The Goat Pen

Rand has Mitch McConnel - this is the Senator who endorsed a former democrat over Rand in the Kentucky race a few years back and the poster child for RINO GOP base catering to co sponsor a hemp legalization bill

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While most are were out celebrating Valentine’s Day with their sweethearts, Kentucky Senators Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell, and Oregon Senators Jeff Merkley and Ron Wyden introduced a piece of groundbreaking legislation regarding industrialized hemp.

According to Senator Rand Paul’s official website, “The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2013 would remove federal restrictions on domestic cultivation of industrial hemp.” To be more precise, “Specifically, the bill would remove hemp from the Schedule 1 controlled substance list under the Controlled Substances Act of 1970, and would define it as a non-drug so long as it contained less than 0.3 percent tetrahydrocannabinol (THC).” Essentially, hemp would be legalized as long as it contains less than enough of the active substance that is capable of producing a high.

The Industrial Hemp Farming Act of 2013 is the Senate’s sister bill to the House’s HR 525, which was introduced just last week.

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That falls neatly within Rand's M.O. too.

Why are we giving money to Egypt if they are going to just use it to antagonize their adversaries in the middle east? (Insert Israel into that sentence after he is elected)
Hemp production could easily become the #1 cash crop for the state of Kentucky with all the by products associated with hemp (plus no one would enforce marijuana laws and we get tax revenue for it)
I suspect his immigration policy is presented in a similar way

Like Hedge said, If Hillary runs, she wins in a landslide for the reasons she stated. If she can pick a solid VP choice, then Repubs have ZERO shot no matter what. Their only chance is to have a poor VP choice and then hope to get lucky.

wonder if she would consider bill

in hindsight, Obama probably needed her more as a Senator

I don't think the Senate is the problem with The Hill.

On the hemp bill, that is long overdue. The question is, will it pass?

Bklyn wrote:I don't think the Senate is the problem with The Hill.

On the hemp bill, that is long overdue. The question is, will it pass?

I just think Hillary would have more sway with pushing a democratic agenda than Pelosi or Reid.

but I do think she was a very good choice for Obama . The Clinton name is known worldwide as is John Kerry.

"I think his position on drugs is probably the same as his fathers and most libertarians - it plays well with the college age crowd and grateful dead fans but not so much with the bible base."

"Not so much" is putting it very mildly...

Maryland becomes first state in the union to pass gun control law mandating fingerprint checks for buyers, magazine and assault weapon bans, and purchasing restrictions based on mental health

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/md- ... ml?hpid=z1


It's just a matter of time that a young couple will be perfectly safe walking in Cherry Hill, at night, in Baldamor.

"Their only chance is to have a poor VP choice and then hope to get lucky."

That type of strategic gaffe would never happen to the Clinton brain trust. They may make other kinds of gaffes (Hilary less so than Bill), but on a matter that they can (and no doubt already have) ponder and plan on for years, there's no way they'd drop the ball on something like that...

Besides just the female vote (which is enough by itself to ensure a Hilary landslide), she will energize the existing Dem base on her own merits. She will have all the Obama voters plus a shit ton of extra female votes. 2016 will be nothing short of a coronation if she runs. Even worse, many repub voters will probably just stay home b/c they'll be thinking "why the fuck should I waste 5 hours of my time on this shit? (Fill in the blank) is going to get waxed irregardless of if I vote, so I might as well stay home and watch Price Is Right"...

300 million people in the USA and we've had a father/son presidency and potentially a husband/wife combination in the span of 5 presidencies. And Jeb Bush will probably be a candidate in 2016 too.
And we voluntarily make those choices unlike North Korea and Arab Kingdoms.

I took my son to a City Council meeting for a boy scout thing Tuesday night. It was the second one we've been two in 3 years and it occurred to me that its all the same people with different titles. 3 people on the council had been Mayor before and the current Mayor was City Manager last time I was there.

"300 million people in the USA and we've had a father/son presidency and potentially a husband/wife combination in the span of 5 presidencies. And Jeb Bush will probably be a candidate in 2016 too."

Cult of personality. Jeb is young enough to run in 2020 (if Hilary get assassinated) or even 2024. He'll be 70-ish by then, but we'll already be used to having a geriatric for the past 8 years by that point. Fucking hell, I'll be 60 myself by then and won't be thinking of 70 as "old"...

