Is Rand Paul A Good Thing For All Political Sides

I agree with most of what Ross Douthat says here in the NYT Op Ed , with a few exceptions, about Rand Paul. See The Principles of Rand Paul.

I also agree with the folks at Contentions that it is wrong to blame his current woe on the media. See Palin and the Media

Now no doubt if I was a Kentucky resident I would not have voted for him. Especially since it appears he has a thing for certain conspiracy theories. (See Doutat's link).

Still he is from the Libertarian faction of the party and they got their guy for once nominated. Now I know he is far from a perfect Libertarian in their eyes. Still it does seem that he is advocating some core principles here.

So now it is time to fish or cut bait. I keep hearing from this segment if only yall would listen to us and those messy social conservatives went away things would be grand. Now no doubt Paul is a social conservative. BUT THOSE ARE NOT THE ISSUES that will be in dispute.

For the Libertarian faction his entry will be good because we might see some battle lines drawn. I sometimes think that some Libertarian viewpoints that are professed by some are in reality a EXTREME State right's position. A position that seems to have not have a healthy balanced view of Federalism. Maybe Paul's race will help clarify the fault lines here.

Also from a Libertarian standpoint we can see how some of their core ideas sell. Do Conservatives or the average person really want to get rid of the Americans with Disability Act?

I think for the Tea party this is good too. Is the Tea Party really Libertarian? How many are Club for Growth folks and Huckabee like populist? Also if he flounders it si a good lesson to the Tea Party folks that yes you have a reponsibility to vet your folks too.

For the media it will be a good education on what is really libertarian and what is mainstream conservatism. For instance Bobby Jindal is not some AYN Rand follower even though he is a conservative.

So lets have the debate and not run away from it. There seems to have been a lot of talk on the internet forums and blogs about these ideas. Where now we can see if they are winners.