WASHINGTON – Rand Paul’s presidential campaign, by many recent accounts, is sputtering. The candidate, according to The Atlantic’s Molly Ball, is “flailing.” His campaign, reports National Journal’s Josh Kraushaar, has been called a “disaster.”
These judgments, even if true, are provisional. Pretty much any candidate in the Republican pack is one killer debate performance, one strong poll result, one especially good fundraising report away from a narrative of resurgence.
But there is little question that the initial, ineffable appeal of the Paul campaign has faded. In March 2013, when Paul filibustered against the government’s possible use of Hellfire missiles to murder civilians in San Francisco cafes and Houston restaurants – this seemed to make sense to some people at the time – many conservatives were swept away.
Compare this to Paul’s recent filibuster of the Patriot Act. The Senate gallery was staged with supporters wearing “Stand With Rand” T-shirts. Paul’s online campaign store offered a “filibuster starting pack” for $30, including a “spy blocker” for your computer’s video camera and a shirt reading “The NSA knows I bought this Rand Paul T-shirt.” Paul’s Senate colleagues found themselves dragged into the middle of an infomercial. And many were not pleased.
The romance is gone. The bitterness and conspiratorial hints remain. Paul recently blamed the rise of the Islamic State on Republican “hawks.” Under pressure, Paul conceded, “I could have stated it better.” But this was a gaffe of excessive clarity. Paul’s foreign policy libertarianism is founded on the belief that an aggressively fought war against terrorism actually produces terrorism – that America has somehow earned the enmity it faces.