Rand Paul’s Potential Presidential Juggernaut Rolls On, Fundraising Division

Chris Cillizza at the Washington Post has some
interesting backroom reporting and analysis on
Rand Paul’s rise to GOP prominence. Paul, Cillizza notes:

is still regarded as a sort of amusing sideshow by many
 “serious” political
practitioners….[but] Republicans (and even some
Democrats) who would dismiss Paul as simply a clone of his father
— both in terms of his policies and his political skills — are
badly misjudging him and his potential.

Cillizza then quoted the Lexington Herald-Leader
reporting on an Atlanta fundraiser for Paul, in which he pulled
$150,000 for his next Senate campaign. Important
detail: “Among the 35 investors in attendance was
Jack Oliver, who ran George W. Bush’s fundraising operations in
2000 and 2004.”

Rand Paul, then, has mainstream money appeal his dad never had.
Cillizza’s analysis of the meaning of this:

Paul undoubtedly hopes that some of these whales
— the
major donors and bundlers of campaign cash — sign on with
him. But, even if they don’t, he wants to make clear to them — as
well as to the broader Republican establishment — that he is a)
not his father and b) not scary.  Paul knows he won’t ever be
the “establishment” candidate (that will be either Chris Christie,
Scott Walker, Jeb Bush, Bobby Jindal or Marco Rubio) but he also
knows that there is a big difference between the establishment
being vehemently opposed to him as the nominee and being neutral
about that prospect. Paul is working to allay fears from the
establishment so that in the event he is the pick, there won’t be
any problem in uniting the party behind his candidacy.

The buildup to the 2016 race is going to be a tense and vexing
one for libertarian-leaning folk who still care about electoral
politics; it seems likely that Paul will be the presidential
candidate of our lifetime combining strong libertarian leanings and
the actual possibility of success.

But the more he scrabbles for that success, the more likely he
is to upset his libertarian fans by refusing to take the most
hardcore possible line against empire or against government in
general. Will it be a great thing that someone as good on so many
issues as Paul is actually catching serious fire with a major
party? Or will it just be a maddening thing to see a “great
libertarian hope” disappoint libertarians in all the ways he likely
will have to on the path to trying to win a major party
presidential nomination? (See for some possible areas of purist
conflict: Iran
sanctions,
Edward Snowden) 

My Sunday New York Times article from last year on

Rand Paul and the liberty wing as the future of the Republican
Party.