will all be able to watch and witness the disintegration, the dissolution, the crumbling, and the destruction of a once great political party, insuring what will happen anyway, due to the Electoral College math—the election of a Democratic President and a stronger Democratic Party in the future!

The Republican Party is fighting against demographic change and the tides of history, and they are insuring their vanishing from American politics if they continue their destructive path, which seems like an ongoing tornado that cannot be stopped! They MUST stop listening to FOX News Channel and conservative talk show hosts, who have no concern about the future, other than their own financial gains and notoriety!

Senator Rand Paul, Confederate Sympathies, And Racial Insensitivities

Ronald 19 Comments

Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul is making clear his desire to be the GOP Presidential nominee in 2016, and this was known even before he won the Senate seat in 2010 over the opposition of fellow Kentuckian, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Following in the footsteps of his father, former Texas Congressman Ron Paul, who gained the backing of naive college students when he ran for President in 2008 and 2012, Paul hopes to mine the support of Tea Party activists and libertarians to overcome the business establishment, the Neoconservatives who wish military intervention overseas all of the time, and mainline Republicans who see Paul as an alarm bell for the future of the Republican Party.

Rand Paul, meanwhile, has demonstrated again and again of his sympathies with Confederate types who still fight the Civil War, and has shown lack of sensitivity about racism.

Paul has kept on his Senate staff an individual who goes around in Confederate uniform and mask, a person by the name of Jack Hunter. And Paul has expressed in the past his view of his doubts about the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And he comes across as naive about the outside world, and his libertarian views, while appealing to naive people, has never worked, and will never occur in reality!

Face the facts: Rand Paul is a lunatic, a weirdo with no qualifications, no message of significance, and with troubling connections to racism (which his father has also shown in his political career), and the odds of his being the GOP nominee against all of the other Republican factions is less than zero!

Were he, somehow, to win the nomination, which would require a miracle, it would lead to the total destruction of the Republican Party, worse than Barry Goldwater in 1964 or Alf Landon in 1936, both men of intelligence, which Rand Paul is not!

And imagine Paul against Hillary Clinton, the likely Democratic nominee. She would walk all over him in a debate, and would join Lyndon B. Johnson and Franklin D. Roosevelt in a massive win over their Republican opponents!

Strong Reaction Against Liz Cheney Bid For Wyoming Senate Seat

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Dick Cheney has become the most controversial, outspoken Vice President in American history, and his daughter, Fox News commentator Liz Cheney, is adding to that Cheney family image by her announced run for a Senate seat in the smallest populated state in America, Wyoming.

Liz Cheney, who has been a Virginia resident for years, but recently moved back to Wyoming, is seen by many there as a “carpetbagger”, who has moved back where she grew up only with the expressly clear cut reason to continue the Cheney tradition in American politics, knowing full well that she could not win a Virginia Senate seat, in strong hands with Democrats Mark Warner and Tim Kaine.

She is challenging a sitting Republican Senator, Mike Enzi, who has been a loyal conservative Republican in his voting, but is not as outspoken as other conservatives. Enzi, however, has had the “gall” to work occasionally with some fellow Senate Democrats on some legislation, and that makes him somehow regarded as not loyal enough to the conservative tradition.

Liz Cheney is ridiculing Enzi’s age of 69, while her father is older, and would not be alive without a heart transplant, which could have gone to a much younger person, rather than the 72 year old Cheney, but Cheney and his family have long felt entitled to whatever they want, and to speak their mind, no matter how divisive it might be!

Liz Cheney takes the view of her father, a no holds barred, confrontational, refusal to cooperate or compromise with the Obama Administration on ANYTHING! Just simply go on the attack and take no prisoners is the approach to what Liz Cheney wishes to do in the Senate, and if others are hurt in the process, so be it!

So we have seen former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson; the other Wyoming Senator, John Barrasso; Wyoming’s only Congresswoman, Cynthia Lummis; Kansas Senator Jerry Moran; and Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, all condemn the entry of Liz Cheney as bad for the Republican Party in Wyoming.

Moran and particularly, Paul, are Tea Party types, and it is clear that what Liz Cheney is doing is making bare the massive split in the Republican Party, not only in Wyoming, but nationally, as this is not just a personal battle for the Cheney family against the Republican Party in that state, but an example of the struggle between the neoconservatives who took America into two massive wars that we have not won, and the Rand Paul wing of the party that wants America out of foreign interventions. So Liz Cheney is declaring war on Rand Paul, and wishes, as her father does, to take away any strength he might have to win the GOP Presidential nomination in 2016 or beyond!

It is very clear that Liz Cheney has greater ambitions, and IF she wins the Senate seat in Wyoming in 2014, do not be surprised if she comes out of the gate as a quickly announced Presidential candidate, who would be supported by the neoconservatives who want us to intervene in Iran and Syria and Egypt, and have no problem with the use of military force all over the world, with the budget issue being unimportant!

And we can be sure that Liz Cheney would continue to back the “Birther” myth about Barack Obama, and continue to infer that Obama is a secret Muslim who is against what is good for America. She has no ethics or scruples, as she intends to be a dominant figure in the Republican Party future, and does not care to make friends among Democrats, and really has little regard for fellow Republicans of any stripe!

That is why the first goal must be the defeat of Liz Cheney’s grandiose ambitions in the Wyoming Republican Senate primary, but by causing a massive rift and split, it would be wonderful if the Democrats could win that seat, and hold it for a generation, as moderate Democrat Gale McGee did from 1959-1977.