Rand Paul Is the 2016 Republican Frontrunner

[xchrom]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2014/01/rand-paul-is-the-2016-republican-frontrunner/283258/




If Chris Christie was ever the frontrunner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, he isn’t anymore. All along, the theory behind his candidacy was that he could overcome his lack of conservative bona fides with a combination of personality, competence, electability, and money. Bridgegate undermines all four.

In the minds of many voters, Christie’s personality has morphed from brash to bully. It’s harder to look competent when your top aides egregiously abused power under your nose. Christie’s supposed electability was based partly on polls showing that he was the only potential Republican nominee running even with Hillary Clinton. But Marist and Quinnipiac, whose surveys showed Clinton and Christie virtually tied in December, now show him trailing her by 13 and 8 points, respectively. The electability argument also depended on Christie’s supposed success in bringing New Jerseyans together across party lines, a harder claim now that Democrats in the state legislature are talking impeachment. And as Christie’s electability erodes, so will his vaunted support among GOP moneymen. As a Republican insider recently told BuzzFeed’s McKay Coppins, “There are definitely people jumping ship.”

So if Christie is no longer the candidate to beat in the 2016 Republican race, who is? Believe it or not, it’s Rand Paul.

To understand the Kentucky senator’s hidden strength, it’s worth remembering this basic fact about the modern GOP: It almost never nominates first-time candidates. Since 1980, George W. Bush is the only first-timer to win a Republican nomination. And since Bush used the political network his father built, he enjoyed many of the benefits of someone who had run before. It’s the same with Paul. In both Iowa and New Hampshire, he begins with an unparalleled infrastructure left over from his father Ron Paul’s 2008 and 2012 campaigns.

[shenmue]

1. Oh what?

I can't wait for him to lose.

[MoonRiver]

2. Thus guaranteeing 4 more years of a Democrat in the White House!

[malaise]

3. That racist ignorant self loving moran???

Dems can put up the party mascot - the donkey

[Swede Atlanta]

5. In general I agree with you......

he can easily be portrayed as a tea party nut case by the Democrats.

Poll after poll show that Independents want a government that works and perceive the tea party as obstructionists that are not interested in doing what is in the country's best interest.

Whether or not the latest poll showing the majority of Americans self-identify as Independents is really accurate is beside the point. The point is most Americans claim to be Independent.

Rand Paul is different than GWB. GWB ran on "compassionate conservatism" and whether he actually won or not, he was not broadly seen as extreme. He was certainly extreme on issues such as abortion, etc. but not broadly.

So hopefully the fact that GWB squeaked in there with Daddy's friends on the SCOTUS could not be repeated with someone like Rand Paul but the American people can be fickle so I don't rule him out completely.

[bullwinkle428]

12. You forgot "plagiarizing".

[Gothmog]

4. The GOP May to go back to Romney

Rand is an idiot. I am predicting that the sane faction will want to bring back Romney

[B Calm]

6. His stand on legalizing marijuana on a federal level

might put him in the White House if the Democratic party doesn't wake the hell up!

[pampango]

7. We should be so lucky. "Paul will never be the darling of the GOP establishment. But Oliver’s

attendance highlights the difficulty Republican elites may have in forging a unified front against him. In 2012, Ron Paul gained exactly one senatorial endorsement: his son’s. Rand Paul, by contrast, enters the 2016 campaign as a close ally of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who recently made a former Ron Paul and Rand Paul staffer his campaign manager.

If there’s one thing that could obviate all this, it’s the possibility that Paul could suffer his own candidacy-crippling scandal. He’s already gotten himself into trouble for plagiarism and employing neo-Confederates. Who knows what the media will turn up when the real vetting that greets a presidential candidate begins?

But even taking that possibility into account, Paul is in a stronger position than many in the media recognize. On issues from NSA surveillance to drug legalization to gay marriage, the GOP is moving in his direction. For his part, Paul is gaining acceptance within the Republican mainstream. It’s just possible that 2016 could be another 1964 or 1980, years when the Republican establishment proved weak and pliable enough to allow a candidate previously considered extreme to come in from the cold.

There’s no way of knowing at this point, of course. But political commentators are making a big mistake if they disregard the chance.

I'm not so sure that "the GOP moving in his direction. This could get interesting.

[NuclearDem]

8. Given the clusterfuck that was the 2012 GOP primary

I tend to put little faith in early GOP presidential front runner statuses.

[MrScorpio]

9. He's all ready to get behind the wheel of the Klown Kar… Fill 'er up!

[MineralMan]

10. FRP! nt

[randome]

11. And here's his running mate!

[hr][font color="blue"][center]"There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in."
Leonard Cohen, Anthem (1992)[/center][/font][hr]

[SidDithers]

13. There will be much celebrating at Code Pink...

#StandWithRand

Sid

[GeorgeGist]

14. We live in a sad country ...

when lackluster frat boys are considered presidential.

[quinnox]

15. It would certainly make things very interesting, but

I doubt the repubs would nominate him. It would be like the Dem party nominating Kucinich.

[ananda]

16. Wow.

This is good.

[Enthusiast]

17. He's a fucking loon.............nt

[BootinUp]

18. Rand Paul is a buffoon and a distraction

and Kentucky didn't help itself when it elected him.

[lame54]

19. through elimination

[Dawgs]

20. Isn't he the Republican that could barely win in Kentucky? n/t

[msanthrope]

21. Good. nt

[Orsino]

22. Can't wait to watch him making first contact with Terrans. n/t

[LondonReign2]

23. Jeb or Rubio

Yeah they suck, but the Reps can't win without Floriduh.

[Blue Owl]

24. Jebio

The GOP hybrid president