"Former governor Mark Sanford won a Republican runoff election in South Carolina’s 1st congressional district on Tuesday, advancing to a head-to-head race against Democratic nominee Elizabeth Colbert Busch that early indicators suggest will be competitive. The ex-governor defeated Curtis Bostic, a former Charleston county council member, 57 percent to 43 percent." (04/02/13)
http://tinyurl.com/d3orsxo"Actress Ashley Judd is not running for Senate in Kentucky, she announced on her Twitter feed Wednesday afternoon. ... She had previously told Kentucky Democrats she planned to make a decision by May. But while some Washington Democrats privately expressed enthusiasm for her potential candidacy, touting her deep pockets and prominent profile, Kentucky Democrats have been less enthused." (03/27/13)
http://tinyurl.com/czdganr"Disgraced ex-governor Mark Sanford cleared the first hurdle of his political comeback bid on Tuesday night, earning a spot in a runoff for the GOP nomination in his former congressional district. The winner of the April 2 GOP runoff will face Democrat Elizabeth Colbert Busch, a political novice with a famous last name. She is the older sister of comedian Stephen Colbert and the director of business development at an old naval shipyard." (03/19/13)
http://tinyurl.com/d9vaz7f"The Republican National Committee's 'autopsy' of the 2012 election acknowledges some of the failures that resulted in the party losing the national popular vote for the fifth time in the last six races. It also ignores a major reason why the GOP’s base is shrinking. But one particular aspect of the report rings particularly false -- an effort to find a silver lining in the party’s image problem ..." (03/19/13)
http://www.salon.com/2013/03/19/the_gops_phony_silver_lining/"Marco Rubio, the junior senator from Florida, came in second Saturday to Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul in the presidential straw poll at the big annual Conservative Political Action Conference, or CPAC. But just barely. Senator Rubio got 23 percent to Senator Paul’s 25 -- the only two people to score in double digits of the 23 potential candidates on the ballot (plus 44 write-ins). There are two big reasons to discount the poll: It’s unscientific and the 2016 presidential election is far away." (03/17/13)
http://tinyurl.com/cqvdxlx
Cato Institute "Perhaps Paul Ryan moves tea party libertarians more than conservatives. No doubt Romney's famously data-driven campaign tested Ryan's impact on various segments of the electorate. If 2012 becomes a turnout election, Rapaport's data suggests that tea party libertarians and Ron Paul supporters would otherwise be less inclined to turn out and help than conservative tea partiers." (08/14/12)
http://bit.ly/PomljO
Center for a Stateless Society "The UK’s Guardian sports a typical 'analysis' headline on Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s selection of US Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI) as his running mate: '[F]irebrand from Wisconsin has built reputation on fiscal frugality.' Ryan, writes the Guardian‘s Paul Harris, is 'determined to wield the axe on matters fiscal and slash American government in size.' Other media accounts note his affection for the work of Ayn Rand and jump to the conclusion that he’s some kind of 'libertarian.' These kinds of claims about Ryan should be seen as diagnostic tools. Electoral politics is congenitally afflicted with a dissociative disorder. Its participants, or at least its pundits, clearly lack the capacity to distinguish fantasy from reality." (08/13/12)
http://c4ss.org/content/11733"Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney introduced Rep. Paul Ryan of Wisconsin as his vice presidential running mate on Saturday, turning to the architect of a deeply conservative and intensely controversial long-term budget plan to remake Medicare and cut trillions in federal spending." (08/11/12)
http://bit.ly/P22p8R"Don't laugh. OK, go ahead and laugh. Point out that Trump is barely qualified to be secretary of salami. But then ask Romney why he chooses to embrace and encourage a puffed-up buffoon whose antic self-promotion, once mildly amusing, has become rabid and toxic. Ask Romney if giving Trump a platform doesn't cheapen what should be a serious debate about the future of the country. Ask Romney why he decided to join a huckster's silly sideshow." (06/01/12)
http://bit.ly/KI6kpp"Mitt Romney clinched the Republican presidential nomination on Tuesday with a resounding victory in Texas ... He will be formally nominated at the Republicans' convention in Florida in late August." (05/29/12)
http://reut.rs/Kts6gu
Reason "Why would a president who gave America vast unemployment, soaring inflation, a moribund economy, record deficits, and a manically ill-conceived energy policy be coasting toward re-election? For the same reason Dianne Feinstein (who, like Romney, generates little excitement in her base but is considered electable) is a lock. Republicans have spent so long in ideological hibernation that the only challengers they can field are clones of the Democratic incumbents. And who would choose a clone when you can buy the original?" (for publication 06/12)
