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Economy, News

empire state manufacturing index

Readings from the Empire State manufacturing index reported by the New York Fed monthly.

The predominant New York manufacturing index emerged from contraction territory in January, clocking in at 9.95 from -1.23 the month prior. It was the first contraction in regional manufacturing activity in two years.

Wall Street expected a reading of 5. in January

The New York Federal Reserve’s Empire State Manufacturing Survey activity in the region showed modest growth in new orders and shipments, but labor market conditions were mixed. While the index for number of employees rose to 13.7, the average workweek index remained negative at -8.4.

Both the prices paid and prices received indexes came in at 12.6, suggesting a modest increase in input prices and selling prices. The prices paid index was little changed at 12.6, where is has now stood for four consecutive months.

Roughly a third of respondents reported that business conditions improved last month. The index for future general business conditions rose nine points to 48.4, with nearly 60 percent of those respondents expecting conditions to improve.

The new orders index rose six points to 6.1, showing a slight increase in orders, and the shipments index rose seven points to 9.6, indicating a similar rise in shipments. However, the unfilled orders index moved up after a sharp decline last month, yet remained negative at -8.4. The delivery time index came in at -5.3, indicating shorter delivery times, while the inventories index was -7.4, indicating a decline in inventory levels.

The index for expected number of employees rose eleven points to 31.6, its highest level in nearly three years, indicating that a significant expansion in employment is anticipated in the months ahead. The capital expenditures index was little changed at 14.7, while the technology spending index fell five points to 12.6.

The predominant New York manufacturing index emerged

Politics, Video

 

The Republican-controlled House voted 236 to 191 Wednesday to block the president’s executive order on immigration, and Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-SC) was in form on the floor.

“This is not a fight between Republicans and Democrats,” Rep. Gowdy said. “This is not even a fight over immigration reform. This is a fight over whether this branch of government will ever find the courage to stand up for itself. The same document that this and all presidents swear to defend gives this body certain tools. Tools like the power of the purse and it’s about damn time we use that tool.”

Gowdy, and other Republicans who voted in favor of the bill that defunded President Obama’s order that grants amnesty to roughly 4 million in the first year, were applauded by conservative activist groups Thursday morning. The bill now moves to the Senate, where the Senate Conservatives Fund intends to mount an effort to recruit Democrats who may support the president’s order, which he stated at least 23 times he did not have the authority to do, but not how the process played out.

“Now that Republicans control the Senate, they are the only ones who can take this bill off the Senate floor,” Senate Conservatives Fund President Ken Cuccinelli said in an email. “If Democrats want to filibuster the bill, they should be forced to do so in front of the cameras for everyone to see.”

Several Democrats have raised concerns over the president’s action last year, and it is these members that high on Cuccinelli’s list. Republicans would need to draft at least six of them if they hope to offset their own members who may get weak in the knees. A whopping 26 Republicans joined the Democrats to vote against an the amendment, which was sponsored by Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN).

“Some Democrats may support amnesty, but don’t like the way it was done,” he said. “This is their chance to show their independence and to listen to the American people.”

The Republican-controlled House voted 236 to 191

Opinion

wall-street-nyse

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) at Wall Street and Broad. (Photo: Reuters)

Why are liberals so against capitalism when so many of them use it to raise funds for their agenda? What does the President have against an economic system that has made so many people so wealthy, and brought the highest standard of living to America?

Well, let’s put it another way. Would you stay in your current job if you had no bills or debts?

I daresay many people would not. And that’s the rub.

Capitalism provides more wealth to more people than any other economic system in the world. Are there robber barons or people who exploit capitalism to their own means?

Certainly.

This happens in every economic system, capitalism is no different in this regard. It is also by nature, cyclical. There are good times and bad times.

Yet, almost invariably the bad times in a capitalistic system happen when an outside force (such as government) tries to tamper with the system for its own prurient means.

Take for example the Great Depression. When you examine the causes for it, you’ll find it was government changing the tax structure on capital gains was behind it. As the paper dealers of Wall Street tried to circumvent tax changes in 20’s they positioned themselves in riskier and riskier ways of finance until the entire system collapsed. But what made it really bad was government trying to correct the natural ebbs and flows of capitalistic success and failures through redistribution of wealth.

In an effort to help everyone, the government made it worse.

