Luke Skywalker
Super Moderator
{vb:raw ozzmodz_postquote}:
NASHUA, N.H. — A parade of potential candidates continues here Saturday at a summit convened by the state GOP<span style="color: Red;">*</span>to give political activists a look at more than a dozen presidential hopefuls. Taxes, spending, foreign policy and Hillary Clinton were all on the agenda:
Ted Cruz (Darren McCollester, Getty Images)
Ted Cruz
Politicians, even the president, should not decide whether to send U.S. troops to fight the Islamic State, Cruz said when asked to describe how he would stop<span style="color: Red;">*</span>the terrorist<span style="color: Red;">*</span>threat.
The U.S. should use “overwhelming air power” and arm Kurdish peshmerga fighters, he said.”Boots on the ground? I don’t think that should be decided by a bunch of politicians in Washington,” he said. “It should be driven by the military necessity.” Were he to be president, he said, he would seek the advice of military commanders — although he said one general had told him a military solution to the Middle East terrorist threat is not possible. “Nonsense,” Cruz said.<span style="color: Red;">*</span> “The objective is not to degrade ISIS, it is to utterly and completely destroy ISIS. They are the face of evil.”
Lindsey Graham (Shelley Mays, The Tennessean)
Lindsey Graham
Asked about his potential path to the GOP nomination, the South Carolina Republican<span style="color: Red;">*</span>spelled it out for the audience, which is well-versed in the mechanics of campaigns.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“I’ve got to exceed expectations in Iowa. … finish in the top tier in New Hampshire, and then I’ll win South Carolina,” he said. “Then I will have momentum.”
<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
A relatively<span style="color: Red;">*</span>recent entrant to the ranks of potential candidates, Graham emphasizes his expertise on<span style="color: Red;">*</span>national defense<span style="color: Red;">*</span>due to his position on the Armed Services Committee. “I believe I could connect with the average person,” he said. “If it’s not me. for God’s sake, pick somebody who can win.”
Bobby Jindal (Darren McCallester)
Bobby Jindal
The Louisiana governor is known for his opposition to Common Core educational standards but he told the Republican crowd that he also opposed a signature achievement of the last Republican president, George W. Bush: the No Child Left Behind law that gave rise to annual school testing. No Child Left Behind was a “mistake” that vastly expanded federal intervention into public education. He described Common Core, educational standards adopted by most states with federal financial<span style="color: Red;">*</span>incentives, as a way for the Obama administration to dictate<span style="color: Red;">*</span>school curricula.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“Can you imagine how they would teach American history? It would be about victimhood.’’
Jindal reiterated his support for school choice.<span style="color: Red;">*</span>“A child’s zip code determines whether they’re going to get a good education,” he said. “This is not acceptable.’’
Carly Fiorina (Darren McCollester, Getty Images)
Carly Fiorina<span style="color: Red;">*</span>
Fiorina has had sharp words for the Democratic woman seeking the presidency, saying that Clinton’s constant traveling as secretary of State “an activity, not an accomplishment.” When she was asked in a TV interview whether a woman’s hormones would affect her judgment as president, she said she shot back, “Not<span style="color: Red;">*</span>that we have seen examples of a man’s judgment being clouded by hormones, including in the Oval Office.”
“Hillary Clinton must not be president of the United States but not because she is a woman,” Fiorina said. Clinton lacks a record of achievement and transparency “and she will pursue policies that crush the potential of this great nation.”
Fiorina, the former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and an unsuccessful candidate for the Senate from California, said the U.S. should stop nuclear talks with Iran, reinstate sanctions, and refuse to resume talks until Iran agrees to “full, unfettered” inspections of its nuclear sites.
Rand Paul in New Hampshire Saturday (Jim Cole, AP)
Rand Paul
You know it’s a GOP<span style="color: Red;">*</span>primary when a candidate spends only half his speech walloping Hillary Clinton, so he can use the other half to criticize Republicans.
First up this morning at the Republican Party candidate summit in New Hampshire, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who said Republicans need to be more aggressive in cutting taxes instead of aiming for budget maneuvers that are “revenue-neutral.”
“If that’s what we’re for I’m going home,” he said “We need to be boldly for what we are for.”
Republicans need to propose “tax cuts to help poor people,” Paul said. Since business owners already vote Republican, “If you want to win elections you’ve got to get the votes of the people who work for the people who own businesses.”
He rapped other presidential hopefuls for being too willing to involve the U.S. in military action overseas — “There’s a group of folks in our party who would have troops in six countries right now” — while pledging to do “whatever it takes” to stop the threat of the Islamic State.
Paul repeated his argument that Clinton is unfit for the presidency because of her handling of the deaths of American diplomats in Benghazi, Libya. But he<span style="color: Red;">*</span><span style="color: Red;">*</span>urged Republicans to defend “the entire bill of rights” by ending civil forfeiture and government monitoring of cellphones. “It’s none of their<span style="color: Red;">*</span>damn business what you’re doing on your phone.”
Powered By WizardRSS.com | Full Text RSS Feed