What Happened to Rand Paul? (Redstate)

Rand is continuing to quietly position himself for the defining next six MONTHS, and that is why you have not heard too much from him in the last six weeks. While I do believe he has been "over castling" to protect himself, and needs to start moving on the enemy king, it can be said that nothing is really going to change until the Trump media surge is over, and the debates begin.

Trump has had to spend virtually nothing, with all the free coverage he's been getting. Note that Jeb has not been trying to make headlines lately either--he knows in terms of the total campaign, that this early summer lull of 2015 means nothing in the larger scheme of things.
 
It's going to be hard to shine in when you have about 15 seconds for a soundbite. It won't be a debate it'll be a commercial. Rand had (and has) a chance to speak truth to power NOW... instead he is choosing to stick his finger in the political wind and weave some kind of "court every constituency while staking no truly principled ground and try to please everyone" fantasy.

People are running to Trump because he's telling it like it is. Rand is being WAYYYYYY too cautious... he could take a page from his father's book.
 
The campaign strategy Rand has chosen to employ thus far couldn't have clashed more violently with the current political climate. He's totally out of touch with the mood of the electorate. Like AuH2O said, what happened to 2010 Rand? The economy continues to get worse, the public is getting more and more fed up, and Rand responds by becoming more laid back and conciliatory? What is that all about? Does he really think what America wants right now is the timid guy who speaks softly and carries a little stick? Has he become so entrenched in the DC Bubble that he's become blind to what is going on out there?
 
AuH20 said:
(4) carving your own tactful way to take on the brewing infection known as illegal immigration. You don't have to scream from the rooftops about illegal aliens to make salient points about the cronyism associated with such enterprise. I haven't heard Rand mention a peep about the Chamber of Commerce and their underhanded dealings regarding our illegal immigration problem. And why not bring up the NAU? Ron would never hide when these topics were brought up.
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The lessons of Dave Brat and Jeff Sessions are applicable here. They have won based upon a rational economic discussion about the impact of immigration on the average American.

Both Trump and Sanders are taking advantage of the issue of immigration combined with crony capitalism, which is obviously important to the average American. They are dramatically saying that they will stand up for the average American, and the polls reflect the popularity of that position.

Are Trump and Sanders sincere?

Sanders is sincerely misguided. His proposed solutions such as minimum wage hikes, free stuff and higher taxes will make matters worse. On top of that, he is a globalist socialist, and will not address the immigration issue. Talking about the condition of the average American without addressing immigration is like standing in a rain storm complaining about being wet, and saying he will give out free towels. No one will talk about the rain, or getting out of the rain.

Trump is not sincere. He is a crony corporatist who has taken advantage of cheap labor, often illegal. He is just playing on emotions, and making collectivist generalizations at the most boorish level. In the end, he is all tough talk, and that is what he promises. He will talk tough and drive better deals with other nations. What he is not saying is that he would continue the status quo. He will be a crony corporatist globalist, but he'll just be "tougher". Sure, everything works better with a dictator.
 
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AuH20 said:
Given that he was a shooting star after his Randslide, he is under-performing. Rand was poised to be the anti-establishment foil to Bush, but his missteps created an opening for Trump.
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Missteps, is that seriously your reason for Trump's success? Trump is a bombastic ass and that's what makes the news. Name recognition coupled with saying things some people want to hear and would never dare say themselves is the reason for Trump's meteoric rise in the polls. Most people don't actually view him as presidential material and that will be reflected when it comes time to actually vote.
 
remarkably it appears Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) 84% will be less a factor on 2016 than his dad was in 2012
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I honestly want to say... "good." At least we've established that selling out and playing nice to the establishment is not a path to victory.

Still.... so much freaking momentum his dad built that could have been continued and grown. But no. All squashed.
 
AuH20 said:
Given that he was a shooting star after his Randslide, he is under-performing. Rand was poised to be the anti-establishment foil to Bush, but his missteps created an opening for Trump.
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Trump is Herman Cain. He will drop and drop fast. Have we forgotten how this works?
 
Are some of you crazy? We haven't even had a single debate, and you're complaining about the campaign when Rand is in the top 4 out of like 15 candidates? Rand is setting everything up perfectly. You are too busy looking at the immediate effect of things. You're thinking about NOW. Rand is thinking about January. Everything he is doing is to get himself ready for January. Strategy folks.
 
Part of it is ignoring conservatives, which he does form time to time.

Well, for a an appropriate example, I notice that he is not attending the RedState Gathering. Why not?
 
Rand is never going to have a fevered following. A pretty good analogy would be comparing him to Friedman and Hayek. They don't have as many feverish followers because they were willing to offer solutions and confront the world as it is which means icky compromise. Whereas Ayn Rand and Murray Rothbard have disciples because they offered "the one true path."

In order to generate mass enthusiasm you either have to talk in flowery generalities like Obama in 2008 or you have to take the most extreme position no matter how unworkable it is.

I have no idea what the solution is. I hope he does great in the debates.
 
I think this is the time for Rand to be patient and plot his strategy for the coming months, don't panic, don't try to be the flavor of the month, just focus and plot your strategy. He has to hold tight and not try to pander to the nativist types that are now flocking to Trump. He needs to come up with an economic message that is conservative and yet compassionate, he needs to find a way to articulate a non interventionist foreign policy without sounding too weak on defense. Also he should stop flip flopping, stop saying he wants Assad to go and finally, stop saying you are going to raise the defense budget.

He has to bring it during the debates, he has to do a performance of his lifetime. The republicans are trying to sabotage his chances and they will pull all their trump cards to sink Rand. It was never going to be easy but TPTD latest move have shown that they have him in their cross-hairs.

Good luck Rand and a lot of us are still with you and will never drink the Trump koolaid.

#no1butPaul2016 and #WillNeverVote4Trump forever.
 
If anybody here is seriously losing faith because of some drivel that Eric Erickson has put out, then it isn't Rand Paul's strategy that's the problem, but rather how easily some of his supporters can be goaded into despair by an opinion piece by an unabashed enemy of liberty. This also betrays a heavy degree of ignorance and gullibility on the part of some people here.

If anybody here thinks for one second that Bernie Sanders has ANYTHING to do with Rand Paul's numbers, you have no idea what running in a GOP primary is about. I was going to say that Erickson's little troll job was insulting everyone's intelligence, but, upon reading some of these comments, I have to wonder what intelligence is there to actually insult?
 
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I've got no problem with how Rand's campaign has been running so far. He's dropped a few points in national polling, but they seem to be doing what needs to be done in Iowa and NH. He should be a clear #2 in Iowa going into the first debate. He doesn't even need to be epic in the debates, just let some of the other candidates get up there and say something stupid. His numbers will only go up when other candidates get stomped in Iowa, NH, and quit.
 
Is he basically writing off South Carolina? Have you seen his numbers there? Yikes....
 
SC and FL are pretty much a lost cause. He will go hard for Nevada though.
 
Rand is doing twice as well in the latest poll as their favorite Cruz. Money is irrelevant if it doesn't translate to support. They really should be worried about Cruz not gaining traction.
 
FreedomProsperityPeace said:
Rand is doing twice as well in the latest poll as their favorite Cruz. Money is irrelevant if it doesn't translate to support. They really should be worried about Cruz not gaining traction.
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Also consider that Cruz has been seriously kissing Trump's behind all these time and nothing. His numbers are still as flat as a 13yr old boy's chest.
 
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