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2016 Republican Primary Tag

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 25, 2015 7 Comments
While I'm not a fan of Grover Norquist, I do appreciate his Americans for Tax Reform's work each election cycle to get candidates on the record regarding tax increases.  It's not the be-all-and-end-all, but it does indicate to voters where candidates stand in terms of big government and taxation.  The Hill reports:
The Taxpayer Protection Pledge is maintained by Grover Norquist’s group, Americans for Tax Reform (ATR), and has been signed by the majority of Republicans in Congress. The group says it has shared the pledge with all candidates running for federal office since 1986. In separate statements, Norquist said their signatures show Paul and Cruz continue “to protect American taxpayers against higher taxes.” Signing the pledge could help the senators draw a contrast with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who is expected to also launch a presidential bid and is considered a leading candidate for the GOP nomination.
Ted Cruz tweeted a photo of himself signing it to underscore his seriousness:

Posted by Pat Austin on April 23, 2015 48 Comments
SHREVEPORT --About six years ago, in May 2009, I received an outraged email from Stacy McCain. He had just learned that the NRSC (National Republican Senatorial Committee) had endorsed Charlie Crist in the 2010 Florida Senate race fifteen months before the primary. As you may recall, Mel Martinez was retiring and so this was an open seat which as it happens had an up-and-coming, very promising conservative Marco Rubio vying for the seat against Crist.  Rubio was just out of his former position as Speaker of the House in Florida. A host of other conservatives, such as Michelle Malkin, Erick Erickson and John Hawkins, also were furious that the NRSC would attempt to trump the voters in a state race and endorse Crist who had by that time already shown some allegiance to Barack Obama by supporting the stimulus plan. The NRSC endorsement ignited a grassroots campaign for the charismatic and conservative Rubio, and the Not One Red Cent blog was born.  Within two weeks the blog had already hit thousands of readers. I was one of the writers on that blog in those early days. I’d like to believe that our writing helped propel Rubio’s campaign as he gained momentum and eventually dominated Crist in that election.  The blog was born on May 15, 2009 with Stacy McCain doing the first thirteen posts.  My first post was number 14 on May 16, 2009. Within the week, Carol’s Closet was on board, as was No Sheeples Here and Doug Hagin.  We picked up a few others along the way.  In May 2009, we put up fifty-seven posts on Not One Red Cent; by the end of 2009 we had posted 146 times, but by the end of the year Rubio had picked up significant steam and was crushing Crist in the polls.

Posted by Amy Miller on April 22, 2015 27 Comments
I learned a lot during my time on the 2014 campaign trail. I learned how to "cut a walk book" for a block walk, and organize a phone bank, and juggle 15 reporters, 25 volunteers, and one candidate with one hand tied behind my back; but most importantly, I learned how to create a digital campaign that talks to people, as opposed to talking at them. People hate being talked at. It's condescending and boring and there's no hope of making a connection. You're wasting your time, money, and most importantly, your face time with a potential voter. That's why I was surprised and excited to see one of our already-declared presidential candidates taking a new approach to voter outreach. Yesterday, Team Rubio posted a different kind of video to their Facebook page. Watch it:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 19, 2015 44 Comments
Breitbart News caused a stink when it reported on presidential candidate Marco Rubio's alleged comments on Obama's unilateral executive immigration programs. The headline inaccurately suggested that Rubio supported President Obama's executive immigration overreach. As we will discuss, this was only one of numerous mistranslations. Screen Shot 2015-04-19 at 5.55.35 PM The latest offense involves Senator Rubio's recent interview about immigration policy with Univision. Senator Rubio reiterated his well documented position on the Deferred Action for Parents of Americans and Lawful Permanent Residents (DAPA) and Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programs. Rubio clearly says the programs will have to end. Interestingly enough, Sen. Cruz shares Sen. Rubio's opinions on DAPA and DACA.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 19, 2015 14 Comments
Scott Walker was the latest in the line of Republican candidates and potential candidates to address the New Hampshire Leadership Forum, in the nation's first primary (Iowa is a caucus). Walker's speech was well received. Stephen F. Hayes at The Weekly Standard reports:
Walker guided the crowd through a brief history of his tenure as Wisconsin governor, punctuating the story with suggestions about what his reforms in back home might mean if he were to attempt something similar as president. “Washington is 68 square miles surrounded by reality,” he said, adapting a popular conservative appraisal of Madison. Walker expanded the stump speech he had given in Iowa back in January, a coming out party of sorts, that propelled him to co-frontrunner status in national and early-state polling. The new content made clear that Walker is a hawk and that in a Walker presidency the United States would not only reengage with the world but would project its power without reservation. He called the war on radical Islam and “generational” war and scorched Barack Obama for his ambivalence on the threat. “We’re going to bring the fight to them and fight on their soil and not ours."
Todd Beamon at NewsMax provides some highlights from the speech:

