Mitch McConnell hires Jesse Benton to run his 2014 re-election bid

[Sola_Fide]

I dont know. I genuinely think that this may be part of Rand's power play. Rand has McConnell right where he wants him. McConnell is going to have to capitulate to the Tea Party now. And now, the Senate leadership could be a conduit for Rand's political power. It sounds conceivable to me.

 

[supermario21]

Right about this.

How is it that Kokesh can have any support after directly attacking Ron Paul is beyond me.

Ron Paul is simply a Robert Taft style, old school, true conservative.

I also agree with this. We are conservatives. I always like it when Ron gets labeled as a libertarian and usually tries to correct people by correctly identifying himself instead as a traditional conservative. Our task is just to stay as united as possible. When you start getting lofted into the mainstream (as we slowly but surely are) its important to keep our organizational strength. That is what will separate us from the libertarian party which continues to flounder in irrelevancy, because of its lack of organizational strength and will power.

 

[parocks]

Graham will be easier to primary than McConnell. Graham is more of a moderate in the eyes of most people (Even though to us, they both suck) and South Carolina is a good breeding ground of limited government. I know this thread has been going on awhile lol but I can't understand how you would jump ship like this, especially after McConnell campaigned against Rand essentially in 2010...On the flip side, I think this is a sign that unless you seek to embrace the limited government crusaders, YOU WILL LOSE! Really looks like Ron was right when he said we are the future.

Yes, to "us", every Republican who isn't Ron Paul is exactly the same. Completely untrue, but "we" believe it.

 

[Feeding the Abscess]

Well maybe you can change my join date to July 1960 when I sat at the RNC in Chicago and was inspired by Goldwater's speech which called on Conservatives to take back the party.

My point about people maybe being better off in an LP or CP is that it seems that every move that has taken place by someone other than Ron Paul over the last few months has been met with staunch criticism from the majority of people on this site. The LP and CP take a far more dogmatic approach to things, which seems to be the preference of a lot of the folks here on this site. Everything from Rand's endorsement, to Bill's endorsement, to Cruz's endorsement, to Rand appearing at FreePac and a litany of other events have all been met with disapproval from the majority of folks on here. Rand will more than likely endorse and campaign for McConnell in 14, and I am sure that most of the folks here won't be in favor of that at all.

The LP has run a drug warrior former GOPer and a wishy washy CATO-libertarian the last two cycles; I'd hardly say the party is full of Rothbardians anymore.

 

[sailingaway]

Well maybe you can change my join date to July 1960 when I sat at the RNC in Chicago and was inspired by Goldwater's speech which called on Conservatives to take back the party.

My point about people maybe being better off in an LP or CP is that it seems that every move that has taken place by someone other than Ron Paul over the last few months has been met with staunch criticism from the majority of people on this site. The LP and CP take a far more dogmatic approach to things, which seems to be the preference of a lot of the folks here on this site. Everything from Rand's endorsement, to Bill's endorsement, to Cruz's endorsement, to Rand appearing at FreePac and a litany of other events have all been met with disapproval from the majority of folks on here. Rand will more than likely endorse and campaign for McConnell in 14, and I am sure that most of the folks here won't be in favor of that at all.

If you sat it out through Ron, I wonder how lasting your impression from Goldwater was, but that is a personal bias, on my part. But do note this forum was inspired by RON, who doesn't seem to have gotten you here.

A lot of the problem was the timing of Rand's endorsement, and then people were generally angry with him, period. That also created a sore spot with endorsements. The problem with McConnell's is that it might actually have impact. This is why McConnell wants it, of course. But is also why it is damaging, or 'uses political capital' for Rand to do it.

 

[NewRightLibertarian]

Score one for the pure libertarians around here. Minus one for the establishment wannabes who defended this chubby putz for so long. But I'm sure he's going on the McConnell campaign to subvert it for liberty, LMFAO!

 

[tsai3904]

That isn't remotely the reason we'd not go after McConnell. That wouldn't stop us.

I know it wouldn't stop us from supporting someone trying to primary McConnell but I think it should stop us. Like you said "our resources are powerful when targeted". If we spread our resources too thin, we risk not winning anything.

