Trump and Carson are probably going to run together should Trump get the nomination, they've been playing footsies for awhile and Carson is the perfect contrast to Trump personality wise. Politics is just reality TV; a battle of personalities, character, and whatever the fake narrative of the day is. Rand would of had a better chance at president if he was the complete 'mad dog of the senate' and made no friends but he played right into their image trap as your typical wishy-washy ambitious politician. People don't look at his partnership with McConnell and say it makes strategic sense, it just loses him credibility whereas the establishment just laughs at him for even trying.
Policy means nothing, ideology means nothing, this is electoral politics and the political parties are just the middle man being cut out. Candidates can just make their case straight the masses and the masses are stupid and easily led astray, to win their attention then you have to play their game. Remember, everybody loves the bad guy on these TV shows so negative publicity isn't necessarily if the intentions are pure of heart. There are no lines between information, entertainment, and politics any more and there is no going back. We have to make the emotional argument for liberty, we have to go to its extremes, we have to be bold in our ideas and our vision for change. Rand needs to embrace the radical persona, he needs to be the guy that wants to bring down the leviathan, double down because nobody respects a wimp.