US Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky today enters the contest for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination. Here’s his not-particularly-stirring video announcement:
Alexandra Petri of The Washington Post suggests the most apropos slogan for Paul’s campaign, which gets to the heart of his biggest potential problem– his bizarre but (among many Republicans) popular father, former congressman and former presidential candidate Ron Paul and his Institute for Peace and Prosperity:
Rand Paul: He’s Not Ron Paul, Unless You Liked Ron Paul, In Which Case, Er, He Totally Is Ron Paul.
The New York Times reports that while the elder Paul will appear at his son’s campaign kickoff, he won’t say anything. I think this will be an increasingly tricky balancing act for Rand. Short of totally disowning his father, I’m not sure how he can handle it. Even if Ron Paul manages to keep his mouth shut for the rest of the campaign, there’s too much disturbing and crazy stuff he has said that’s on the record.
Which is not to say Rand lacks his own troubling baggage:
· He considers conspiracy loon Alex Jones’s Infowars website to be a reliable source of information about such matters as armed meteorologists.
· He essentially agreed with George Galloway and John Wight that any support for the anti-Assad resistance in Syria is support for al-Qaeda. He ignores Assad’s record of brutality and mass murder while defending him for having “protected Christians.” (Of course Syrian Christians who dare to oppose Assad are treated brutally too.)
· He said President Obama’s criticism of BP in connection with the 2010 Gulf oil disaster was “un-American.”
· He said that providing a universal right to health care would “enslave” doctors, nurses and hospital janitors.
· He was amazed to learn that public employment has decreased under the Obama administration.
· He suggested that the 1964 Civil Rights Act went too far by forcing private businesses not to discriminate on the basis of race.
· He said the federal government has no business regulating safety for mine workers.
· And who could forget Aqua Buddha?
On the other hand, Paul makes sense when he talks about doing away with mandatory prison sentences for non-violent drug offenders.
Update: Can anyone tell me what they are chanting at the very end of the video above. The best I can make out is “Burn it all!”