I think JEB may not do it to clear enough time between Bushes to give his son, P, the freedom to run without too much baggage.

I think he's the future of the GOP.

Chelsea Clinton will be ready to go in 2024...

Paul on the rise, Hillary at new high

Rand Paul's well publicized filibuster last month has vaulted him up the list of Republican contenders in PPP's newest look ahead to the 2016 Presidential contest.

Marco Rubio continues to lead nationally, as he has on all four of our 2016 polls so far. He's at 21% this month, basically the same as 22% the month before the State of the Union address. Rubio's favorability of 62/10 is slightly better than 59/12 in early February. The whole water drinking episode hasn't had any effect on his standing- nor has his stance on immigration reform.

The big move though has come from Paul. In early February he was in 6th place among Republican contenders at just 10%. Now he's vaulted all the way up to 2nd place at 17%. Chris Christie is 3rd at 15% and Paul Ryan and Jeb Bush are tied for 4th at 12%. Rounding out the folks we polled are Rick Santorum at 5%, Bobby Jindal at 4%, Rick Perry at 2%, and Susana Martinez at 1%.

There is a lot of skepticism about Christie from conservative voters. Among those identifying as 'very conservative' 35% see him positively to 36% with a negative opinion. Christie's overall net favorability of +12 at 41/29 ranks him 8th most popular out of the 9 Republicans we looked at, leading only Susana Martinez who is not yet well known on a national level.

Rubio leads the Republicans among conservatives, while Christie has the advantage with moderates. The problem for Christie is that only 19% of primary voters are moderates while 74% are conservatives.

On the Democratic side support for Hillary Clinton to be the party nominee has hit its highest level of support in our national polling since the election last year. 64% of the party's voters want her to be the candidate to 18% for Joe Biden, 5% for Elizabeth Warren, and 3% for Andrew Cuomo with no one else polling above 2%. Clinton has majority support from liberals and moderates, men and women, African Americans, Latinos, and white voters, and voters within every age group that we track.
If Clinton doesn't run 49% of Democrats say they would support Biden to 11% for Warren, 10% for Cuomo, and 7% for Kirsten Gillibrand with no one else above 3%. And if neither Clinton nor Biden runs Democrats have no clue who they want- 22% go for Cuomo and 18% for Warren but the big winner is someone else or undecided at 36%.

When it comes to general election match ups Hillary Clinton leads the Republicans we tested against her by margins ranging from 4 to 7 points. Chris Christie comes the closest at 46/42, followed by Rand Paul at 49/43 and then Marco Rubio at 49/42 and Paul Ryan at 50/43. We've consistently found that Christie would be the strongest Republican candidate but the problem for him is that Obama voters (42/24) like him better than Romney voters (36/31), which could making securing the nomination a problem.

"but the problem for him is that Obama voters (42/24) like him better than Romney voters (36/31), which could making securing the nomination a problem."

That's why your idea about him running as a Dem was a good one. Or maybe Hilary could take him along as her VP and then he'd have a clear shot after she left...

He'll probably be dead before then, though. Not that anyone would be too upset. Because, as we all know: Nobody cries when fatty dies...

hedge wrote:He'll probably be dead before then, though. Not that anyone would be too upset. Because, as we all know: Nobody cries when fatty dies...

Christie as a moderate has the same problem that Ron Paul had - in the general election his numbers are favorable but his numbers suck at getting the nomination of his party.

Rand , so far, has been able to identify himself as a staunch Republican choice - and its all calculated - going back to his endorsement of Romney knowing full well Romney didn't have a chance. He lost a significant % of his tea party base when he did that, especially given how his dad and his supporters were treated at the RNC, but he knew he'd gain 5X as many GOP base support for making the announcement.

Rand will do everything he can to champion common causes among libertarians and republicans - guns, drones - that is low hanging fruit , and he'll do everything he can to stay away from the pitfalls of his father's frank and candid comments that never sat well with people who didn't like being reminded they supported big government while claiming they were conservative.

Rand Paul would win the R nomination if it were held today. I bet he even would get the majority of the evangelical vote.

that hemp legislation lets him both sides (pro-legal or not) he did it for them.