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 18, 2015 21 Comments
Now that he's officially running for President, Sen. Rubio's affinity for rap and hip-hop is back in the spotlight. Earlier this week, Sen. Rubio was asked if he would be willing to demonstrate his skill of 'spit rapping lyrics' on MSNBC's Morning Joe. Citing the inappropriateness of the lyrics, Rubio declined to share his talent in front of the video cameras. Sen. Rubio's love of hip-hop has surfaced occasionally over the past few years.

Posted by New Neo on April 18, 2015 35 Comments
This could be added to the list of reasons some conservatives don't want Jeb Bush as the Republican nominee in 2016. But it's a pretty big one, IMHO:
Jeb Bush says that the Senate should confirm the nomination of Loretta Lynch, President Barack Obama’s choice for attorney general. A number of Senate Republicans oppose her nomination. “I think presidents have the right to pick their team,” Bush said, according to reports of his stop at the “Politics and Pie” forum in Concord, New Hampshire, on Thursday night. The former Florida governor made sure to get in a few digs at current Attorney General Eric Holder, saying that Republicans should consider that the longer it takes to confirm Lynch, the longer Holder stays.
Now, what's wrong with Bush's statement? Nothing much---that is, if it were the olden (pre-Bork) days. The Bork nomination in 1987 is often considered the beginning of the current hyper-partisan attitude towards nominations, be they Supreme Court or otherwise:
Within 45 minutes of Bork's nomination to the Court, Senator Ted Kennedy (D-MA) took to the Senate floor with a strong condemnation of Bork in a nationally televised speech, declaring, "Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back-alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters, rogue police could break down citizens' doors in midnight raids, schoolchildren could not be taught about evolution, writers and artists could be censored at the whim of the Government, and the doors of the Federal courts would be shut on the fingers of millions of citizens."

Posted by Amy Miller on April 17, 2015 3 Comments
Welcome to the cattle call! It's time for "Politics and Pie" in New Hampshire. If Iowa serves as a pageant for social conservatives, then count New Hampshire as the first best chance for more mainstream conservatives to have their time in the spotlight. Romney won the New Hampshire primary during the 2012 cycle, a trend that's reflected in the most recent polls pitting probable 2016 candidates against each other.
Walker is currently leading in New Hampshire polls. A survey from the Democratic firm Public Policy Polling released Wednesday showed him with a double-digit lead, taking 24 percent support, followed by Cruz at 14 percent, Paul at 12 percent, and Bush at 10 percent. But that doesn’t mean anything this early, according to Fergus Cullen, the former state Republican chairman who is writing a book on the history of the New Hampshire primaries. “I don’t think there’s a frontrunner, it’s wide open,” he said. “History has not been kind to the candidate who has the lead in April…you’d much rather have your moment come in December or January.”

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 16, 2015 7 Comments
Thus far, the GOP presidential field officially includes three of the Senate's best. We're still waiting on the Governors to join the party. It's still early, but how are the current candidates fairing on the fundraising front? Ted Cruz The first to hop in the race, Cruz raised $ 4.3 million in his first 9 days of campaigning. A respectable start. If Governor Perry jumps in the race as anticipated, Cruz might lose some of his early fundraising steam. Governor Perry has a well established donor base in the Lone Star State that could suck funds away from Cruz. According to the Dallas Morning News, although Cruz has the early lead, he's in for stiff competition as the field continues to expand. By all accounts Governor Bush will be the moneyed man to beat.
Still, Cruz is expected to trail other major candidates in the fund-raising battle. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush reportedly had a $100 million fund-raising goal for the quarter that ended March 31, while Cruz would be happy to get $50 million for the entire campaign.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 15, 2015 32 Comments
Sunday afternoon the Democratic Party's official social media accounts unveiled a series of graphics.

