Rand Paul mania?

With the crowd warmed up, Ron Paul led his son to center stage. His remarks, at 23 minutes long, were light on Rand-boosting. Instead, he talked about an “intellectual revolution,” basked in chants of “End the Fed” and called the income tax “the very worst.” Rand sat behind him with his left leg crossed over his right and his arm draped over an empty chair as he looked blankly out at the rapt crowd.

When it was his turn, he spoke admiringly of his father and then positioned himself as the leader the movement had been waiting for.

“I have a message from the tea party that is loud and clear and doesn’t mince words,” he said. “We have come to take our government back.”…

Paul, who has an unpolished, down-to-earth manner, said he’s not bothered by what he calls the Grayson “distortions” because he’ll have the money to answer them. Paul’s Web site reports contributions of $1.8 million (“Toward freedom!”). On Wednesday, he aired his first TV commercial, in which he articulates his recalibrated, more Republican-friendly Guantanamo position (“Terrorists captured on the battlefield should be tried in military court and not brought to the U.S.”) and stands imposingly in his eye-doctor scrubs. Paul said he expects to have $2.5 million by the end of the primary to air plenty of ads. “We’re letting our donors rest up, and then we’ll ask for another money bomb.”