Huckabee is no fool, he isn't just randomly speaking here. He is purposefully painting Paul in the worst way to keep him from getting support from his fans, which are Christian social conservatives in the south and plains states (i.e. Iowa and South Carolina).
Like with Trump's attack at CPAC, a bad response might turn away Huckabee's supporters just as it did Trump's. Looking at the May PPP poll that asked the question with different candidates in or out of the race, the numbers for Paul did not change one single point between Trump being in the race and Trump being out. It's not because their positions are so different, it's because of Trump's attack and the immediate response to it. We need to be mature and self-controlled in our answer to such insults or Dr. Paul will have to defend us as well as himself, which makes his job that much more difficult.
If we over-react to Huckabee, we may also lose among those who merely have a good favorability of him, which is moderate Republicans, women and many independents, too, who are largely undecided about Paul at this point. RP needs support from many of these people who have yet to make up their minds about him.
The focus on drugs and prostitution (and the Civil Rights Act) will continue until we answer it by focusing on Paul's record, which is his greatest strength.
Here's my answer:
"In his 22 years in Congress Dr. Paul has introduced hundreds of substantial bills, but not once did he submit a bill to legalize prostitution or heroin (or repeal any part of the Civil Rights Act). His proposal as President is to end the "War on Drugs" and leave drug policy up to the states. He will not violate the Constitutional limits of the Presidency or do an end run around Congress to 'legalize drugs or prostitution'."
We need to understand the audience that we need to reach in order to win primaries. We can't get the 20-30% needed with only the youngest voters and the open minded people who do their own independent internet research; there are just too few of them and they are not reliable voters. I wish they were enough, but it is not a good strategy to scare off the most reliable voters (by focusing on social security cuts and heroin legalization) and totally rely on getting people to turn out for the GOP primaries who never have in the past (college kids, drug legalization advocates, Libertarian Party members, the liberal base, Democrats...).
I have and will continue to talk to people in these groups to convince them to vote in the Republican primaries, but if we needlessly drive away the older likely primary voters, we will not get the votes needed to win any primaries. Certainly not the early ones in Iowa, South Carolina, and Florida. New Hampshire is also leaning so heavily to Romney that it is unlikely for us to win unless we get a majority of the "not-Romney" votes, which are largely Christian social conservatives and those that oppose universal health care.
So please understand that I am talking about avoiding unnecessary disputes and saying only what a President Paul will do in office. Not getting distracted by insults or theoretical questions that have nothing to do with the immediate problems in government. We can't control what Huckabee, Trump and all these pundits and media people do, but we must rise above it and show that we are better than how they depict us.
