Posted on 04/10/2015 6:26:00 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
IOWA CITY, Iowa—Rand Paul kicked off his first public appearance in the Hawkeye State since launching his anti-establishment presidential campaign with a question that was meant as a rallying cry. “Do we have any liberty lovers here?” he asked a crowd composed mostly of University of Iowa students, who sported Rand stickers and responded with cheers and whistles. But if Paul’s going to have any chance of contending for his party’s nomination, he better hope their nonlibertarian-leaning parents feel the same way.
The Iowa caucus will, of course, be the first major test for the entire GOP field—but the first-in-the-nation nominating contest is particularly important for Paul. The Kentucky senator’s campaign is predicated on the idea that he’ll be able to hold onto the libertarian-leaning bloc of voters who helped his father carve out a corner of the national stage in 2012, while at the same time layering upon that base enough converts from the more traditionally Republican masses to put him over the top. The Hawkeye State would appear to be particularly fertile ground for that strategy to take root. If it fails here, Paul will have a difficult time convincing anyone that it will work anywhere else.
In 2012, Ron Paul had one of his best showings of his entire campaign in Iowa, and much of that political infrastructure remains in place today. The elder Paul won 21 percent of the GOP caucus vote, enough to earn the libertarian firebrand an unexpectedly close—if largely overshadowed—third-place finish behind Rick Santorum and eventual nominee Mitt Romney, both of whom bested the Texas congressman by only four points, or less than 4,000 votes apiece. It’s conceivable, then, that Rand Paul will find himself among the caucus favorites come February 2016 simply by picking up where his father left off...
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
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