who stands up for antiwar policies and I think that's a weakness (perhaps by design).

Furthermore, saying that is not an endorsement of Rand Paul.

That is all I need to know.

but his words on ending the drug war will get him a lot of votes. It's very self serving of him to be against the drug war because one of Kentucky's biggest exports is that good old Smoky Mountains pot, much more lucrative than the old moonshine stills used to be.

He's still a snake with more deficits than advantages.

but why are there few politicians in the mainstream left who espouse commonsense policies on drugs and foreign intervention?

It gives us a false choice if those policy positions are only available mixed in with a RW social agenda.

opposing pretty much any effort to reduce emissions.

http://www.ontheissues.org/senate/Rand_Paul.htm#Energy_+_Oil

Didn't see his Maher interview, but no doubt he's trying to appeal to a progressive audience and talking out of both sides of his mouth. It is insulting.

If there was someone prominent on the left who had similar positions it wouldn't be an issue.

and State Democratic Party just supported and helped pass an actual legalization of cannabis in Oregon. That's pretty specific. I've never ever heard Rand Paul say he favors legalized cannabis. His rhetoric here, among people who have actually accomplished a great deal of drug reform is seen as empty and slippery bullshit.
California just reduced penalties on a variety of small substance possession charges. Democrats did that. What has Rand done about that issue, specifically?

"Exclusive: Booker and Paul Join Forces to Reform War on Drugs"

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/rand-paul-cory-booker-reform-the-war-drugs

"Rand Paul: Let DC Legalize Marijuana, If That's What the Voters Want"

http://blogs.rollcall.com/hill-blotter/rand-paul-let-d-c-legalize-marijuana-if-voters-want/?dcz=

"Rand Paul on Drugs"

http://www.ontheissues.org/domestic/Rand_Paul_Drugs.htm

He is cosponsoring some drug reform bills. That's what senators do.

He is also talking up the racial impact of the drug war.

Some Democrats are beginning to take similar stands; Paul has partnered with Booker on one bill, with Leahy on another.

As for California's Prop 47, that was a voter-passed initiative. Democrats didn't do that; California voters did.

about penalties for cannabis penalties. He said that the current pennalties are way too harsh and the felony charge ruins lives forever. He said the penalty should be reduced to 6 months and be a misdemeanor. We spend way too much money on prisions and that move alone would save billions.

He is the mirror image of his racist, isolationist father, he wants to roll back the Civil Rights Act and make the equivalent of the Woolworth lunch counter being for whites only. He believes private businesses should not come under the Civil Rights Act.

He is Libertarian through and through, his mantra is I've got mine, screw you, imo.

Naive people hear he's pro pot and anti war and don't actually look into the reality that he's pro legalization of pot but would support pharmaceuticals being in control of the sales and distribution of pot and he's anti war but pro militias, doesn't believe tax dollar should go to a national military but is all for state militias.

If he were to become the candidate, which is slim to none, imo, his own words and record would destroy him as credible, imo.

More importantly, a lot who sat out the vote, might as well.

Point is, Dems need to have a candidate that is not the same ole stuff. I don't have the slightest idea who that is at this point.

if those who sat out the midterms vote republican then they are republicans anyway and weren't planning to vote for anyone on the left to begin with, imo.

My husband said over and over that he wasn't going to bother to vote because his "DEM" choices don't EVER win in Georgia! I of course wouldn't let him stay home. I'm positive he's not the only voter who just stayed home for that same reason. THEY didn't have someone like me in there house to boot them in the butt.

the republican Presidential candidate? I suspect the answer would be not just NO, but HELL NO from what you say in your post although I could be mistaken.

How do "DEM" candidates stand a chance in Georgia if Democratic voters won't vote because the Democratic candidates don't ever win? They sure as heck aren't ever going to win if Dems stay home and don't vote. (I get that your husband did, due to your prodding, vote so my point isn't directed to voters who DID vote but to those who didn't using the reasoning your husband put to you.)

I'm curious as to why you put DEM in quotation marks ie "DEM"?

Another BIG problem here in Ga. is that beneath the office of Governor, & Senator, MOST of the time there are NO OPPONENTS running against the incumbant. I've sent dozens of emails & postcards to party leaders complaining about that, but apparently nobody cares.

If there are no Dem candidates to challenge the repub incumbents down ticket that is very frustrating. I've noticed, when checking election results, that is all too common.

Church to another talking with the congregation. I don't know of many racists who would do that. I think we should not underestimate him.

and still be a racist. Because he talks to them doesn't mean they are buying his bullshit, they aren't.

