Rand Paul to GOP: Our voter ID push is “offending people”

[carlton]

Rand Paul to GOP: Our voter ID push is “offending people”

"I’ve been waiting three hours since I saw this tweet for the NYT to publish a transcript or story about what he said, but no dice as I’m writing this. If it happens tonight, I’ll update with a link. The quote’s almost certainly not out of context, though: Remember, Paul told David Axelrod a few weeks ago that he thinks the GOP might be overemphasizing the issue. What’s newsy about this is the tone. Sounds like he’s gone from “maybe this isn’t a great idea” to “let’s drop it, quickly.”


Jeremy W. Peters @jwpetersNYT
Just sat down w @SenRandPaul after his meeting with black pastors. He says GOP needs to lay off voter ID. "It's offending people."

http://hotair.com/archives/2014/05/09/rand-paul-to-gop-our-voter-id-push-is-offending-people

The comments are horrible.. whatever happened to Rand playing the game? I think for the sake of the primaries Rand needs to tack to the right sooner than later or he'll continue to slowly hemorrhage so called Conservative support.



[mod edit] NYT article for full context:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/10/u...push-on-voting-laws-is-alienating-blacks.html

 

[Tywysog Cymru]

The comments are horrible.. whatever happened to Rand playing the game? I think for the sake of the primaries Rand needs to tack to the right sooner than later or he'll continue to slowly hemorrhage so called Conservative support.

I don't see very many Conservatives thinking: "I like Rand Paul, but I won't vote for him because voter IDs!"

 

[juleswin]

Hmm, that is not what he said a year ago. I dont think normal people have any problem with voter ID laws because the vast majority of the people have drivers license

 

[carlton]

It plays into the larger narrative being painted right now that Rand has gone squishee and is selling out his conservative beliefs to garner votes from groups that dont usually vote for Republicans. A lot of these "Freeper" types even consider Rand a RINO now. I don't agree but I think that their resentment in Rand wasn't seen a year or so ago.. he is losing some support along the periphery.

 

[P3ter_Griffin]

Good on him. Requiring a state sanctioned ID to vote IS giving the state control of who can vote, even if it isn't the supposed intent or how the law is applied at first. Hopefully he'll get off the fucking fence and come out against it.

 

[pulp8721]

The original article has been modified slightly:

“Everybody’s gone completely crazy on this voter ID thing,” Mr. Paul said in an interview. “I think it’s wrong for Republicans to go too crazy on this issue because it’s offending people.”

Mr. Paul becomes the most prominent member of his party — and among the very few — to distance himself from the voting restrictions and the campaign for their passage in states under Republican control, including North Carolina, Ohio and Wisconsin, that can determine presidential elections. Civil rights groups call the laws a transparent effort to depress black turnout. Speaking here in a mostly black and Democratic city with its own painful history of racism, Mr. Paul said that much of the debate over voting rights had been swept up in the tempest of racial politics.

The senator has had his own struggles with civil rights issues, hedging at times on his support for the Civil Rights Act of 1964. And, notably, he did not on Friday denounce voter ID laws as bad policy or take back previous statements in which he had said it was not unreasonable for voters to be required to show identification at the polls. He says these laws should be left to the states. (Kentucky does not have a restrictive voter identification statute.)

nytimes.com/2014/05/10/us/politics/paul-says-gop-push-on-voting-laws-is-alienating-blacks.html?hpw&rref=us&_r=0

 

[Natural Citizen]

Papers please...

 

[Inkblots]

The comments are horrible.. whatever happened to Rand playing the game?

I think you're failing to grasp how unrepresentative the Hotair peanut gallery is of even the GOP base. I've not seen the plurality view of the comments section there win in reality since at least 2007.

In short: if Hotairheads and Freepers are calling you a RINO, you're probably doing what's necessary to have a shot at the nomination.

 

[TaftFan]

Rand is beating off his conservative base with a big stick. Whoever is inviting him to take this strategy is a total idiot and will cost him the nomination.

 

[hardrightedge]

Everyone knows the D's are huge cheats and scam artists...

This outreach tour is really screwing with his mind...Why is he falling for their bullshit?

 

[Crashland]

Not sure where Rand is going with this one. Don't the polls show that voters across the board favor voter ID laws, even dems? It is a sensitive issue for some but I don't think the answer is to back off your position, the answer is to reassure that let's make sure to do this fairly and not disenfranchise anyone or make it difficult for anyone who is eligible to vote.

 

[Brett85]

This is utterly ridiculous.

 

[RonPaulFanInGA]

TrollPundit posts any story he knows will rile the rubes about Rand Paul, every chance he gets. I can't imagine how bad his concern trolling will be in 2015.

