The Official Rand Paul CPAC Thread

[William Tell]

Mike Lee's ideal presidential candidate.

 

[RabbitMan]

Here’s an exclusive excerpt from Paul’s CPAC speech from Politico:

“We need to return to our founding principles and stand up for the entire Bill of Rights. Our future can include a road back to prosperity — back to respect at home and abroad. It should include a balanced budget and a simple, fair tax system.

“It should include a government that protects your rights and your security. It should include a stronger, better and more agile military. It’s time for a new way. A new set of ideas. A new leader: One you can trust — one who works for you. And above all: It’s time for a new president!”

NOM NOM NOM MOR PLZ

 

[orenbus]

Watched the Scott Walker speech and Q&A, not that impressed.

 

[kahless]

Watched the Scott Walker speech and Q&A, not that impressed.

I did not see it yet but know I certainly cannot rely on twitter or the media reports for CPAC. I saw the Christie Q&A since the media was reporting it as tough. After seeing it I was like was there another Q&A. No mention of his war on gun owners, Shannen Allen or the school teacher with the antique gun.

I am guessing no matter how it goes they have their talking points prepared.

Rich Lowry @RichLowry · 4h 4 hours ago
Strong performance by Chris Christie under tough but fair questioning by @IngrahamAngle

Rich Lowry @RichLowry · 4m 4 minutes ago
Judging by this afternoon at CPAC and the rhetoric around ISIS, the party has left behind flirtation w/ Rand Paul-style foreign policy

Rich Lowry ‏@RichLowry 17m17 minutes ago
A barn-burner from Scott Walker. Lit up the crowd, handled heckler adroitly, touted his extensive record--very impressive performance

 

[Brett85]

Judging by this afternoon at CPAC and the rhetoric around ISIS, the party has left behind flirtation w/ Rand Paul-style foreign policy

He must mean Ron Paul style foreign policy. Rand introduced a declaration of war against ISIS. I just hate how these people distort and misrepresent Rand's positions and make it sound like he's exactly the same as Ron on foreign policy.

 

[eleganz]

Watched the Scott Walker speech and Q&A, not that impressed.

Did he get a lot of applause/support?

 

[orenbus]

Yea honestly I was more impressed with the first half of Sarah Palin's speech and her emotional delivery where she went in depth on Soldiers coming back from Iraq and the statistics on what they have to suffer/deaths such as PTSD, Suicides, 80% divorce rate, 6k+ dead, lack of support from the V.A., scandal/corruption, etc. She was making a really good case as to why we should treat our soldiers better. She could have made a really good argument about never getting involved in undeclared wars and the mistake of having gone into Iraq and that we owe the soldiers more than that and to never make the same mistakes again if she wanted, but she didn't unfortunately. Second half of her speech went down the toilet though she spun it in a way to argue that we need to send a large force back to the middle east to deal with ISIS since only the U.S. can. /sigh

edit: here's video starts out good, but yea half way through eh...

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin closed the first day of the 2015 Conservative Political Action Conference with a speech surprisingly lacking in partisan barbs and heavy on advocacy for U.S. military veterans suffering from PTSD and reacclimatizing to civilian work.

Contrary to her 2013 CPAC speech, Palin did not use any props; and contrary to her 2014 speech, she did not focus exclusively on her usual brand of hokey jabs at her nemeses.

Rather, as even many media members noticed, her speech was a rather straightforward and serious one that focused on the government’s poor treatment of U.S. military veterans — especially those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder — and her take on ISIS and the fight with “radical Islam” abroad.

She largely avoided partisan issues until she addressed Obama administration claims that we cannot simply kill ISIS out of existence. “Tell that to the Nazis!” she replied. “Oh wait, you can’t — because they’re dead.”

The former governor also took a “lightning-round” of word association questions, notably answering “Sorry” for both “Hillary Clinton” and “Barack Obama.”
http://www.mediaite.com/tv/sarah-pa...rans-in-surprisingly-un-gimmicky-cpac-speech/

 

[orenbus]

Did he get a lot of applause/support?

He did but a lot of them get a lot of applause, the only ones that don't are the non-headliners because the room empties out since people don't care as much to listen so they go eat lunch or whatever till the next headliner.

 

[kahless]

He must mean Ron Paul style foreign policy. Rand introduced a declaration of war against ISIS. I just hate how these people distort and misrepresent Rand's positions and make it sound like he's exactly the same as Ron on foreign policy.

No doubt he knows that and it was an intentional smear that works since many people do not follow all that closely. All the average Joe hears is the name Paul and these bs talking points.

 

[Sola_Fide]

Rather, as even many media members noticed, her speech was a rather straightforward and serious one that focused on the government’s poor treatment of U.S. military veterans — especially those suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder — and her take on ISIS and the fight with “radical Islam” abroad.

She largely avoided partisan issues until she addressed Obama administration claims that we cannot simply kill ISIS out of existence. “Tell that to the Nazis!” she replied. “Oh wait, you can’t — because they’re dead.”

That sounds so dumb.

