Ron Paul Supporters Bolt Rand Paul Camp

[Türkisblau]

Politico:

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Surprisingly, Ivers has defected and a couple more are endorsing Cruz instead:

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[retromike22]

How many Tea Partiers can a Tea Partier tea party?

[PPT Spiral]

If their main concerns with Rand have to do with his hawkish posturing, it's silly to gravitate to Cruz, someone who's fully aligned with the Israel lobby and who even suggested Joe Lieberman (!!!) as Defense Secretary before. If their reasoning is that at least Cruz is 'principled,' I suppose I understand that, but they're undermining themselves further.

[IceSpear]

Purists cutting off their nose to spite their face...what else is new?

Although I'm skeptical of any reporting that asks a few random people in IA/NH something and tries to extrapolate from it, this does seem to jive with the data we have available. Rand isn't holding a significant chunk of his dad's base.

[Maxwell]

If their main concerns with Rand have to do with his hawkish posturing, it's silly to gravitate to Cruz, someone who's fully aligned with the Israel lobby and who even suggested Joe Lieberman (!!!) as Defense Secretary before. If their reasoning is that at least Cruz is 'principled,' I suppose I understand that, but they're undermining themselves further.

Yes, this. Though I am really disappointed at Rand's pathetic pandering on the defense budget as of late.

[Türkisblau]

Purists cutting off their nose to spite their face...what else is new?

Although I'm skeptical of any reporting that asks a few random people in IA/NH something and tries to extrapolate from it, this does seem to jive with the data we have available. Rand isn't holding a significant chunk of his dad's base.

It does seem like more than just a couple, and people like Ivers were pretty important players for Paul. This is relevant I believe:

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[PPT Spiral]

This situation brings up an important point: Rand Paul will never gain the complete trust of the neocons who make up the bulk of the party establishment. By continuing to appease them, he's losing a constituency that's supposed to be reliable and motivated for his campaign. Paul would be better off doubling down on his libertarian tendencies (which I suspect are still there despite what he says) while stressing the importance of growing the GOP. With this current strategy he's doing, I bet he'll definitely get less votes than his father and might even drop out in January.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

If their main concerns with Rand have to do with his hawkish posturing, it's silly to gravitate to Cruz, someone who's fully aligned with the Israel lobby and who even suggested Joe Lieberman (!!!) as Defense Secretary before. If their reasoning is that at least Cruz is 'principled,' I suppose I understand that, but they're undermining themselves further.

I was thinking the same thing. Any non warmongers don't have a Republican that they can support. Not that Hillary is very good, either.

[Adam Griffin]

People are reading too much into this. All we're seeing is a sizable contingent of the Ron Paul delegates finally becoming adults and embracing their inevitable path of mainline conservatism/abandoning the ideologies they formed in their teens and twenties. Don't worry, though: they're still selfish white males at heart.

[King]

Rand isn't racist enough to maintain all of his dad's support.

[Absentee Voting Ghost of Ruin]

I'm not surprised to see Rand Paul losing support - he's become even less libertarian than most of the "beltway libertarians". That his lost support is going to Ted Cruz says nothing good, and gives some more evidence to the idea that a chunk of Ron Paul's supporters were always using libertarianism as a cover for their extreme right-wing conservative views on race, gender, and religion.

[Atlas Has Shrugged]

These people are bolting to the wrong side, so do we need them anyway? They sound like the evangelical supporters of Ron Paul in 2012: in other words, they are an ally of our cult, but not necessarily a part of the cult.

[Bacon King]

This situation brings up an important point: Rand Paul will never gain the complete trust of the neocons who make up the bulk of the party establishment. By continuing to appease them, he's losing a constituency that's supposed to be reliable and motivated for his campaign. Paul would be better off doubling down on his libertarian tendencies (which I suspect are still there despite what he says) while stressing the importance of growing the GOP. With this current strategy he's doing, I bet he'll definitely get less votes than his father and might even drop out in January.

I disagree. He'll never be the establishment candidate, of course, but he needs to successfully present himself as "safe" to party insiders if he's going to have any chance of winning the nomination at all.

[🐒Gods of Prosperity🔱🐲💸]

Rand's strategy lately has been to try to appeal to both hawks and doves at once: signing the letter on Iran, saying it was to help Obama's negotiations; proposing a budget increasing defense, saying it was to point out that any increases need to be paid for. It's risky.

[IceSpear]

Rand's strategy lately has been to try to appeal to both hawks and doves at once: signing the letter on Iran, saying it was to help Obama's negotiations; proposing a budget increasing defense, saying it was to point out that any increases need to be paid for. It's risky.

Indeed. If you try to be all things to all people, you may end up being nothing. Walker is facing the same dilemma with currently being "the bridge between the establishment and tea party."

[Thunderbird is the word]

Rand's strategy lately has been to try to appeal to both hawks and doves at once: signing the letter on Iran, saying it was to help Obama's negotiations; proposing a budget increasing defense, saying it was to point out that any increases need to be paid for. It's risky.

Maybe he'll end up running a Nixon style "peace with honor" campaign and saying that he has a secret plan to defeat ISIL.

[Sumner 1868]

Rand's strategy lately has been to try to appeal to both hawks and doves at once: signing the letter on Iran, saying it was to help Obama's negotiations; proposing a budget increasing defense, saying it was to point out that any increases need to be paid for. It's risky.

I think it's more he takes doves for granted.