I do see logic in your response.
Let me run this by you.
When you come out expressing reservations about a nominee, you’re fellow Senators take note. If they didn’t want to vote for the guy themselves, it can give them resolve. Why even Paul has reservations. I’m on the right track.
You get a person like Collins or some other wing-nut, and you’re playing with fire. The fact is, you may have provided initial cover for them to develop their own refusal.
Will they come back from the brink? Maybe.
During the 2016 run up to the election, we had prominent people on our side, just ripping Trump to shreds. Then weeks before the election after trashing him for over a year without mercy or any coherent reason they recant, and decide to vote for him. They tell their people.
My question, is how many of their listeners had been so disillusioned by his former attacks, they won’t be able to vote for the candidate?
I didn’t vote for McCain, and I’ll never regret not voting for that guy. How many listeners to those who trashed Trump for a year will will feel the same about Trump? Oh they won’t come out and say it, but when something happens they don’t fully understand, they will be carping in the background with the talking head mentality, just lost in space.
Why? Because a guy they respected with a big mouth stood up in the public arena and cast dispersions. I say this a lot on the forum last week.
Paul is a very small microcosm of this dynamic, IMO.
How many calls did Washington get opposing Kavanaugh based on Paul’s initial comments?
To your other point, Sen. Paul ended his 2016 Presidential bid shortly after a disappointing showing in the Iowa caucuses, and much like Gov. Walker did not join the chorus of naysayers against Trump.