People want to call him a racist for some reason, I don't see it. I am not voting for him, but racism does not seem to be his issue.

he's running for president. He's been on both sides of issues depending on who he talks to. He has flipped flopped and flipped again. Where he has been fairly consistent is on drug laws but the rest of it nope. I think he's a lightweight I don't think he can hold up to confrontation. He tends to run away. He won't go back on Rachel. His thugs put a boot on the neck of a girl holding a friggin sign and he got up and ran from a dreamer when she approached him. He's got contempt for women. What I noticed in all these confrontations and during his hearing questioning of hillary he can't deal with women. There's something wrong with him when it comes to women.
If he does manage to get the nomination I think his problem with women will be obvious if he has to debate a woman.

a Left-Libertarian? If I recall. I don't watch him anymore...but, Rand Pauls words sound absolutely wonderful. But, imo-it sounds so wonderful because He's done his homework, studied hard the Liberals/Progressives...and voila'!!!! Look and Listen to the "new" old Rand Paul.

I've already warned my grandkids who are of voting age or will be by then.

I would not expect him to govern any differently than other republicans but that doesn't matter in elections. Obama ran on progressive campaign but that is not how he governed.

If he runs on campaign to stop all wars (including drug) and is not outwardly racist he basically overcomes the toxicity that is the republican brand. I don't expect most democrats to vote for him but it will depress the vote. It will be hard for someone like Clinton to scaremongering voters into coming out to stop Paul presidency. We obviously know people aren't going to come out to vote for Democrats who give voters a reason to vote for something

His opponents wouldn't lose time painting him as weak on defense, a believer in climate 'junk science,' and relaxing drug laws is anathema to them. Most of them are in the pockets of the prison industries. Of course, there is the 'hold your nose and vote for the most likely winner' phenomenon that we saw when Mitt Romney won the nomination in 2012, despite the fact that many conservatives admitted to disliking him intensely.

They'd be morons who were willing to be duped by a snake oil salesman. No one in their right mind would ever be fooled by Paul's bullshit, I know that I wouldn't.

What he's doing is called "pandering." Only people who are willing to be pandered to accepts it as it is.

excreted. Many if not most of the folks who have a big fear of Rand Paul gaining the Presidency are sure that others are not as smart as they are. I hear that he's going to dupe the African Americans by going to all their churches, you see, and those marijuana smokers will just eat up his rhetoric about marijuana, they are so stupid and that's all any of them care about. And the young people, they hate war and when they hear anyone say they oppose war they will just believe it and nothing else will matter to them. It's always 'I see this, but that other group are a bunch of single issue chumps who will be easily duped'.
It's not a very appealing argument they make. It is not really 'Rand has chops to fear' so much as 'others are so stupid they are all going to love him if he says pot, church, peace'.

He probably will lock up some indie votes.

Rand Paul is a fake and even Libertarians agree

... I've always thought that I agree about 100% with Libertarian philosophy, until you get to business, economics and taxation. Then I agree with them 0%.

I've never thought I could vote for one, and probably cannot, but getting half of what you want might be better than getting almost nothing.

"Show me who your friends are, and I'll show you who you are."

This was one of Rand Paul's top aides, Jack Hunter aka The Southern Avenger.

(ChattahBox)—The Kentucky Senatorial campaign of Libertarian Republican Rand Paul is getting off to a rocky start. On Thursday, Rand Paul son of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), accepted the resignation of Christopher Hightower, 37, after racist images and comments were discovered on Hightower’s MySpace page. One image showed a lynching, with a friend’s comment, “Happy Ni**** Day!” at the time of Martin Luther King Day. And several posts left by Hightower spoke of the reaction he received from “Afro-Americans” while wearing a KKK hoodie to the local mall.



Hightower’s dislike of “Afro-Americans” came to light after the liberal Kentucky blog, Barefoot and Progressive uncovered his old MySpace page. The site has now been scrubbed, but of course screen caps remain. Before Hightower became an aide to Rand Paul, he was the lead singer in a local heavy metal band, named Commander. Hightower specialized in songs about the devil and the Dark Lord’s satanic powers. The satanic heavy metal band had a MySpace page, with individual pages for band members. And that’s where Hightower’s fondness for racism and white supremacy survived on the Internet.

Rand Paul Aide Quits Over MySpace Racism, ‘Afro-Americans’ Have ‘KKK Radar’

Democrats followed Clinton into neoliberalism and the third way.

Republicans followed W right off the neoconservative cliff.

Rand Paul is a genuine, rather traditional libertarian IMO,(whatever your feelings on that are) attempting to remain viable in the Republican party. Of course he panders, how much of his pandering is to the right vs the left is an interesting question.

I don't see him as dangerous, Paul winning the R nomination and shaping the Republican party would be incredibly good for the country IMO.

Don't have to fear for the general if the Dem candidate offers better positions.