Rand Paul's struggling presidential campaign

Inside and around the campaign, there is a sense that things are not going as well as hoped for Paul, multiple sources told me. “They are in a challenging spot right now,” said one Republican operative with knowledge of the campaign. “They are having a hard time reaching out to new constituencies while keeping the base happy.” The problem, the operative said, is that Paul’s flip-flopping and triangulation have damaged his reputation for ideological purity. “Senator Paul appears, in the minds of Republicans, to have gone from a guy who was standing on principle, who wanted to do things, to a politician who wants to be something,” the operative said…

Ron Paul’s supporters, a finicky and purist bunch, have proved less transferable to Rand Paul than the campaign assumed. In Iowa, several prominent former Ron Paul supporters, including state Senator Jason Schwartz, are backing Cruz. This week, the New York Times reported that Rand Paul was beginning to win over some formerly leery Ron Paul fans—a strikingly late conversion of a group he thought he could take for granted. Many Ron Paul supporters have been alienated by Rand Paul’s gestures to the establishment, particularly his partnership with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose reelection he endorsed and campaigned for last year. In blocking the reauthorization of the Patriot Act last week, Paul antagonized McConnell, but won points with libertarians for proving he could stand up to the leader…

Another Paul adviser, who spoke on condition his name not be used, said the candidate’s tribulations were part of a deliberate strategy to tackle head-on his perceived liabilities on foreign policy and national security. “I actually think exorcising those demons by fighting it out on those issues is an opportunity,” the adviser said. “You can’t fix a problem if you pretend it doesn’t exist. The problem is the perception”—that Paul is an isolationist or a pacifist, when his actual views are more nuanced. Paul’s stances on privacy and limiting foreign aid are popular with Republicans, the adviser added.