The Atlantic: Why Rand Paul's Future Prospects Are Bright - Connor Friedersdorf

[bronc_fan23]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/...tm_source=SFFB

Rand Paul’s decision to drop out of the Republican presidential race Wednesday marks the end of a primary season that he can’t help but regard as a disappointment. On paper, Ron Paul's heir seemed poised to capitalize on the growing number of voters whose mistrust of big government extends to the GOP establishment, its neoconservative foreign policy, and its support for mass surveillance.

In practice, disaffected Republicans preferred Donald Trump’s populism to principled libertarianism. My colleague, Molly Ball, deftly illustrates the awkward reception that GOP audiences gave some of Paul’s pronouncements. Libertarians were turned off by his attempts to appeal to red-meat conservatives. His campaign team’s skills were widely panned by veteran politicos. And he lacks the smooth charisma of a Barack Obama or Marco Rubio.

But this isn’t a political obituary for the 53-year-old Kentuckian. Despite his failed foray into presidential politics, there are many reasons to think his future is bright....

[tony m]

Good article.

[CPUd]

Bump for at least some $#@!ing positivity in here...

[eleganz]

The positive and productive threads get very little activity and discussion while the negative and gossipy threads get all of the discussion and attention.

RPF = Gossip Girls

[jkob]

Rand can raise a lot of hell in the senate especially when he's not worried about winning over the general electorate

[phill4paul]

Having a senate position to fall back to is not the worst that can happen in politics. The ex-governors will have to write a book or something.

[ds21089]

The positive and productive threads get very little activity and discussion while the negative and gossipy threads get all of the discussion and attention.

RPF = Gossip Girls

Well it sure as hell is convenient that the media wants to talk positively about him now that is campaign is over. I'm not going to praise somebody for making a cop out article to pretend as if they are a fair person in any way by reporting positively on him now. Where was all this while he was running? Granted, it is nice to hear positive words, but I'm not going to give any media credit for those words now.

[PaleoPaul]

LOL. Rubio? Charismatic? Rubio has the charisma of bland wallpaper.

[Sentinelrv]

LOL. Rubio? Charismatic? Rubio has the charisma of bland wallpaper.

Agreed. He sounds like he's reading from a script in the debates. Everything is memorized.

[Occam's Banana]

Well it sure as hell is convenient that the media wants to talk positively about him now that is campaign is over. I'm not going to praise somebody for making a cop out article to pretend as if they are a fair person in any way by reporting positively on him now. Where was all this while he was running? Granted, it is nice to hear positive words, but I'm not going to give any media credit for those words now.

You are being unfair to the author. Although he's a lefty, Conor Friedersdorf has been fair to Rand in the past and has reported positively on him before this. Friedersdorf is big on civil liberties and such, and he genuinely respects Rand. This is not a "cop out article" and Friedersdorf is not "pretending."

[jkr]

LOL. Rubio? Charismatic? Rubio has the charisma of bland wallpaper.

[Jeffster]

LOL. Rubio? Charismatic? Rubio has the charisma of bland wallpaper.

I think he comes off like a nervous high school student trying to convince his prom date's dad that he's a real man.

[squirl22]

I think he comes off like a nervous high school student trying to convince his prom date's dad that he's a real man.

To me he comes across as someone who has to pee from all of the testosterone flowing through his immature body which makes him very HIGH on himself. Too young and unaccomplished for the job.

[Patrick Henry]

Rand can really go balls to the wall in his next term and cause tremendous grief to the next criminal in chief. I doubt he will run again, but who knows. Either way, I am proud of him and he will always have my support. One day liberty will prevail and Rand Paul will be a major contributing factor.