Examine the economy today. It is very similar to the Great Depression. People are still in bread lines (45 million on food stamps), people are still without work (highest non participation rate in history) and dictators and criminals are thriving overseas on the weakening of American influence, warring on bother their own people and others. More importantly, more people than ever are working for lower wages, in jobs they don’t want to be doing.

The causes for the economy of today are very similar too — government interference in the free market.

You see, reliance on government makes for good slaves by economic means. You can’t find another higher paying job, because prospects are limited. You tolerate a lot from a lousy job because there are few options in the market. You can’t go anywhere else because to change careers means getting new credentials and degrees, and that is an expensive and laborious process — now that college degrees are so essential to getting a job.

Government interferes in the free market not to empower you, but to empower itself.

Thus, the economic system that socialism and communism creates, forces you into a life that lacks freedom and denies you choices in lifestyle. It controls you by telling you your freedom of choice is dangerous to yourself and others. It controls your behavior by this method, too.

Capitalism is freedom. Freedom means a lack of control by government, and a lack of control means a lack of power.

This is why the real issue in our lives is not who is President, but rather the size and scope of government in our lives.

This is the real threat to freedom.

Thomas Purcell is nationally syndicated columnist, author of the book “Shotgun Republic” and is host of the Liberty Never Sleeps podcast. More of his work can be found at LibertyNeverSleeps.com.

[mybooktable book=”shotgun-republic” display=”summary”]

Why are liberals so against capitalism when

Opinion

paris-rally-stephane-charbonnier-sign-reuters

aloft the image of the eyes of murdered Charlie Hebdo editor Stephane Charbonnier. (Photo: REUTERS)

The photos of 40 of the world’s government leaders marching arm-in-arm along a Paris boulevard on Sunday with the president of the United States not among them was a provocative image that has fomented much debate. The march was, of course, in direct response to the murderous attacks on workers at the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo by a pair of brothers named Kouachi, and on shoppers at a Paris kosher supermarket by one of the brothers’ comrades.

The debate has been about whether President Obama should have been at the march. The march was billed as a defense of freedom of speech in the West; yet it hardly could have been held in a less free speech-friendly Western environment, and the debate over Obama’s absence misses the point.

In the post-World War II era, French governments have adopted a policy advanced upon them nearly 100 years ago by Woodrow Wilson. He pioneered the modern idea that countries’ constitutions don’t limit governments; they unleash them. Thus, even though the French Constitution guarantees freedom of speech, French governments treat speech as a gift from the government, not as a natural right of all persons, as our Constitution does.

The French government has prohibited speech it considers to be hateful and even made it criminal. When the predecessor magazine to Charlie Hebdo once mocked the death of Charles de Gaulle, the French government shut it down — permanently.

The theory of anti-hate speech laws is that hate speech often leads to violence, and violence demands police and thus the expenditure of public resources, and so the government can make it illegal to spout hatred in order to conserve its resources. This attitude presumes, as Wilson did when he prosecuted folks for publicly singing German songs during World War I, that the government is the origin of free speech and can lawfully limit the speech it hates and fears. It also presumes that all ideas are equal, and none is worthy of hatred.

When the massacres occurred last week in Paris, all three of the murderers knew that the police would be unarmed and so would be their victims. It was as if they were shooting fish in a barrel. Why is that? The answer lies in the same mentality that believes it can eradicate hate by regulating speech. That mentality demands that government have a monopoly on violence, even violence against evil.

So, to those who embrace this dreadful theory, the great loss in Paris last week was not human life, which is a gift from God; it was free speech, which is a gift from the state. Hence the French government, which seems not to care about innocent life, instead of addressing these massacres as crimes against innocent people, proclaimed the massacres crimes against the freedom of speech. Would the French government have reacted similarly if the murderers had killed workers at an ammunition factory, instead of at a satirical magazine?

And how hypocritical was it of the French government to claim it defends free speech! In France, you can go to jail if you publicly express hatred for a group whose members may be defined generally by characteristics of birth, such as gender, age, race, place of origin or religion.

You can also go to jail for using speech to defy the government. This past weekend, millions of folks in France wore buttons and headbands that proclaimed in French: “I am Charlie Hebdo.” Those whose buttons proclaimed “I am not Charlie Hebdo” were asked by the police to remove them. Those who wore buttons that proclaimed, either satirically or hatefully, “I am Kouachi” were arrested. Arrested for speech at a march in support of free speech? Yes.