 

[CaptLouAlbano]

If you sat it out through Ron, I wonder how lasting your impression from Goldwater was, but that is a personal bias, on my part. But do note this forum was inspired by RON, who doesn't seem to have gotten you here.

Didn't sit it out at all. A join date on a web forum is no indication of what one has done in the real world. I have held elected office for most of my adult life. I'm currently laid up from some surgery and this is an interesting way to spend some time. You can only watch so much TV.

 

[The Gold Standard]

Then this better result in a real change in Mitch's legislative agenda. Otherwise, Rand is being played.

You don't understand. If Rand doesn't back McConnell, then his machine is not unstoppable anymore. So, all we have to do for an unstoppable national machine is to back to the establishment, big government, warmongers of the GOP. Then we will all be on the winning team.

 

[sailingaway]

I know it wouldn't stop us from supporting someone trying to primary McConnell but I think it should stop us. Like you said "our resources are powerful when targeted". If we spread our resources too thin, we risk not winning anything.

We could easily manage TWO, and with that profile, those two would be our top two.

 

[parocks]

Rand already has a Senate seat. How would Rand be a threat to Mitch?

Rand and Benton could've possibly worked hard to help Tea Party candidate X against Mitch. That team is the team that could do damage to Mitch, and it doesn't appear at all like that's going to happen.

 

[Feeding the Abscess]

I know it wouldn't stop us from supporting someone trying to primary McConnell but I think it should stop us. Like you said "our resources are powerful when targeted". If we spread our resources too thin, we risk not winning anything.

If Rand and co are going to back the establishment of the establishment, it's time to withdraw resources from anything to do with Rand Paul and focus it on candidates who are actually running against the status quo.

 

[georgiaboy]

Yes, I know. Unless it results in some position-changing, which admittedly I'm not too optimistic about...

If Rand can't negotiate some substantive legislative rationale for supporting Mitch, it'd be better if Mitch lost to a D in 2014, giving actual conservatives a chance in 2020.

Getting a Republican majority can't be the only reply, either. An R majority can even be more damaging with a bad agenda.

For all its promise, I'd sure hate for the Rand Machine to end up being ultimately ineffectual.

 

[DjLoTi]

Jesse lost his chance to make a real difference in the nation. The Ron Paul campaign is over. He was a big problem in the bigger problem of the official Ron Paul campaign. I think Tom Woods says it best. http://www.tomwoods.com/blog/my-memories-of-jesse-bento/

 

[brandon]

I wonder what his wife thinks about all this? Is she just happy that the money is rolling in?

 

[Feeding the Abscess]

I dont know. I genuinely think that this may be part of Rand's power play. Rand has McConnell right where he wants him. McConnell is going to have to capitulate to the Tea Party now. And now, the Senate leadership could be a conduit for Rand's political power. It sounds conceivable to me.

Too many maybes for support. If Rand is going full blown Leninist, it's time to withdraw support and channel it elsewhere.

 

[parocks]

It wasn't a prediction. It was an "aloud" musing. Don't talk to me. You piss me off.

Yeah, feel free to go elsewhere if you like.

 

[tsai3904]

If Rand and co are going to back the establishment of the establishment, it's time to withdraw resources from anything to do with Rand Paul and focus it on candidates who are actually running against the status quo.

Who are those candidates?

 

[rideurlightning]

And NOBODY wanted to believe Kokesh. And now you all must feel very stupid.

 

[orenbus]

What happened to http://ronpaulcountry.com ? It just disappeared months and months ago, after you and DAS spent so much time hyping it and hyping it and hyping it here on RPF?

We never had any plan to run it forever, initially the idea was to keep it running for the first number of state contests and then based on those results see where we were. Since it was strictly a voluntary effort it took a lot of time on many different peoples parts to keep things going, but was never considered something that would be permanent. A couple of months ago I got sick and ended up in a hospital bed for close to a month spending some time in the cardiac telemetry wing, ambulanced to another area hospital, and had to have a number of surgical procedures done associated with my pancreas and gallbladder, during that time the site went down.