Saturday, December 31, 2011
Michele Bachmann's Iowa Chairman Kent Sorenson Abandons Her For Ron Paul
DES MOINES, Iowa -- Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) accused her former Iowa campaign chairman of accepting money to jump ship to support Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) on Wednesday, issuing a terse statement within two hours of his announcement.
Kent Sorenson, the Iowa state senator who served in the Bachmann campaign, denied the allegations and said he accepted no money for his endorsement. Sorenson is "leaving his post as Iowa chairman for U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann’s presidential campaign here," according to a statement from the Paul campaign. "The resignation and endorsement take effect immediately."
Sorenson said he did not tell the Bachmann campaign before he announced his endorsement of Paul, and appeared at one of her events earlier on Wednesday. He told HuffPost late Wednesday that his decision was made only 10 minutes before he took the stage at a Paul rally in Des Moines to say he would support Paul instead of Bachmann.
He said he probably would not have supported Bachmann in the first place had Paul been in the race when she first announced her candidacy.
Bachmann's campaign fired back after the announcement, saying it was an attempt to "throw cold water on our growing momentum."
"Kent Sorenson personally told me he was offered a large sum of money to go to work for the Paul campaign," Bachmann said in a statement. "Kent campaigned with us earlier this afternoon and went immediately afterward to a Ron Paul event and announced he is changing teams. Kent said to me yesterday that 'everyone sells out in Iowa, why shouldn't I,' then he told me he would stay with our campaign. The Ron Paul campaign has to answer for its actions."
Sorenson said he had only one conversation with Bachmann on Wednesday. She said "Hi, Kent," and he replied "Hi, Michele," he recounted.
"If they want to resort to these type of desperate attacks, that's fine," Sorenson said. "I believe that my character stands for itself."
He declined to say whether Bachmann's campaign is in trouble, saying she would have to answer for that. But he said she has no chance of winning in Iowa. He had referred earlier in his statement to the need for conservatives to defeat fellow Republican candidates Mitt Romney, the former Massachusetts governor, and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.).
"There is a clear top tier in the race for the Republican nomination for President, both here in Iowa and nationally. Ron Paul is easily the most conservative of this group," Sorenson said in his statement.
He later told HuffPost Wednesday, "She is not in the top tier."
"She is not in a position to beat Mitt Romney. We are. ... She is not a direct threat to the Ron Paul campaign, so I have no idea why she would say that."
But he later added, "Bachmann can't win Iowa."
The loss of the Iowa legislator deals a significant blow to Bachmann's campaign. Sorenson is a Tea Party firebrand who was elected to the Iowa state senate in January after only one term in the state legislature. He owns a cleaning company and is father to six children. His decision to support Bachmann earlier this year was a big pickup for the congresswoman from Minnesota.
But Bachmann has steadily fallen in the polls every since winning the Ames Straw Poll in August. Her slide began when Texas Gov. Rick Perry entered the race and she has never recovered. Sorenson made clear that this was why he was abandoning her for Paul. For Bachmann, it is a damaging blow as she attempts to make her way from the rear of the pack back into contention, with precious little time to do so before Iowa's Jan. 3 caucuses.
Sorenson acknowledged that his jumping ship from Bachmann's campaign might reflect badly on him, but attempted to put the blame for that on others.
"With the entire Republican establishment intent on smearing Ron Paul and his dedicated supporters, I understand this decision could impact the way people see me and my entire political career. But this is the right decision, and one in which I proudly stand behind," Sorenson said.
He called his choice to leave Bachmann "one of the most difficult I have made in my life."
"But given what's at stake for our country, I have decided I must take this action," Sorenson said.
The Bachmann campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
This story has been updated to reflect comments from Kent Sorenson and Rep. Michele Bachmann's response to his endorsement of Rep. Ron Paul.
Foreign Policy Experts Agree With Ron Paul’s Controversial Foreign Policy
Ron Paul is often chided by his Republican opponents for his extreme views on American foreign policy. His calls for ending all foreign wars and shutting hundreds of military bases across the globe have drawn howls from his GOP rivals, who have labeled the moves irresponsible and naïve.
His campaign pledge of cutting all foreign aid and withdrawing U.S. participation in the World Trade Organization and the United Nations has been at odds with even the most conservative members of his own party.
