Free Republic

Two peas in the tea party pod, Rand Paul and Ted Cruz are actually looking to do opposite things as candidates for the presidency. Mr. Paul wants to expand the Republican brand, Mr. Cruz wants to narrow it.

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) welcomes Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) into the race for the Republican nomination.

He prepares to make his formal announcement Tuesday, Paul is a candidate who has turned fuzzy, having trimmed his positions and rhetoric so much that it’s unclear what kind of Republican he will present himself as when he takes the stage. “He’s going to get his moment in the sun,” said David Adams, who served as campaign chairman for Paul’s insurgent 2010 Senate campaign. “What he does with it from there will have bearing on the Republican Party.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) is the only major Republican likely 2016 presidential candidate who hasn't weighed in on the controversy over Indiana's "religious freedom" law that erupted this week — and his explanation for avoiding the issue is questionable.

1. Rand Paul is strong among libertarian Republicans and anti-war isolationists on foreign policy. 2. Ted Cruz is strong among pro-life evangelicals and those in favor of a hawkish interventionist foreign policy. He is also favored by those who see the elimination of Obama Care as a priority. 3. Scott Walker, as a governor, is favored by those who want someone with executive experience. He stood up against public sector unions, just like Reagan stood up against the air traffic controllers. The unions forced a recall election against Governor Walker but lost. Scott Walker is also favored among supporters of...

Sen. Ted Cruz no doubt wanted everything to be just right for his official presidential roll-out today at Liberty University in Virginia. He even went to the trouble of practicing everything from his wave to a kiss with his wife on Sunday. Enter a group of Rand Paul supporters. Several students wearing “Stand With Rand” shirts made their way into seats directly behind Cruz on stage this morning. The students' shirts were blurry yet visible in many of the shots during Cruz’s speech....

Rand Paul stopped by the SXSW Festival last weekend to show the tech savvy youth of today that he is a pretty cool dude who gets it when it comes to the issues they care about like privacy and cool apps. “I do Snapchat,” the Republican and probable candidate for president at one point said. During an interview with Texas Tribune CEO Evan Smith, the Senator from Kentucky did his best to woo the young tech crowd by linking concern over NSA spying programs with the libertarian narrative of an intrusive and abusive government. He referred to those in the...

Most of the likely Republican presidential candidates are supportive of the National Security Agency’s surveillance programs. But Americans who identify as Republican or lean that way appear to disagree. That’s according to a new survey from Pew Research, released on Monday, gauging post-Snowden attitudes on digital privacy and surveillance. Of respondents who were familiar with the NSA spying revelations, 70 percent of Republicans and those leaning Republican said they were losing confidence that the agency’s surveillance programs served the public interest. Just 55 percent of Democrats and those leaning Democratic said they had lost faith.... But the strong majority of...

Rand Paul will formally declare his candidacy for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination with a five-state, five-day announcement tour next month, Republicans knowledgeable about the Kentucky senator’s plans told The Washington Times. Mr. Paul will make his announcement first in Louisville at noon on April 7, then head to New Hampshire on April 8, Charleston, S.C., on April 9, Iowa City on April 10 and Las Vegas on April 11. Traditionally, presidential candidates enter the race by declaring in their home state and then flying to at least two of the first four states that hold presidential preference contests the...

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) told POLITICO on Friday that foreign contributions to the Clinton Foundation are “thinly veiled bribes,” and said Hillary Clinton should return any donations from Saudi Arabia or other countries that abuse the rights of women.

(LiveActionNews) — A common narrative in our society is that, by opposing abortion and infanticide, Christians are conducting a “war on women.” However, in a fascinating study entitled “The Rise of Christianity,” published by Princeton University Press, sociologist Rodney Stark argues that the phenomenal growth of “the obscure, marginal Jesus movement” was due in large part to women. Stark argues that early Christianity was “especially attractive to women” because “within the Christian subculture women enjoyed far higher status than did women in the Greco-Roman world at large.”Furthermore, Stark argues that the Christian opposition to abortion and infanticide was one of...