What’s going on here? What’s going on in France, and what might be the future in America, is the government defending the speech with which it agrees and punishing the speech with which it disagrees. What’s going on is the assault by some in radical Islam not on speech, but on vulnerable innocents in their everyday lives in order to intimidate their governments. What’s going on is the deployment of 90,000 French troops to catch and kill three murderers because the government does not trust the local police to use guns to keep the streets safe or private persons to use guns to defend their own lives.

Why do some in radical Islam kill innocents in the West in order to affect the policies of Western governments? Might it be because the fruitless Western invasion of Iraq killed 650,000 persons, most of whom were innocent civilians? Might it be because that invasion brought al-Qaida to the region and spawned ISIS? Might it be because Obama has killed more innocent civilians in the Middle East with his drones than were killed by the planes in the U.S. on 9/11? Might it be because our spies are listening to us, rather than to those who pose real dangers?
What does all this have to do with freedom of speech? Nothing — unless you believe the French government.

Judge Napolitano: The march was billed as

US

congress_capitol_hill

U.S. Congress on Capitol Hill, Washington D.C. (Photo: Reuters)

DEVELOPING: Officials say an Ohio man has been arrested for plotting to attack the U.S. Capitol Building, and that he was inspired by ISIS, otherwise known as ISIL or the Islamic State. Christopher Lee Cornell, 20, of Green Township, who converted to Islam and changed his name to Raheel Mahrus Ubaydah, considered members of Congress “enemies” and planned to kill employees and officers working in and around the U.S. Capitol.

Cornell’s Twitter account posted statements, videos and other pro-ISIS content, as well as support for radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was killed in a U.S. drone attack in 2011.

According to the criminal complaint, Cornell said he thought he was fulfilling the directives of the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS, or ISIL.

“I believe we should meet up and make our own group in alliance with the Islamic State and plan operations ourselves,” Cornell wrote in a communication with a confidential informant on his Twitter account. “We already got the thumbs up from the Brothers over there and Anwar al-Awlaki and many others before his martyrdom.”

The criminal complaint further revealed he planned to build, plant and detonate pipe bombs in the U.S. Capitol Building. The plan also called for him to open fire on any employees and officials after the bombs went off.

Christopher Lee Cornell, 20, of Green Township,

Politics

lois lerner

Lois Lerner, former head of the IRS unit that decides whether to grant tax-exempt status to groups, listens on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, May 22, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Newly obtained IRS emails not only reveal that Cincinnati clearly took direction from Washington D.C., but also that Lois Lerner, the former head of the unit that targeted conservative groups, practically begged her then-supervisor Joseph Grant not to visit the Cincinnati office or ask specific questions pertaining to congressional inquiries.

The Republican-controlled House voted in May of last year to hold Lerner in contempt, but outgoing Attorney General Eric Holder has refused to charge her or even further investigate the scandal. However, through multiple lawsuits filed by the government watchdog group Judicial Watch, who released the emails Wednesday, details of the systemic abuse of authority at the Internal Revenue Service have emerged incrementally.

“These new documents, withheld for years contrary to law, suggest that a top IRS official may have obstructed investigations into the IRS scandal,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton. “Even Lois Lerner objected to her boss’s travel to the infamous Cincinnati IRS office, falsely accused by Barack Obama as being solely responsible for the abuse of the First Amendment rights of his critics.”

On May 8, 2013, only a few days before the IRS scandal became public, then-Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller promoted Grant to TE/GE Commissioner, a position that put him in the role to “oversee the administration of tax law relating to employee plans, tax-exempt organizations and various government entities.” Coincidentally, or not, Miller announced his resignation on May 15, 2013, and Grant announced his retirement the very next day.

lois-lerner-emails-1

In the email below, which was obtained in response to a federal court order issued for the the October 9, 2013, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit involving four separate FOIA requests about the IRS scandal, a frantic Lois Lerner begs Grant to postpone a tough meeting. Grant attempts to calm Lerner by telling her it was “just a visit, not an OP (Official Planning) review” [parenthesis added].

lois-lerner-emails

Lerner was clearly panicked by the pending investigation from the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA). When we compare their findings to Lerner’s claims, then it’s easy to understand why.

