Rand Paul joins race, fundraises in NYC

[ccharles000]

Rand Paul, son of former presidential candidate and Texas Rep. Ron Paul, officially entered the Kentucky Senate race today to replace retiring Republican Sen. Jim Bunning.

In an e-mail to supporters sent this afternoon, the Republican ophthalmologist said the twin issues of federal spending and the national debt pushed him to run for office. This would be the younger Paul's first elected office.

"I think we're drowning in a sea of debt, as a country," Paul said in the e-mail. "The deficit this year will be 13% of the . This is a historic high. The danger is going to be inflation within a year or two, and prices may rise rapidly."

The announcement, which culminates with a kickoff fundraiser in New York City tonight, isn't a surprise. The younger Paul has said he would enter the race if Bunning exited, which the two-term senator did last week.

Campaign officials said they're taking Paul's big announcement to the Big Apple because the race has already piqued much national interest, due to his father and Kentucky's status as an open, tossup Senate seat in 2010.

http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2009/08/rand-paul-joins-race-fundraises-in-nyc.html

[brendan120678]

1. Is he as big of a kook as his father is? (nt)

[Blue_Tires]

2. never held office before, and now he wants to be a senator

and the only thing he has going for him is his father's last name and some of his nutbar New World Order followers...

AND he's raising funds in a state with completely different demographics and a thousand miles from the state he's running in...

and in spite of all this, he still might win...i just don't understand politics anymore...

[LLStarks]

5. Nationwide appeal for libertarian policies isn't necessarily a bad thing... nt

[Blue_Tires]

7. we don't need Paul's brand of skewed libertarianism...

all he would ever do is vote NO on any bill involving federal spending; vote YES on any corporate deregulation or tax cuts and draft batshit insane bills that would never make it out of subcommittee (abolish social security/education/paper currency, etc)

Kentucky deserves what it gets if they vote him in...Pretty soon, they'd be begging for Bunning to come back...

[Jennicut]

9. Plus the older Paul is racist and flat out crazy. Do we need another one?

[brendan120678]

6. Al Franken never held elected office either...

Nor did Hillary Clinton...and there's a whole list of others.

Elected office should never be a prerequisite to any higher office.

[damntexdem]

3. Does he have a brother named Pot?

just wandrin

[provis99]

4. looks like the apple didn't fall far from the tree

I wonder if we can look forward to future generations of crazy Pauls?

[camera obscura]

8. Fundraising in NYC? Yeah, that'll play well in Kentucky