Instead of suggesting this was a loss for Paul, it seemed to be mutually beneficial to each candidate. Rubio offered the proper answer for someone who’s aiming to be the consensus GOP candidate. Paul’s was the proper answer for an outsider with nothing to lose. If he can unite all those Republican voters who don’t support a hawkish foreign policy (libertarians, paleoconservatives, and really anyone who’s tired of all that), he will have united a not-insignificant number of voters. Yes, as Rand’s father can attest, courting that segment of the party brings with it a low ceiling. But unless Paul tries something, his ceiling is about 5 percent, and his fundraising capacity dried up.

Rand Paul’s presidential hopes mostly went out the window in mid-2014 when the Islamic State released videos of beheaded Americans. Those videos ended whatever post-Bush infighting existed within the Republican Party about the wisdom of rampant overseas intervention, and those videos prompted Paul to hedge. That hedging didn’t endear him to the hawks at all, though it did depress his libertarian fan base. The result was a dud of a campaign.

He might as well go for the Hail Mary now and position himself as the person he truly is: the only candidate who’s skeptical of a recklessly robust American military, an infinitely funded Pentagon. If he can at least gain traction with the people he was supposed to have gained traction with long ago, it buys him a little more time. And that’s what it’s all about.