The Rand Paul Year in Review via Lions of Liberty

MarcMadness Thu, 12/31/2015 - 14:56

Howdy all! I've migrated over here from PL and glad to see some familiar "faces" over here at A Call to Paul. Here's our latest Lions of Liberty podcast with our regular "Rand Pauluses and Minuses" segment - The Year in Rand.

The pickings were plentiful, as Rand has been a busy boy between fighting the good (and sometimes bad) fight in the Senate while also juggling his hit-and-miss presidential campaign. Brian and Marc examine numerous issues, including Rand’s re-introduction of “Audit the Fed,” his statements on gay marriage, Syrian refugees,  ISIS, his focus on justice reform and much more. They also give Rand an official grade for 2015.

With 2016 right around the corner, no man, woman or child should begin the new year without knowing everything that pleated Rand’s pants this past year.

 

 

For the full show notes head on over to Lions of Liberty!

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MarcMadness's picture
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crabacado's picture

Rand's ground game in Iowa pays off and he wins the caucuses outright. I suspect he might be betting on that too. it would give a huge boost to his campaign, MSM could not ignore it.

A man who chops his own wood is warmed by it twice

MarcMadness's picture

It would be spectacular if he won, and I think he's got a much better chance in Iowa with the caucus format than he does in NH. Then again if he somehow won Iowa NH would be much more within reach. 

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BaneMaler's picture

I think I've aired my grievances with your negatives for the most part.  Its interesting that what isn't factored in these podcasts the fact that there is a literal blackout of Rand as there was of Ron.  The point is that his campaign has been effectively choked off unlike many of the other candidates, some of which consistently poll below Rand.  So it is no wonder that he took a dip after being talked up before he announced as the golden boy.  It is the classic pump and dump.  The media bolstered his support early to take him down out the box.  Just like they did to Carson, Fiorina, on and on.

You also neglect many things about Cruz.  He started off with 10's of millions of dollars out the gate.  He has huge PAC support and billionaire backers.  Who does Rand have in these catagories?  I don't think Rand has even raised the amount of money that Cruz has just in those first months after announcing.  Cruz by being the type of Rand that we all don't want to see, over many years has embodied the uber Conservative that the base of the party has been waiting for.  He certainly doesn't represent the libertarian wing although he effectively panders where he can.  It also helps that Ron and Rand endorsed his campaign for the Senate early on to give him further street cred.

How many times will you hear the name Rand on Conservative talk radio.  I think if you did some scientific fact checking people like Rush, Hannity, and Levin probably use his name 1x out of every 600 times they mention anyone else.  That's how you kill a campaign in the Republican party, its called the whisper campaign.  Ron had money at the very least.

BTW Chris Christie is one of these types that gets mentioned all the time though he is polling below Rand in many polls.  Jeb Bush has spent more money than most of the candidates put together and he polls in the margin of error to Rand, yet he is still talked consistently.  I don't think anyone in the history of politics has spent as much money as Jeb and had 6-10% nationally, it has to be a record for least bang for the buck.  If you are familiar with the narrative it isn't hard to know why losers continue to get revived again and again.  In some ways, disregarding all of these factors you become a parody of the MSM discussing Rand.  I rarely sense that there is any insight into what the actual campaign is doing and is rather an analysis of the sound bytes fed through the media filter.

 

Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
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MarcMadness's picture

And appreciate your perspective as well. Certainly a candidate like Rand will always be at a major disadvantage when it comes to media coverage, and it's an uphill battle for anyone fighting for truth and liberty. At the same time, I think we can all recognize many of the major flaws in Rand's campaign which have led to the fizzling of what had been an enthusiastic base of support from his father, and with that he has lost much of the potential money and effort that would come from much of that base. 

All true with Cruz, I don't buy that he's a liberty candidate for one second, but those Paul endorsements sure have been milked for everything they're worth, and seem to have helped convince at least some portion of liberty activists. 

and yes, it's absurd that the MSM acts like Christie and Jeb are "top tier" while acting like Rand will be the next to drop out. I think Carson and Jeb will be done while Rand still stays in the race, whether that's just before or just after Iowa. 

Appreciate your perspective and thanks for listening!

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