Yet as voting day in Iowa and New Hampshire draws near, Paul, the Congressman from Texas, is finding support for his non-interventionist positions from a growing number of foreign policy experts.
“He’s attacking our rich lazy friends, why is that not more popular,” said Harvey Sapolsky, emeritus professor of public policy and organization at MIT. He backs Paul’s calls for reducing America’s military budget, arguing that much of it is used to defend wealthy nations’ security.
A huge, Cold War-era global presence — with hundreds of overseas military bases — isn’t necessary, now that the Soviet threat is over and the collapse of communism, Sapolsky said.
“It’s not in America’s interest,” said Sapolsky, who added that despite the drumbeat in the media over the fear of terrorism, America is the safest it has ever been in its history.
Christopher Preble, vice president for defense and foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, is also another foreign policy expert who agrees that the United States is extraordinarily secure due to its geography and nuclear weapons, and doesn’t need a huge global presence.
He also argued that the United States’ military is being used in overseas conflicts with little or no national interest, specifically pointing to the U.S. invasion of Iraq.
Preble gave Paul credit for being one of the few outspoken critics of the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
For sure America’s attitudes toward the war has changed and popular opinion seems to be on his side.
It’s evident at most of his campaign stops, where Paul’s calls for the troops to return home are met with thunderous applause and the occasional standing ovation.
But not all of Paul’s foreign policy positions have gone over well.
Paul has often said that America encourages terror by stationing troops worldwide.
“That’s irresponsible,” former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum said. “A future president of the United State should not be parroting what Osama Bin Laden said on 9/11.”
Santorum, who is among Paul’s rivals for the GOP presidential nomination, challenged him at a recent debate, to explain his view that American overseas domination caused the Sept. 11 attacks.
Paul’s answer received a hostile response from the audience and even a few boos.
Paul’s view that a withdrawal of U.S. troops would decrease the incentive for terrorists to attack the United States got him into trouble with a Concord, N.H., voter earlier this year, who questioned his sanity.
“Anyone who thinks that is off their rocker,” she said.
“He’s easily dismissed as a crank,” said Sapolsky, who says Paul has good ideas but can be an inarticulate messenger.
Like most aspects of running a national political campaign, style often outweighs substance and both Sapolsky and Preble said that Paul is neither a great orator nor does he break down large global situations well.
But despite his shortcomings, Sapolsky does give Paul credit for speaking his mind.
“A lot of people won’t say come home,” Sapolsky said. “But Ron Paul does and that’s great.”
Kelly Clarkson sales spike after Ron Paul endorsement
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- A word of advice to prospective American Idol contestants: vote libertarian.
One day after she announced her support for Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul on Twitter, sales of pop singer Kelly Clarkson's most recent album were surging Friday on Amazon.com.
Sales of Clarkson's album Stronger shot up 442% between Thursday and Friday afternoon on Amazon (AMZN, Fortune 500), moving the album from #38 to #7 on Amazon's sales list.
While there's no way to tell whether her support for Paul was the only reason for this jump, the endorsement clearly made a difference for some fans.
"I must admit I have not really followed you but your recent stance on Ron Paul made me check you out," one fan wrote Friday in a review of the album on Amazon. "If you are smart enough to support Ron Paul then you are probably talented too."
"JUST DISCOVERED YOU...BECAUSE OF RON PAUL!" another wrote. "The energy of these songs would be great as Ron Paul event background music."
On Thursday, Clarkson wrote on Twitter that if the libertarian candidate "wins the nomination for the Republican party in 2012 he's got my vote."
"I love Ron Paul. I liked him a lot during the last republican nomination and no one gave him a chance," she wrote in an extended tweet.
Although she identified herself as a Republican, the former American Idol champ said she "voted Democrat last election." And this go-round, "Out of all of the Republican nominees, he's my favorite," she said.
The Paul campaign thanked Clarkson for her "kind words" in a tweet on Thursday.
News of Clarkson's Amazon sales was picked up Friday by the Hollywood Reporter. Her album sat at #39 on the Billboard album charts as of Friday afternoon, though it was up to #13 on Apple's iTunes charts.
CNN's Political Unit contributed to this report.
Friday, December 30, 2011
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)