He was born in he US so he is eligible.
Question isn’t his eligibleity, it’s his electability. Most recent polls show him 5th, down from 1st in NH. His unfavorably is now over 50% among all NH voters.
[QUOTE=I have doubts about Rubio’s eligibility.]
[QUOTE=Enlightening Meditation]
I have doubts about Rubio’s eligibility.
[/QUOTE]
I’ll bite. Why?
[/QUOTE]
Some sources have questioned his eligibility, but he certainly could be provably eligible. I’m not a birther. The Constitution does not address the issue of a Presidential candidate’s parents’ citizenship, so I remain skeptical of claims against Rubio’s eligibility.
The GOP would be more likely to push for Rubio to be a VP nominee anyway. I’m sticking with my choice of Gov. Christie as the most likely nominee for POTUS in 2016
A Randy Paul/Ted Cruz ticket would be a dream come true for the Democrats. And it won’t matter if it is Paul/Cruz or Cruz/Paul, crazy is crazy any way you slice it.
Jindal and Rubio are lightweights and won’t be able to survive the primaries.
I get the feeling there are important parts of the base that aren’t fully comfortable with Santorum but I wouldn’t count him out.
The Tea Party and other parts of the hard right base won’t be cuddling up to Chris Christie but again I won’t count him out for that reason alone.
And I still think Jeb Bush has something up his sleeve.
The advantage of a Paul candidacy is that it’s the best way to win back younger voters. If indeed our base is dying off, then Rand Paul is our only option, even if it means he can’t win in 2016. He’d be our Goldwater, someone who would lose big, but set us up for success in the future.
I don’t see where Paul is going to win support among the youth. Most young people are much less likely to be racists than their parents and Paul’s non-support of the Civil Rights Act isn’t going to sit well. Neither will his declaration that Hurricane Sandy victims are stealing money that should go to the military.
Nor do I see the Goldwater campaign as the key to Nixon’s victory. Nixon won because the best Democratic candidate was murdered and many of the party faithful would have preferred McCarthy to Humphrey. RFK would have cleaned Nixon’s clock in 1968 and served two terms, the Ford presidency would never have happened of course, and perhaps the Reagan revolution would never have happened.
The Goldwater campaign was the key to Reagan’s victory, not Nixon’s.
As for Paul and youth, that was where Ron Paul got most of his support. That, and from the military.
The Reagan revolution would never have happened if Democrats hadn’t treated the public as an ATM and delivered crappy services in exchange.
Ron Paul was popular among the low-information youth voters. Those that took the time to figure out what a racist old crackpot he is don’t support him. Rand is like his dad, only nuttier.
Yeah, talk about ATMs. Which president started two wars and refused to pay for them, then put the Medicare drug benefit on the credit card, then allowed Halliburton to back up their trucks and load up at the mint?
Yeah, no benefits from Democrats. Social Security and Medicare just appeared, probably somehow at an early age Reagan magically made them happen.
“Most of Ron Paul’s support”? ROFL.
No, Rand Paul isn’t getting any closer to the nomination than he is right now, even if only one teabagger hangs in to the end somehow. But if he somehow lays the groundwork for a GOP resurgence in the same time frame that there was between Goldwater and Reagan, well, we can revisit the topic in 2032. I’m OK with having that many more Democratic administrations before **adaher **can crow about how he told us so.
Sure it does- by ignoring it.
Any person born in the US is a citizen, no matter who the parents are.
Well, you said, “I have doubts…” You don’t need to; Rubio is certainly a natural born citizen.
This is quite true. The Paul family is extremely popular with the Blue Republicans. They heavily supported Ron’s primary campaign last year and are the reason he had the numbers he did.
The problem is that Blue Republicans do not vote Republican in actual elections. They either abstain or support the Democratic Party. The GOP knows this, that’s why you’ve never seen serious support from the GOP for a Ron Paul presidency. Furthermore despite their claims the Tea Party did not really support Ron Paul either, and there’s little evidence that Rand could persuade them to back him over one of their own. And even if Rand could draw in the Tea Party he could only do it by sacrificing his current base. The Blue Republicans are directly opposed to much of the Tea Party platform. Even much of the current Republican platform. That’s why they vote Democratic after all. They want legal marijuana and an end to the Patriot Act. Maybe some good old fashioned isolationism. They don’t really have any goals beyond that.
The best example of the fickle nature of Blue Republicans is simply looking at how Ron Paul has done in presidential primaries. When there is an competitive Democratic primary (like in 2008) he does worse since so many of the Blue Republicans vote there. When the Democratic primary is unimportant (like 2012) he does much better as the Blue Republicans move to back him. In fact, in 2008 when polling just people who identified as Republican his support was in line with the numbers of votes he was getting. When polling among all voters his support was higher, approaching his 2012 numbers.
As to the Tea Party and their failure to support him, remember how everyone but one got a turn at being Not Romney? Can you guess who that was? Even the guy who quoted Pokemon got a turn, but not Ron Paul.
There’s absolutely no evidence that Rand would do any better and a fair amount that he would do worse. Remember Rand’s line about how, “Just because a couple of people on the Supreme Court say so doesn’t make it constitutional”? That’ll play well. Remember his disastrous outing to Howard University? Remember him having to release his senior staffer, The Southern Avenger?
What about Nikki Haley? Or is she still not white enough for us Pubs to nominate her?
Is Haley even known enough outside of South Carolina to make a serious push for the nomination?
I don’t know about not being “white enough” now, but Haley (who’s Asian Indian for those who don’t know) thought it was enough of a concern in 2001 tolist herself as white. She was also attacked by fellow Republicans in 2010 for being a “raghead.”
She part of the Tea Party, but from their point of view she recently came out on the wrong side of the Obamacare debate since she doesn’t support the federal shutdown if it’s not defunded. So that may come back to hurt her in a primary.
Furthermore it’s not like she’s wildly popular in South Carolina. She barely won her first election in 2010 carrying only 51% of the vote. She’s also expected to face a fierce battle for relection in 2014 over the Democratic challenger Sheheen who took 47% of the vote in 2010 and is receiving a lot more support from the DNC this time around. Considering how Republican South Carolina is that’s not really a good thing for someone who wants to be considered a strong candidate in a Presidential election.
So far, none of the potential candidates mentioned will win against Mrs. Clinton if she runs.