http://bit.ly/Lj7aIb"During the Republican presidential primary, it was widely regarded that the Tea Party constituency had no love for Governor Romney, preferring candidates such as Governor Rick Perry or Herman Cain. Now that the primary is essentially over, Governor Romney is being recast. Looking at the preliminary Democratic campaign material in support of the reelection of President Obama, there is an attempt to associate Governor Romney with the Tea Party, portray him as an opponent of government-run health care, and strangely enough as radically different from President Obama." (05/19/12)
http://aynrkey.blogspot.com/2012/05/recasting-romney.html
Antiwar.com "This is the question puzzling Paul’s friends, as well as his enemies." (05/18/12)
http://bit.ly/LjmgKg"With Congressman Ron Paul’s third presidential run and career coming to an end, what will become of his rEVOLution he inspired? Prior to the 2012 campaign, some suggested that former New Mexico Gov. Gary Johnson would be the 'next' Ron Paul but with Johnson running as the Libertarian Party nominee after being mistreated by the GOP establishment in the primaries, it appears to me that that bridge has been burned and will likely never be rebuilt. Johnson’s activities in furthering the liberty movement will be done outside the Republican Party. The new heir apparent to lead the rEVOLution appears to be the congressman’s son Sen. Rand Paul." (05/19/12)
http://bit.ly/LjluwQ
Liberty Unbound "What was the point of the Paul campaign? To put Ron Paul in the White House? That was never possible. In public, Paul had to pretend that it was, because those are the American rules, and his supporters have been pretending it even harder. But it was a fairy tale. Ron Paul’s purpose has been to advance the cause of liberty, sound money, and a non-imperial foreign policy." (05/17/12)
http://www.libertyunbound.com/node/808
Cato Institute "Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney has become the inevitable Republican Party presidential nominee. Despite the weak economy, he faces an uphill race. It’s never easy to defeat an incumbent president. Moreover, Romney can’t rely on the GOP’s traditional foreign-policy advantage." (05/15/12)
http://bit.ly/JGABU7
Reason "What does he mean by 'domestic partnership?'" (05/16/12)
http://reason.com/archives/2012/05/16/romneys-gay-marriage-challenge"I've been somewhat surprised by the absolutely hysterical reaction among some RP activists to Ron Paul's announcement that he's shifting resources toward winning more delegates instead of blowing it on straw polls in new primaries. In some of the forums, alleged 'supporters' are hurling insults at both Ron and his staffers." (05/16/12)
http://www.lewrockwell.com/mcmaken/mcmaken140.html
Reason "A year ago, Paul was the presumed least-likely-to-succeed candidate in the GOP field. His radical libertarian bent and his fervent opposition to the GOP’s standard foreign policy positions made him seem anathema to the party’s primary base. ... Now, Paul is still the last man standing in opposition to Romney -- and far from fading, his fortunes both within the party and within the culture are rising." (05/15/12)
http://bit.ly/KroQ4C"On Monday, Rep. Ron Paul made clear that the last act of his presidential bid would be as unorthodox as all the rest of it. Paul, the Texas congressman and perennial GOP long shot, said he would stop spending money in the 11 states with upcoming party primaries. ... Paul said he would continue seeking delegates to the GOP convention -- just not at the ballot box." (05/14/12)
http://wapo.st/J5z5wg"Mitt Romney swept the three Republican primaries in Indiana, North Carolina and West Virginia Tuesday, collecting delegates and moving closer -- but not all the way -- to securing his party's nomination, which he is widely expected win. The former Massachusetts governor now has 934 of the 1,144 delegates needed to secure the nomination, according to CBS News estimates." (05/08/12)
http://cbsn.ws/Je05XL"Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., lost a primary battle Tuesday to tea party challenger and Indiana state treasurer Richard Mourdock for the seat he has held since 1977. Lugar's defeat makes him the first and likely only senator to lose renomination this year." (05/08/12)
http://fxn.ws/JdZTHY"The U.S. Libertarian Party on Saturday chose former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson, who was once a Republican White House hopeful, as its presidential candidate in the November 6 election. Johnson, who announced in December he would run for president as a Libertarian after mounting a long-shot candidacy for the Republican nomination, won 70 percent of the votes cast by 632 delegates at the party's convention in Las Vegas, Libertarian Party spokesman Stephen Gordon said." (05/05/12)
http://reut.rs/KF0eSK
Ashley Judd vs. America’s least popular senator
by W. James Antle III
"Judd vying to unseat an incumbent Republican senator isn’t as outrageous as it would first seem. Mitch McConnell’s numbers are terrible for someone with his length of service (he was first elected in 1984), leadership position (he is the Senate minority leader and it’s not inconceivable that 2014 could make him majority leader), and lack of major scandal." (03/25/13)
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