 

[ross11988]

So I'm here at CPAC. Coming in I was worried about the surge in Scott Walker. It couldn't be more of the opposite. I Don't recall seeing any support for him. However Ben Carson is huge! It really took me surprise, but who it's going to come down to is Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. Cruz had a great speech this morning if anyone saw it they would agree. Many of the Ted Cruz supporters still came over to the YAL table and still wanted Rand buttons and shirts. So where those votes will go is to be seen. Tomorrow is going to be interesting to see Rand's turnout. But my prediction is going to be:

Rand - 25%
Cruz - 20%
Carson - 15%

 

[libertyplz]

Thanks for reporting in, was wondering what it was like there support wise, couldn't really find much. I was also thinking Walker would be Rand's biggest obstacle, but I guess that's not the case if your reading on the support is accurate. Looking forward to watching Rand tomorrow

So far I've only listened to Nigel Farage but I'll probably look up what Cruz and Walker had to say as well in a bit. I didn't know Farage would be there speaking until I read something about it a little while ago. I liked his speech and I'm glad he didn't shy away from speaking out against the disastorous intervention in the middle east. I think he added a good outside perspective on intervention and hopefully some pro-war people will wake up. I don't know much about him, as I don't follow British/European politics, but from what I've heard I like him

 

[Crashland]

So I'm here at CPAC. Coming in I was worried about the surge in Scott Walker. It couldn't be more of the opposite. I Don't recall seeing any support for him. However Ben Carson is huge! It really took me surprise, but who it's going to come down to is Ted Cruz and Rand Paul. Cruz had a great speech this morning if anyone saw it they would agree. Many of the Ted Cruz supporters still came over to the YAL table and still wanted Rand buttons and shirts. So where those votes will go is to be seen. Tomorrow is going to be interesting to see Rand's turnout. But my prediction is going to be:

Rand - 25%
Cruz - 20%
Carson - 15%

I just watched Cruz's speech - I was not impressed at all. I lost count of how many times I rolled my eyes during it, and it was capped off with Sean Hannity of all people sucking his **** with the softball Q&A. The more I hear from Cruz the less I like him. I find his approach to be somewhat patronizing. I am tired of hearing politicians like him make grandiose claims about things like killing ISIS, abolishing the IRS, repealing Obamacare,...etc, only to have those words, backed up with no substance, evaporate into thin air and getting everyone in the room high on them. And the longer the GOP keeps holding onto Cruz's recipe of trying to revitalize the Reagan coalition of fiscal conservatives, social conservatives, and war hawks, in order to scratch out 51% of the vote, the longer the GOP will keep losing. The coalition that will win overwhelmingly is the coalition of just about everyone who is fed up with both parties. Freedom is the winning message that brings everyone together, and Rand is a thousand miles ahead of Cruz (and everyone else, for that matter) in building that kind of change. Carson's speech wasn't bad, but there's no way he will win the straw poll or the nomination.

 

[orenbus]

One of the things I can't get over when it comes to Cruz is he looks and sounds like a used car salesman.

 

[francisco]

One of the things I can't get over when it comes to Cruz is he looks and sounds like a smarmy used car salesman.

fify

Word on the street (my source is an article in the WSJ from some months ago) is that even his Republican colleagues can't stand Cruz. Supposedly people getting on an elevator with him won't talk to him or even turn their backs. He has negative charisma. No way does a guy like that advance to the nomination. Anyone doing that needs friends along the way.

 

[invisible]

One of the things I can't get over when it comes to Cruz is he looks and sounds like a used car salesman.

I always thought that about sam brownback in those early 2007 debates, but cruz is certainly a good contender for that as well.

 

[eleganz]

I just watched Cruz's speech - I was not impressed at all. I lost count of how many times I rolled my eyes during it, and it was capped off with Sean Hannity of all people sucking his **** with the softball Q&A. The more I hear from Cruz the less I like him. I find his approach to be somewhat patronizing. I am tired of hearing politicians like him make grandiose claims about things like killing ISIS, abolishing the IRS, repealing Obamacare,...etc, only to have those words, backed up with no substance, evaporate into thin air and getting everyone in the room high on them. And the longer the GOP keeps holding onto Cruz's recipe of trying to revitalize the Reagan coalition of fiscal conservatives, social conservatives, and war hawks, in order to scratch out 51% of the vote, the longer the GOP will keep losing. The coalition that will win overwhelmingly is the coalition of just about everyone who is fed up with both parties. Freedom is the winning message that brings everyone together, and Rand is a thousand miles ahead of Cruz (and everyone else, for that matter) in building that kind of change. Carson's speech wasn't bad, but there's no way he will win the straw poll or the nomination.

Yea but you're not the average CPAC participant. Outside of the YAL/youth contingency that is there to give Rand a firm hold, he still needs to sway the average attendee his way. Some attendees that hear Cruz love what he has to say about killing ISIS and repealing Obamacare.

 

[orenbus]

 

[orenbus]

 

[LawnWake]

This. Is. Amazing.