Ryan’s numbers are only high because of recognition (being on 2012 ticket with Romney).
His immigration bill push will sink him in the primaries. Rand Paul is taking the cautious and smart approach to the issue. He’s also balancing his libertarian ideals while buttering up to the GOP establishment. All in all, unless Cruz runs (and I don’t think he does), Rand Paul is my guy.
Over the years, I have not cared for the good Dr. Paul because he is basically a blow-hard, money-grubbing hypocrite with some really stupid ideas. His actions present him as either a person with extreme cognitive dissonance, or an actual agent provocateur. Either way, he has made a good career out of playing the crazy uncle. Other than that, he occasionally speaks rationally on limited topics.
His son, Rand, seems to be cut largely out of the same mold, albeit more from the right side. However, he is better-spoken and seems to be able to at least distance himself from some of the craziness without losing the appeal of the underdog. I really don’t say this to disparage him, just to be honest.
His Libertarian bona fides will certainly grab all of (big and little l) libertarians in the party, and some of his ideas will appeal to the conservatives, so he may be able to gain a majority support. However, he will never be able to gain even 1% of the GOP-e and that is 95% of the money and power.
The only way for him to succeed would be to lead a revolution, and I am not sure he can build a coalition to wrest the party back to the people. I, for one, would support Paul because of his outside-the-beltway mentality, and I believe that the worst he could do would be far less than the best that the Democrats or GOP have done in the past 20 years.
Extreme times call for extreme measures and the time for restoration or, depending on your point-of-view, radical change, is now, before world events coalesce into war. Those arguing the finer points of debate, doctrine and policy will not have to worry when the concerns of life are reduced to bread and bullets.
Paul is also for amnesty.