Is Rand Paul Going Mainstream or the GOP Going Libertarian?

Rand Paul seems to be crossing over to the mainstream — or maybe, it’s the other way around.

When Kentucky’s junior senator arrived in Washington just over two years ago, he seemed destined to inhabit the role of perpetual outlier. But now, he’s in the mix on just about everything that is happening, and talked about as a credible Republican presidential contender in 2016.

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My take is that Rand understands something that his father, a great man of principle, never seemed to grasp. Ron Paul's flaw, one  that has been a major reason libertarians have never been more than a blip on the political radar screen, was failing to realize that you can have all the principles in the world, but if you don't win elections the other people will dictate policy.

Rand is a moderate libertarian. That is of course anathema to a lot of the hard core libertarians. But while his father must be given credit for shining a light on libertarianism, he never had a shot at winning a national election. Rand does. Great politicians are never ideologues. They are men like LBJ and Reagan who understand the art of the deal and how to get a good chunk of what they want by negotiation and compromise with the understanding they can go after the rest later on.

I don't know if I can support Rand Paul for president. It's too soon for that. But I will say that he is clearly a far savvier politician than his father.