Rand Paul Vaults to GOP Top Tier in latest PPP Poll

A new PPP poll
finds Kentucky Senator Rand Paul coming in second among
Republican voters’ most favored candidates to run for president in
2016. Just over a month ago, Rand Paul came in at 6th place with
just 10 percent among likely Republican voters. Now Paul garners 17
percent of Republican voters, the second most likely candidate to
be mentioned. 

Among Republican voters, 75 percent have a favorable opinion of
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), 62 percent have a favorable view of Sen.
Marco Rubio (R-FL), and 60 percent are favorable toward Sen. Rand
Paul (R-KY).

Interestingly, Chris Christie was the only Republican asked
about who received higher marks from Democrats (42 percent) than
Republicans (39 percent). Christie’s favorability among Democrats
may be a harbinger of the 2016 race. When asked who Republican
voters would like see run for president, 21 percent named Marco
Rubio, but in a close second and third 17 percent named Rand Paul,
15 percent named New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie. Other
Republican candidates making the list include Paul Ryan (12
percent), Jeb Bush (12 percent), Rick Santorum (5 percent), Bobby
Jindal (4 percent), Rick Perry (2 percent), and Susana Martinez (1
percent).

Among Democratic voters, former Secretary of State Hillary
Clinton tops the list of most favorable at 84 percent, followed by
Vice President Joe Biden (73 percent), and Senator Elizabeth Warren
a distant third at 43 percent.

In hypothetical match-ups among likely primary voters, Hillary
Clinton beats each potential Republican candidate. Hillary beats
Chris Christie by 4 points, Rand Paul by 6 points, and Marco Rubio
and Paul Ryan by 7 points. However, Chris Christie beats Joe Biden
by 9 points 49 to 40 percent. Nevertheless, Joe Biden beats the
remaining potential Republican contenders: by 2 points over Marco
Rubio, 3 points over Paul Ryan, and 4 points over Rand Paul.

PPP surveyed
1247 voters included oversamples of Democratic and Republican
primary voters from March 27-30 2013. The margin of error is +/-
2.8% overall, +/-3.8% for Democrats and +/-2.9% for
Republicans.

Read More

Rand Paul Points Out Hypocrisy of Rich and Powerful People with Armed Guards Trying to Restrict Gun Ownership for the Rest of Us

Dianne Feinstein’s ill-fated assault weapons ban

included an exemption for government officials, law enforcement
and former law enforcement. Few (if any) gun control advocates
support getting guns out of the hand of government, and no anti-gun
celebrity that I know of has publicly eschewed armed guards. Gun
control laws are almost always discriminatory; in New Jersey, where
I live, a grocery store can hire an armed guard who can open-carry
to protect the store, but I’m not allowed to open-carry to protect
my family at the store, or anywhere else for that matter. These
kind of laws arguably transform the right to bear arms into a
privilege.  Those who advocate gun control but believe in a

well-armed government (most of them) and those who push to
restrict private gun ownership while enjoying private armed
security themselves (like
Jim Carrey or
Piers Morgan) are promoting a profoundly unequal system, one
that subordinates the autonomy and rights of the people in favor of
the whims of an elite.

Kentucky Senator Rand Paul hit the nail on the head last night
on Fox News’ Hannity show.
Via Politico:

Sen. Rand Paul says there’s “a certain amount of hypocrisy” that
the same Hollywood celebrities and prominent politicians —
including President Barack Obama and New York City Mayor Michael
Bloomberg — who are calling for gun control are also benefiting
from armed protection themselves.

“I don’t begrudge any famous person like Mayor Bloomberg, or the
president or the president’s family for having protection — I think
they all should. There’s enough crazy people out there that would
attack on the right or the left. But I think when you are being
protected by people who have weapons by responsible people, I can’t
see why you would be opposed to that for other people,” Paul, a
Kentucky Republican, said Thursday on Fox News’s “Hannity” to
guest-host Eric Bolling.

He continued: “Many rich Hollywood celebrities have armed guards
with them at all times and many regular people who live in a poor
neighborhood, who have a business in a poor neighborhood and a
neighborhood that may have higher crime — those people have to
suffer the vicissitudes of violent crime without protection
sometimes because of gun control laws. So, yes, I think there is a
certain amount of hypocrisy.”

Opposing for other people what you enjoy yourself is elitism and
anathema to American principles of equality under the law,
something the left tries at least to pay lip service to on other
issues.

Read More