Pollster.com

C'mon Conway!!

Laughing at the whole Paul vs. Grayson thing. the GOP is totally freaked out at Paul running with some good reason... Conway could knock him out!

I think that the GOP establishment feels about the same way about Rand Paul running loose on the campaign circuit as Schmidt did about the prospect of Sarah Palin speaking her mind.
Imagine Rand telling VFW legion posts how he opposed the Iraq war.

It will definitely be an interesting/fun campaign. If Conway is the candidate he may just pull it off, especially if the generic ballot continues to shift slightly back towards Dems. KY has a Dem majority, albeit a very conservative one that's been voting Republican lately. Generic Republican a la Mitch McConnell is one thing....Rand Paul is another.

This country needs more Ron and Rand Pauls. If only to keep the republican party in check.

Also, another voice on economic policy would be nice. The GOP/Dems are damn near identical when theyre in power.

@Rockym92:

Ron Paul...perhaps, because he actually talks the talk and walks the walk regarding his libertarian issues, including drug laws. Ron...not so much because he's had to walk a few things back already...like his views on drug laws, after he was attacked for them. KY isn't a place for a true libertarian, and Rand isn't Ron. But...what is is "kooky" enough to be a problem for KY conservatives and, especially, the conservative establishment.

Conway is making a comeback. This race is unlikely for the Dems to take, yet this is a state where Obama never campaigned and really isn't very popular, so Conway can have an independent way of promoting his platform.

Rand Paul is a libertarian, but c'mon how is he going to be a complete libertarian? He will start making some exceptions to libertarianism once he has to start reaching out to the Christian right. He'll have to reach out to veterans as well, and they will ask him questions like, "what are you gonna do about the arab in the white house who keeps allowing other terrorists in the country". What is Paul going to say? The war in Iraq and Afghanistan was wrong?

Is he going to be a true libertarian or just say he is a libertarian like so many others, and be more like a neo-con.

@Farleft

Ron Paul is a libertarian, a constitutionalist, a traditional conservative, a classical liberal, a member of the old Republican Party and so on. It's funny when these words (liberal and conservative) are thrown around because at different points in time they have meant totally different things. The classical definition of a liberal is today's Libertarian Party. And today's Libertarian Party is also the Republican Party of the past. So it's real confusing to the average guy.

That being said I'm going to use the word libertarian. I honestly believe that Rand is more of a libertarian then he is letting people know. He is trying to win. I'm willing to bet once he gets in office, he's going to be a lot more like his dad. I think that'd be a real good thing, some don't.

But he is showing his libertarian side when he talks about the Patriot Act, which he opposes and when he talks about the economy. He is a strict Austrian Free market capitalism guy like his dad and he makes that clear. When it comes to drug, social issues and war I think he is just holding his inner feelings in. He doesn't want to lose support from the social conservatives, but when he gets in office I'm willing to be he will be more like his dad on these issues.

ndirish11:

Excellent analysis regarding Paul. I'm not sure I buy that the Libertarian Party of today is the Republican party of the past.

In the 20s Hoover supported Prohibition, while his opponent Al Smith adamantly opposed it. I assume Ron Paul would not support Prohibition.

In the 30s, yes, Republicans were isolationists, by and large, and opposed Roosevelt's efforts to pass big ticket legislation to deal with the depression. But I'm not sure that this period could rightly be called libertarian.

Ike presided over 90% tax rates, used American boys and assets to continue fighting the Korean war, he also expanded Social Security, provided student loans, and raised the minimum wage from $.75 to $1.00, a 1/3 raise.

Nixon, an old-style Republican was slow to get out of Vietnam and was an internationalist, rabidly anti-drug use, pro-health insurance reform (through employer mandates) and took many other positions that don't jive at all with libertarian views.

Repubs never supported repeal of drug laws to my knowledge nor did they support repeal of miscegenation laws, Jim Crow laws, or other discriminatory laws (Lincoln never had the chance to weight in on this debate) until Ike. These laws restrict freedom and use the power of government to enforce behaviors it doesn't like.