These Republicans can’t hide from who they are — but when they play the Game of Votes, they'll either say or do anything to win.

Posted by Democratic Party on Sunday, April 12, 2015
A total of eight graphics were posted on both Facebook and Twitter. Each graphic was meant to be jab at a Republican presidential hopeful.

Posted by Amy Miller on April 13, 2015 9 Comments
Surprise? There are no surprises in presidential politics. Tonight, Marco Rubio will stand before a Miami crowd and announce his run for the White House. The cat flew out of the bag this morning during a conference call, when the Florida senator told a group of donors that he's "in" for 2016. Yesterday, Rubio released a short cell phone video message via his Facebook page, encouraging everyone to tune in for tonight's announcement:

I recorded this quick video on my phone earlier today. I hope you will watch my announcement at 6pm est tomorrow. Visit http://tinyurl.com/lk9kvgp

Posted by Marco Rubio on Sunday, April 12, 2015
It's rough, and simple, yet still not something you do if you're preparing to tell a room full of donors that you're making another run for Congress.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 13, 2015 41 Comments
Yesterday we featured Carly Fiorina's instantaneous reaction to Hillary Clinton's announcement. Or should we say John Podesta's announcement followed up by Hillary. Fiorina exhibited what is becoming her trademark: Taking the fight right to Hillary Clinton's supposed strength, the gender card. Fiorina, as the only woman likely to become a Republican candidate for President, is uniquely able to make the argument that Hillary is abusing the gender card to cover up lack of actual accomplishment. It was only a matter of time before Fiorina's audaciousness would make her a target. So when I read Jazz Shaw's tweet that Mika Brzezinski on Morning Joe went after Fiorina, it didn't surprise me one bit. What's most important is not that she was attacked, but that she responded well: Here is the video:

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 12, 2015 8 Comments
So far, two first-term GOP senators have declared their presidential candidacy (Cruz and Paul), with Rubio set to do so Monday. On both sides of the aisle, there are a lot of questions and concern as people wonder what these first-termers have accomplished.  This is, of course, a fair question to ask, but to be equally fair, we should take note of Harry Reid's lockdown of the Senate for the past six years. Not only were Republican senators unable to accomplish much in Reid's Senate, but neither were Democrat senators (some of whom lost their seats as a result, at least in part).  The National Review reported in January of last year:
The New York Times reported last week on Reid’s “brutish style” and “uncompromising control” over the amendments process in the Senate. Why are more people finally catching on to Reid’s flagrant disregard for Senate customs? In part because conservatives aren’t the only ones complaining. Democrats such as Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota — who wants to repeal Obamacare’s medical-device tax — and Kirsten Gillibrand of New York — who has waged a highly publicized campaign to reform the way the military handles sexual-assault cases — have been denied votes on their proposed amendments to various bills. Gillibrand had hoped to attach her sexual-assault amendment to the defense-appropriations bill that passed in December, but no amendments were allowed. Klobuchar has called for “a more open amendment process” because she’d like a vote on repealing the medical-device tax.
We all watched as frustrated politicians on both sides of the aisle complained that there were more than 300 bills "sitting on Harry Reid's desk," so it seems less than reasonable to focus on legislative accomplishments by first-term GOP senators who were apparently very busily working on legislation that then ended up mired down by Reid.  Even House Dems were urging Reid to pass their bills in the Senate.  To no avail.