 

[jjdoyle]

Rand is beating off his conservative base with a big stick. Whoever is inviting him to take this strategy is a total idiot and will cost him the nomination.

I don't know, Amnesty McCain got it.
BUT, I do think if he is playing this game, he should be looking at the results of what happened to McCain the general election. Even Romney. Pandering on these issues will not win you the voters that supposedly care so much about them, but may very well cost you some of your very own base that ends up sitting at home. The voters that issues like this are supposedly "offending" will remain Democrat, as the day is long.

 

[Brett85]

TrollPundit posts any story he knows will rile the rubes about Rand Paul, every chance he gets. I can't imagine how bad his concern trolling will be in 2015.

I can't imagine how bad things will be for Rand in the GOP primary in 2016 if he keeps saying stuff like this.

 

[RonPaulFanInGA]

I think you're failing to grasp how unrepresentative the Hotair peanut gallery is of even the GOP base. I've not seen the plurality view of the comments section there win in reality since at least 2007.

In short: if Hotairheads and Freepers are calling you a RINO, you're probably doing what's necessary to have a shot at the nomination.

My God, thank you. Why can't people here grasp this? HotAir and Free Republic internet comments are about the most unrepresentative thing one can cite to reference the mood of the national GOP primary electorate. McCain was dead-last with about 1.3% support in a Free Republic site poll in mid-2007, behind even Jim Gilmore. Their most hated candidates (McCain and Romney) won the past two cycles, while their biggest favorites (Fred Thompson, Palin, Cruz, Cain) are all duds.

Being opposed by those two site's members seems to almost be a good thing. Makes me worry Jeb Bush will win the nomination in 2016.

 

[Brett85]

My God, thank you. Why can't people here grasp this? HotAir and Free Republic internet comments are about the most unrepresentative thing one can cite to reference the mood of the national GOP primary electorate. McCain was dead-last with about 1.3% support in a Free Republic site poll in mid-2007, behind even Jim Gilmore. Their most hated candidates (McCain and Romney) won the past two cycles, while their biggest favorites (Fred Thompson, Palin, Cruz, Cain) are all duds.

Being opposed by those two site's members seems to almost be a good thing. Makes me worry Jeb Bush will win the nomination in 2016.

And McCain and Romney lost because the Free Republic type people didn't show up to vote for them in the general election.

 

[RonPaulFanInGA]

And McCain and Romney lost because the Free Republic type people didn't show up to vote for them in the general election.

No, they lost because no one was going to vote Republican in 2008 after eight years of Bush (McCain) and because of dumb comments about self-deporting Hispanics and 47% of Americans are lazy bums (Romney).

The percentage of the Hispanic population that votes Republican is declining fast. 44% voted Bush in 2004; 37% for McCain in 2008 and 27% for Romney in 2012. You're not going to win pushing the "landmines on the border, deport all illegals" candidate that Free Republic wants. They're a site populated by a dying, rapidly-dwindling-in-national-elections-relevance crowd of old, white neoconservative farts.

 

[jjdoyle]

My God, thank you. Why can't people here grasp this? HotAir and Free Republic internet comments are about the most unrepresentative thing one can cite to reference the mood of the national GOP primary electorate. McCain was dead-last with about 1.3% support in a Free Republic site poll in mid-2007, behind even Jim Gilmore. Their most hated candidates (McCain and Romney) won the past two cycles, while their biggest favorites (Fred Thompson, Palin, Cruz, Cain) are all duds.

Being opposed by those two site's members seems to almost be a good thing. Makes me worry Jeb Bush will win the nomination in 2016.

They won the nomination, and got steamrolled in the general. Which was my point. Pandering to certain groups (Democrat groups) might help you look "electable" to the old farts of the GOP that win you the Republican nomination, but in pandering to those groups and on those issues, you lose the base that is active on things like the internet.

President Obama lost several MILLION votes from 2008 to 2012. Mitt Romney picked up only about a million of those (if we assume the voters went from President Obama in 2008, to the Republican in 2012), and picked up two more states than McCain, but Romney still lost.

So, I would say being opposed by those two sites' members is a bad thing for the general election. Which, the main point of running a presidential campaign should be to win the presidency.

 

[philipped]

My God, thank you. Why can't people here grasp this? HotAir and Free Republic internet comments are about the most unrepresentative thing one can cite to reference the mood of the national GOP primary electorate. McCain was dead-last with about 1.3% support in a Free Republic site poll in mid-2007, behind even Jim Gilmore. Their most hated candidates (McCain and Romney) won the past two cycles, while their biggest favorites (Fred Thompson, Palin, Cruz, Cain) are all duds.

Being opposed by those two site's members seems to almost be a good thing. Makes me worry Jeb Bush will win the nomination in 2016.

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to RonPaulFanInGA again.