A veritable bevy of Republican presidential hopefuls have already hired staff, wooed deep-pocketed contributors and made speeches in Iowa and New Hampshire, proving what we already know: The 2016 nomination preseason is well underway. Fundraising, organization, the size of the field and the calendar all will play a significant role in affecting how the race unfolds. The outcome is uncertain. The current conventional wisdom is, in spite of changes intended to shorten the nominating process, the race for the GOP nomination could be more of a marathon than a sprint. The last two Republican presidential nominating fights — with John...

I don't know too much about Jim Rickards, just found this to be an interesting video about the overall economy and some tidbits about what our government agencies are up to. The video is a 45 minutes long interview of sorts and discussion. Just posting in the event other are interested.

AUSTIN, Texas — Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) slammed former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush as a “Democrat-light” who’s “almost like Hillary Clinton but not quite,” in an exclusive interview with Breitbart News at the South By Southwest conference. Paul also laid out his vision for his pathway to victory, should he jump in with a race for the White House as many expect him to—and explained how he plans to build a unique coalition of voters to win the GOP nomination and then the general election. Paul told Breitbart News: “We believe that the message of ‘leave me alone’ that forms...

Sens. Rand Paul, Cory Booker and Kirsten Gillibrand will introduce on Tuesday a Senate bill that would legalize medical marijuana under federal law, another possible step towards relaxation of once strict policies toward the drug. The Kentucky Republican and his New Jersey and New York Democratic colleagues will propose legislation that allows states that have passed medical marijuana laws to enact those programs without operating illegally under federal law. That bill would also allow veterans in states with medical marijuana programs to receive care from the government, according to guidance issued by their offices

Senators Kristen Gillibrand, Cory Booker, and Rand Paul announced that they plan to unveil legislation that would lift the federal ban on medical marijuana on Tuesday. The bill, which adheres to the unfortunate and by no means necessary rule that all attention-grabbing legislation must feature a tortured acronym, is called the Compassionate Access, Research Expansion and Respect States (CARERS) Act, and would “allow patients, doctors and businesses in states that have already passed medical marijuana laws to participate in those programs without fear of federal prosecution," according to a statement released by the co-sponsors. Medical marijuana is legal in 23...

With his outspoken views against foreign aid and a muscular foreign policy, Kentucky Republican Senator Rand Paul was less-than-enthused by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech on the Iranian nuclear threat.

The New Republic, in its February 8th issue, carries an article by Danny Vinik entitled Rand Paul Has the Most Dangerous Economic Views of Any 2016 Candidate. It appears that TNR’s fact checkers decamped along with its top journalists. Vinik: Speaking in front of more than 150 Iowa activists, Paul ripped into the Federal Reserve and promoted his “Audit the Fed” bill, which he introduced earlier this week. “I think there needs to be some sunshine,” he said, according to reports of the event. …Paul’s bill …would significantly damage the Fed’s independence, which exists so that politicians cannot influence the...

Obama dares Rand Paul to show up on the South Side of Chicago now - as he mocks GOP contender's claim that Republicans are 'the party of jobs and opportunity' As President Barack Obama hit out at Republicans who have criticized his economic policies, he singled out Republican Senator Rand Paul - who previously said income inequality has worsened under Obama's administration. During the Democratic National Committee's winter meeting today, Obama remarked on Paul's 2013 comment that the Republican party needs to show up on the South Side of Chicago and shout: 'We are the party of jobs and opportunity'....

Rand Paul traveled to Des Moines, Iowa, recently and delivered a sure-fire applause line. “Anybody here want to audit the Fed?” the Kentucky senator asked. “Anybody feel that the Fed’s out to get us?” He followed it up with an op-ed comparing the Federal Reserve to Lehman Brothers and calling it essentially bankrupt. The bash-the-Fed routine, perfected by Paul’s father, former Texas congressman Ron Paul, is political gold with libertarian voters suspicious of all federal authority, especially a central bank with a $4.5 trillion balance sheet.