In May 2013, Lerner publicly blamed the IRS’s practice of targeting conservatives on “low-level” employees in Cincinnati, which President Obama echoed by claiming it was the result of “bonehead decisions in local offices.” He repeated that claim in an interview with Bill O’Reilly shortly after, adding that there was “not even a smidgen of corruption” at the IRS.

However, a Feb. 29, 2012 email exchange revealed that the Exempt Organizations (EO), which is located in Washington D.C., had been approving the process of reviewing 501(c)4 tax-exempt applications. Further, in the same email thread, Holly Patz, a Lerner lacky and the agency’s former director of the Office of Rulings and Agreements, alleged an “uptick in applications from advocacy organizations early in 2010.”

But that’s just not accurate, and was directly contradicted by the May 14, 2013, TIGTA report. The report, which the email above shows Lerner was very concerned over, found that applications actually declined in 2010.

Lois, EO Determinations noticed an uptick in applications from advocacy organizations early in 2010. The first case was referred to EO Technical in…2010. That case was an application for…status. It closed…2010 when the… At that time, EO Technical requested another…from an…be transferred to EO Technical. Such a case was transferred in…2010. That case also closed…2012 after the… EO Technical also requested an application from a…be transferred from Determinations. A case was transferred in…2010. It is still being developed by EO Technical. To give you a sense of the growth in the number of these cases, in October 2010, we had identified approximately 40 advocacy cases.

As of about 10:00 a.m. on 2/28/2012, we had 229 of these cases. Of the 229 cases, 141 have been assigned. Development letters have been sent to the majority of the 141 assigned cases. The oldest control dates of those cases that are still unassigned are 2/8/2011, 3/18/2011, 4/28/2011, and 5/28/2011. These will be assigned next. Otherwise, we’re at approximately 6/6/2011 control date for these cases. EO Technical provided guidance regarding the development of applications by advocacy organizations to EO Determinations in November 2011.

In response to that email, Lerner expressed an urgency to speak with Patz on the phone, ending what is a public email thread subject to subpoena.

lois-lerner-email-2

“These documents also show the IRS knew early on that it was abusing its authority and innocent Americans through burdensome information requests and improper collection of the names of donors to groups that threatened Obama’s reelection,” Fitton added. “This IRS scandal is just getting started. Obama’s cover up of his administration’s suppression of his political opposition continues to unravel.”

Mr. Fitton may just be right. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has repeatedly promised to investigate the IRS scandal further. With the Republican Senate possessing subpoena powers the House could not enforce, they certainly have the means to do so.

Newly obtained IRS emails from Lois Lerner

US

airport-security

The random searches were ordered after the attacks in France and a magazine linked to Al Qaeda published a new bomb recipe. (Photo: AP)

A call for attacks on U.S. airlines using a new al Qaeda online bomb recipe prompted authorities to order random searches of travelers and carry-on bags at U.S. airports. The recipe claimed to offer a blueprint for detection-proof bombs, which in light of recent events in France and elsewhere, led officials to take measures.

“We have no specific, credible intelligence of an attack of the kind in Paris last week being planned by terrorist organizations in this country,” Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson said in a statement. “But, the reasons for these measures should be self-evident to the public: the recent attacks in Paris, Ottawa, Sydney, and elsewhere, along with the recent public calls by terrorist organizations for attacks on Western objectives, including aircraft, military personnel, and government installations and civilian personnel.”

Secretary Johnson met with airline security officials to brief them about the elevated threat, which came in the latest issue of al Qaeda’s Inspire magazine. The online publication is a propaganda and training tool started by Muslim cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, who was an American and Yemeni Islamic militant killed by a U.S. drone strike three years ago. Inspire magazine provided a guide to making the explosives, getting through security and even instructed suicide bombers on where to sit on the plane.

al-qaeda-inspire-magazine

The online magazine published by Al Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula has put out bomb-making instructions before. (Screenshot)

“We spared no effort in simplifying the idea in such we made it ‘another meal prepared in the kitchen’ so that every determined Muslim can prepare,” states the magazine article, titled, “How to Build a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom.”