Posted by Fuzzy Slippers on April 11, 2015 24 Comments
Jeb Bush has a problem.  He wants to be president, and he is apparently planning to run as a Republican; however, he's not particularly conservative in key areas that are important to the conservative base, including immigration and education. On the world stage, Bush sees America as "a leader among equals," whatever that means, and he's touchy and condescending when discussing his "grown-up immigration plan" that embraces the millions of people who've entered this country illegally in, what he calls, "an act of love."  If only the babies in the room would just feel the love.  In addition to his strong stance on illegal immigration, he's a strong and vocal proponent of Common Core, and he dismisses anyone who disagrees with him as "crazy, ignorant, and lying." While he's not yet announced his candidacy, it seems clear that he intends to run in 2016, and he needs something that he can point to as a conservative stance if he has any hope of winning the GOP primary.  He's landed on the Second Amendment as that olive branch:
The former Florida governor is confronting a conservative backlash for his positions on education and immigration. This week, he’ll turn to an issue on which he garners much higher marks from the right: guns. Key to his appeal is the 2005 decision to sign a bill, among the most sweeping of its kind, that expanded protections for Floridians who use deadly force against home intruders or people who attack them in their cars, workplace or even on the street. The law has since become a touchstone in a broader debate about the use of deadly force, following the 2012 shooting death of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black teenager.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 10, 2015 39 Comments
Marco Rubio is set to announce a run for President on Monday. We haven't talked a lot about Marco recently, ever since the immigration debacle, from which he has backed away.  (Like Scott Walker?) That event seemed to take him off the radar. But why? We remember Marco. The insurgent Tea Party candidate who defeated Charlie what's his name, the National Republican Senatorial Committee anointed candidate. Those were heady days, all the way back in 2010, as we recalled in Give Some Credit To “Not One Red Cent”:
There are many stories to tell about this election cycle, but one group of bloggers deserves special credit. In May 2009, a group of bloggers started a blog called Not One Red Cent in reaction to the attempt by the National Republican Senatorial Committee to anoint Charlie Crist as the Republican nominee in Florida, and to deprive Marco Rubio of a fair chance to compete for the nomination.... In those first few months they blogged like crazy, and they were voices in the wilderness. Over time Marco Rubio began to pick up recognition and support and went mainstream, and NORC posts dropped off as others picked up the cudgel elsewhere. The rest, as they say, is history. When that history is written, I hope people will recognize the impact a few bloggers had in the revolution of 2010.
Since those days, the liberal media, Democratic politicians and the Republican establishment sought to crush the Tea Party, with mixed results. The Tea Party changed the dialogue, the national focus, and both houses of Congress.

Posted by Kemberlee Kaye on April 09, 2015 22 Comments
It's been less than three weeks since Senator Cruz announced his presidential candidacy. First, Ted Cruz supposedly scared a child in New Hampshire, only he didn't. Then, Cruz was a hypocrite for exploring health insurance options on the exchange... just like the rest of Congress. And now? ONE TIME TED CRUZ HAD A JOB. Mother Jones' David Corn has blown the lid plumb off Cruz's latest scandal.
In his bio on his presidential campaign website, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) boasts of what he did as Texas solicitor general to defend the Second Amendment, the Pledge of Allegiance, and US sovereignty—all conservative causes. But Cruz does not detail another important chapter in his legal career: his work as a well-paid private attorney who helped corporations found guilty of wrongdoing.
We will pause here to momentarily savor Corn subtly arguing the guilty ought not be privy to a defense. Corn prattles on, feebly attempting to depict Sen. Cruz as a heartless, corporation-shilling, money-grubbing fraud. Though some would argue these are the virtues of a good attorney.

Posted by Mike LaChance on April 09, 2015 17 Comments
The Republican "War on Women" isn't over and if liberals have their way, it never will be. Newly announced presidential candidate Rand Paul appeared on the Today Show yesterday morning and had the nerve to push back when Savannah Guthrie put words in his mouth. Nick Gass of Politico:
Rand Paul clashes with Savannah Guthrie over changing views Sen. Rand Paul clashed with “Today” show host Savannah Guthrie over her line of questioning during an interview Wednesday morning, criticizing her for editorializing over perceived changes in his political views since his election to the Senate. “You have had views on foreign policy in the past that were somewhat unorthodox, but you seem to have changed over the years,” Guthrie told the Kentucky Republican, who was appearing via satellite from Nashua, New Hampshire. “You once said Iran was not a threat, now you say it is. You once proposed ending foreign aid to Israel, now you support it, at least for the time being, and you once offered to drastically cut … defense spending.” Paul attempted to speak as Guthrie continued.
MSNBC's Ed Schultz, who once referred to conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham as a "right wing slut" is just beside himself over all this misogyny:
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