MUTH'S TRUTHS 20/16/2013

AND THE WINNER IS…RAND PAUL! (by Gerald F. Seib/Wall Street Journal) - At this point, it's both an understatement and a statement of the obvious to say the government-shutdown showdown hasn't been good for the Republican Party.  But there's an exception to every rule… "The winner in all this," declared a senior congressional Republican last week, "is Rand Paul." Mr. Paul is jockeying with Sen. Ted Cruz to be the leading new-breed rebel with disdain for the ways of Washington and a wide libertarian streak. But Mr. Cruz, of Texas, won the lasting enmity of many in his party by leading the GOP into an ill-fated effort to defund Obamacare and a resulting shutdown of government, thereby helping send the party's approval ratings plunging. Mr. Paul played it cooler. The Kentucky senator was equally disdainful of President Barack Obama's signature health-care program, but he said bluntly from the outset that Republicans simply didn't have the votes to succeed in stripping funds for it, and he has called for reopening the government. The implication was that he wouldn't lead Republicans down the primrose path of a failed defunding effort simply to score political points. Similarly, while some in the party have sounded willing to push the U.S. government to default on its obligations rather than raise the nation's debt ceiling, Mr. Paul said on CNN Sunday that such a strategy "is not a good idea." He did, though, try to keep the focus on the policy debate where lots of Republicans think it should have been in the first place—the level of government spending. Specifically, he argued for keeping in place the tough mandatory ceilings on discretionary spending known as the sequester, and he implied that is an area where GOP senators could hang together. The upshot: Mr. Paul, once suspected by party regulars of being a wild-eyed libertarian radical, has emerged looking both principled and rational. That profile can't hurt if he pursues his obvious interest in chasing the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. CAMPAIGN TRAINING WORKSHOPS Campaign Communications 101 Reno, Nevada Wednesday, October 30, 2013 6:00 - 9:00 pm Click here for details Campaign/Candidate 101 Las Vegas, Nevada Tuesday, November 5, 2013 6:00 - 9:00 pm Stay tuned for details RALSTON RETORTS! I've obtained an updated copy of the Nielsen ratings report for Jon Ralston’s show Tuesday night.  While his average rating for the first week in October was 1.84…equating to less than 13,000 households watching out of some 2 million residents in Clark County…the show dipped to an average rating of 1.66 Tuesday night, which equates to about 11,620 households watching. Worse, the longer people watched, the more they turned off.  As it’s explained to me, the Nielsens check in every 15 minutes.  And for the last 15 minutes of Ralston Reports on Tuesday night, his rating dropped to 1.40.  That’s less than 10,000 viewing households! To give this a little more perspective on just how bad his show is doing, during that same time slot on Tuesday night, not only was Ralston Reports crushed by Jeopardy, it lost to a repeat of Two and Half Men and Judge Judy on independent stations…as well as the news broadcast on Univision! No wonder Little Jon is so bitter with, well, everybody and everything these days. Also, the Typo King still hasn’t figured out the ol’ spell-check feature on his computer… Commissioenr, likley, iherently, embodlens thrid See more Ralston Retorts at www.RalstonRetorts.com FAMOUS LAST WORDS “New drones to make lethal attack decisions without human input. Hopefully not made by same company that did Obamacare sign-up websites.” – Fred Thompson Did someone forward you this copy of Muth's Truths? Get your own FREE subscription...