My bet is that it’s mostly the second reason, assuming the son is like the father. I’ve spent a good deal of time around Ron Paul during Republican presidential debates. Ron Paul is smart, professorial, and quirky. But we never really worried about him being a serious threat. He lives in an intellectual orbit of theory that generally just doesn’t have much application in real-world politics.

I would actually find the acts of both Pauls more interesting and entertaining if they didn’t take themselves so damn seriously. They are colorless and humorless. There’s no Mike Huckabee wink or Newt Gingrich nod to let us know that while this is serious stuff, there is some game to the game.

Rand Paul comes off like an academic stiff who wants to give us a lecture on American civics.