Two pieces of business from future presidential candidates:

1. All-but-certain Republican presidential candidate Senator Rand Paul is boldly going after also-pretty-damn-certain Republican presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio for the latter's demands that the United States continue its fifty-year-old Cuba policy:

Senator @marcorubio is acting like an isolationist who wants to retreat to our borders and perhaps build a moat. I reject this isolationism.

— Senator Rand Paul (@SenRandPaul) December 19, 2014

Damn! That's really aggressive of Paul, and it's not likely to win him fans from the Republican old guard, who seem to be aligning with Rubio on Cuba. I still think Paul will wind up looking smart in the long run for taking this stance, but in the short term his siding with Obama is going to cost him some endorsements.

2. Brian Tashman at Right Wing Watch quotes the always-entertaining likely Republican presidential nominee Dr. Ben Carson on why he thinks Obamacare is unconstitutional.

Your solution should be something that represents all the people. The Constitution says one of the purposes, in the preamble, it says is for the ‘promote the general welfare.’ What that means is that we do things that help everybody, we don’t pick this group and say, ‘We’re going to help you at the expense of this group over here.’ That’s not promoting the general welfare so we’re actually violating the Constitution in that sense.

Yes. Carson, who is a brain surgeon, believes providing affordable health care to more Americans violates our charge to promote the general welfare. If you're keeping track, this is further confirmation that Carson will be our greatest source of entertainment during the 2016 Republican presidential primary cycle.