Rand Paul's Bill Maher problem

“Rand is positioned to be the conservative who can build a bigger, more inclusive Republican Party so we can win in 2016,” one of his advisers recently told Politico.

Paul’s support for reforming America’s drug laws and his staunch opposition to government surveillance will inspire young voters and African Americans to vote for him, the argument goes, while Paul’s non-interventionist foreign policy will sell his candidacy to liberals who oppose President Obama’s continuation of George W. Bush’s war on terror.

To demonstrate the appeal of his message to young Americans, Paul traveled to the liberal hotbed of Berkeley, California earlier this year to speak to students at the University of California. According to reports, he received several standing ovations by railing against the government’s surveillance programs. Last week he met with black leaders in Ferguson, Missouri two months after he called for the police there and across the country to be demilitarized.