Inspire magazine has previously published several “how-to” articles, including one on making bombs out of pressure cookers, which ran prior to the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013. Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, two radicalized Chechen immigrants who converted to Islam, used two of the modified kitchen devices to kill three people and injure more than 200.

Last week the State Department updated its Worldwide Caution travel alert to all Americans abroad.

“Recent terrorist attacks, whether by those affiliated with terrorist entities, copycats, or individual perpetrators, serve as a reminder that U.S. citizens need to maintain a high level of vigilance and take appropriate steps to increase their security awareness,” the alert said.

A call for attacks on U.S. airlines

Video, World

al-qaeda-yemen-leader-nasser bin-ali-al-ansi

In a video released on Wednesday, Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, leader of al Qaeda in Yemen, claimed responsibility for the Paris attack on Charlie Hebdo.

In a video released on Wednesday, Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi claimed, leader of al Qaeda in Yemen, claimed responsibility for the Paris attack on Charlie Hebdo last week. In the video, the leader of the terror group also known as al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, or AQAP, claimed the organization chose the target, financed and planned the operation.

“[AQAP] chose the target, laid the plan and financed the operation,” al-Ansi said in the 11-minute video. “[AQAP] claim responsibility for this operation as vengeance for the Messenger of Allah.”

Since the grim attack last week, al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, located in Yemen, was at the top of western intelligence agencies’ lists of likely suspects.

In 2013, AQAP’s online English-language magazine, Inspire, listed the editor of Charlie Hebdo, Stéphane Charbonnier, among its most wanted, for publishing cartoons it said were insulting to the prophet. Charbonnier, also known as “Charb,” was the cartoonist depicting Islamic State leader al-Baghdadi, which was tweeted out just prior to the attack that claimed his life.

“Your governments blocked their ears from this address. They became stubborn and persisted in protecting and supporting the offensive cartoonists, directors and journalists,” al-Ansi said, warning of future attacks if the West continues insulting “our prophet and sanctities.”

Incidentally, the latest issue of Charlie Hebdo, which features a cartoon of the Prophet Muhammed on the cover holding a “Je suis Charlie” sign, has sold out across Europe, with a 3 million print run far exceeding their typical 60,000-issue circulation.

Egypt’s Dar al-Ifta, an institute for the study of Islamic law with links to the Egyptian state, on Tuesday said the cartoon cover was an “unjustified provocation” for millions of Muslims who respect and love their prophet. The Dar al-Ifta is in charge of issuing relgious edicts, an allegedly more-harmful edicts, to millions of Muslims.

The official statement was a warning of an outpouring of hatred by Muslims in French and other Western societies toward non-Muslims, and called on the French government and other western governments to reject “the racist act.”which is in charge of issuing religious edicts.

The cover of the new issue also read, “Tout Est Pardonne,” or “All Is Forgiven.” However, it appears al-Ansi and the rest of AQAP aren’t asking for forgiveness.

Shocker.

In a video released on Wednesday, Nasser

Economy

retail sales

(Photo: REUTERS)

Despite the falling gas prices, a gauge of U.S. consumer spending unexpectedly fell in December fueled by weakening demand across the board.

The Commerce Department said on Wednesday retail sales — excluding automobiles, gasoline, building materials and food services — fell 0.4 percent last month after a 0.6 percent rise in November.

The so-called core retail sales, which excludes pretty much everything everyday Americans are concerned with, foreshadow the consumer spending component of gross domestic product.

Economists polled by Reuters had expected core retail sales to rise 0.4 percent last month.

December’s unexpected decline should reduce optimistic expectations on consumer spending, which accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity, and overall gross domestic product (GDP) growth. GDP accelerated sharply in the fourth quarter.

With gasoline prices continuing to fall — thanks to a 61 percent increase in U.S. production on private lands, despite a 6 percent reduction on public lands — December’s decline in core retail sales will hopefully pick up spending and sentiment.

Core sales last month suffered from a 1.6 percent decline in receipts at electronic and appliance stores, a 0.3 percent fall in sales at clothing stores, a 03 percent drop in online sales, and further declines in receipts at sporting goods stores.

On a more positive note, core sales were up 3.2 percent from a year earlier, and receipts at furniture stores rose 0.8 percent in December.

