Rand Paul Cancels On "Meet The Press," Kentucky GOP urges him to "avoid national spotlight"

Rand Paul Cancels On 'Meet The Press,' Only 3rd Guest To Do So In 62 Years

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/21/rand-paul-cancels-on-meet_n_585460.html



Following a week of unsparingly critical press coverage, Kentucky Republican Senate candidate Rand Paul is now seeking to limit his national exposure.

A spokesperson for the Tea Party-endorsed candidate informed NBC News late Friday afternoon that an exhausted Paul was canceling his interview on Sunday's "Meet the Press," Betsy Fischer, the executive producer for the program, told the Huffington Post.

"We booked him on Wednesday. Everything was set and then his press person emailed this afternoon that he was very sorry but he wants to cancel the interview. We tried appealing to the press person to not much avail," Fischer said.

Both Fischer and host David Gregory have since sent direct appeals to Paul's campaign manager to talk to the candidate over the phone with the goal of getting him to reverse his decision. But it appears the Paul camp isn't budging.

"Rand did Good Morning America today, set the record straight, and now we are done talking about it," Paul campaign spokesman Jesse Benton told the Washington Post. "No more national interviews on the topic."

If Paul were to follow through on his decision to not appear on "Meet the Press" it would be, as Fischer describes it, "a big deal." There have been only two other guests in the program's 62-year history to have canceled last minute: Louis Farrakhan and Prince Bandar bin Khaled al-Faisal of Saudi Arabia.

Kentucky GOP urges Rand Paul to avoid national spotlight

By HALIMAH ABDULLAH AND BETH MUSGRAVE

WASHINGTON In public, Senate candidate Rand Paul's Republican colleagues have tried to contextualize his controversial comments about anti-discrimination laws and the Obama administration's handling of the Gulf Coast oil spill, but privately they bemoan the political newcomer's gaffes and wish he'd focus less on the national media spotlight and more on Kentucky and the economy.

"In any campaign there's going to be a few bumps," said Brian Walsh, a spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee.

Paul didn't return calls requesting comment.

In an indication that he was heeding advice to limit his national exposure, Betsy Fischer, the executive producer of NBC's "Meet the Press," Tweeted late Friday afternoon that Paul said he was having "a tough week" and was trying to cancel his scheduled appearance on the show this Sunday. According to Fischer, such cancellations are rare, and only Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and Prince Bandar of Saudi Arabia have ever nixed planned appearances.

Paul's problems began in an interview Wednesday night on MSNBC's "Rachel Maddow Show" in which he told the liberal host that, based on his belief in limited government, private businesses shouldn't be forced to abide by civil rights laws. After the uproar Thursday, Paul issued a statement saying that he abhors discrimination, backs the 1964 Civil Rights Act and wouldn't support its repeal.

In an appearance Friday morning on ABC's "Good Morning America," Paul called President Barack Obama's handling of the oil spill anti-business and "really un-American," and said of the oil spill, which killed 11 people, and a mining accident last month in Kentucky that killed two miners, "Maybe sometimes accidents happen."

On the eve of a post-election Republican "unity" rally in the state, Kentucky politicos are watching anxiously to see what, if anything, Paul's handling of this very early campaign crisis says about his performance in the general election.

Read more: http://www.tri-cityherald.com/2010/05/21/1024101/kentucky-gop-urges-rand-paul-to.html#ixzz0ofQKYjks

Jindal Flubs Debut

James Joyner | Wednesday, February 25, 2009

http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/jindal_flubs_debut

Judging from a scan of memeorandum and my RSS feed, quite literally everyone writing about Bobby Jindal’s national coming out party, his Republican response to Obama’s non-State of the Union address, thought it was an epic fail. Indeed, seemingly everyone came to the independent conclusion that his delivery was channeling moronic page Kenneth Parcell from “30 Rock.”

It’s great news for Tina Fey: At least the cognoscenti are watching her show.

That ain’t good, however, if you’re hoping to establish yourself as a frontrunner for president in 2012.

What’s particularly interesting going through the RSS feed is that it confirms something I wrote earlier about reporting on “Remarks as Prepared for Delivery.” Namely, the reactions to the text of Jindal’s remarks were quite favorable, at least from the Republicans I read. The reactions to the speech itself were universally awful especially from the Republicans I read.

The Next Right‘s Mathew Gagnon gives the most detailed breakdown of why the speech was awful. It defies excerpting, so follow the link.

Alex Massie gives the best meta analysis of the lot:

I don’t know why Bobby Jindal, the Republican party’s Great Brown Hope, agreed to give the GOP response to Obama’s speech last night. Supposedly a privilege, this more often turns out to be a fools errand. Indeed, the only successful opposition response I can recall in recent years was given by Senator Jim Webb. Generally, however, the poor sap offered the chance to go up against the President is on a hiding to nothing: the man in charge has the full majesty of his office behind him; the opposition spokesman sits in a wee room on their own waiting for their chance to give a speech no-one is very interested in anyway…

Quite. Indeed, I’ve always thought the idea of an opposition response speech was idiotic.