As a result of falling gasoline prices, service station sales fell by 6.5 percent, which is the biggest decline since December 2008. When combined with a 0.7 percent fall in receipts at auto dealerships, overall retail sales fell by 0.9 percent, which the largest decline since January of last year.

Consequently, a new survey from Rasmussen Reports, which was recently examined at PPD, found car-buying isn’t on the top of Americans’ to-do lists.

Meanwhile, November retail sales were revised down to a 0.4 percent increase, rather than the previously reported 0.7 percent increase.

Sales for building materials and garden equipment also fell by 1.9 percent in December, while sales at restaurants and bars actually ticked up 0.8 percent.

Despite the falling gas prices, a gauge

Politics

rand paul

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul gives speech on privacy rights (Photo: REUTERS)

Libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has reportedly hired a campaign manager in a move that confirms his 2016 presidential aspirations. However, the senator’s choice reveals the type of campaign the senator intends to run and where he believes the future of the Republican Party belongs.

Paul hired Chip Englander, the former campaign manager for Illinois Republican Bruce Rauner, who defeated incumbent Democratic Gov. Pat Quinn last November. A memo sent to Paul donors and allies underscored that Englander helped elect a Republican governor in President Obama’s home state, which the president “won by 25 [percentage points in the 2008 election].”

The memo also said Englander “drew in new types of voters to win the state, including winning a majority of moderates, unprecedented for a Republican.”

The GOP establishment consultant class quietly (and sometimes publicly) mocked Rauner for reaching out to traditional Democratic voters, including inner-city minorities, many of who endorsed and subsequently voted for him. In what most pundits claimed to be an upset — except, however, for PPD’s model — Bruce Rauner comfortably defeated Pat Quinn and won a significant amount of black and Hispanic voters.

Sen. Paul has made similar efforts since the 2012 election, arguing Republicans must expand their appeal or suffer long-term defeat in national elections. Must to the panic of Democrats, spoke to the all-black Howard University in 2014 regarding civil rights, visited Detroit and other inner-city neighborhoods to talk about sentencing reforms and introduce the liberty message.

He has also reached out to another bloc of voters that constitute the Democratic base — the youth. Paul spoke at UC Berkeley at an event that was hosted by the Berkeley Forum student organization, during which he fired up the crowd speaking about his class-action lawsuit against the Obama administration and the National Security Agency.

But the GOP field will be a crowded one, to be sure. The announcement comes as former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican nominee, stole headlines by telling a group of supporters to hold off on former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush because he was likely to jump in the race. After months of repeatedly denying interest in a 2016 bid, both publicly and privately, Romney dropped the bomb during a meeting with 30 former large donors in Manhattan, New York.

Romney’s announcement same just one week after Jeb Bush quit all his major corporate and nonprofit board memberships, including one that profited off of ObamaCare.

A recent Gravis Poll found Romney trouncing Bush among Iowa caucus goers, but Paul was also trailing in the 11-way matchup at 8 percent. However, Paul ran ahead of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), Gov. Chris Christie (R-NJ) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL). For now, Romney’s name recognition and affinity among Republicans give him an edge over Bush and Paul, but a few recent polls offer good news for a Paul bid.

A recent PPD Poll found a slim majority — 51 percent — of Republican and Republican-leaning independents say they are less likely to vote in the 2016 presidential election if Jeb Bush is the nominee, and 48 percent of registered voters say they definitely will not vote for another Bush.

Further, just 29 percent of Republicans say the former Florida governor should run for president in 2016, but even among these voters, just 14 percent say they will definitely vote for Bush in their state primary or caucus. The same is true of Romney, but to a far less extent.

A Rasmussen Reports survey found that 64 percent of likely voters say Republicans should “look for a fresh face to run for president in 2016,” while just 10 percent say they should get behind a candidate who has run in the past.

With such a sentiment among the Republican and general electorate, Paul’s choice of Englander, a young and energetic outsider who recognizes it, was significant. It has teed-up an intra-party battle between those who tap donors, and those who tap voters.

“America has intractable problems and it’s going to take a transformational leader to fix them,” Englander said. “Senator Paul is going to be the bold, transformational figure in this race.”

Paul is scheduled to visit two states with early primary contests later this week. On Wednesday, he will travel to New Hampshire, with a stay in Nevada planned for Friday and Saturday.

Libertarian-leaning Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) has reportedly

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