re: #68 Charles Johnson

Rand is a product of the “say anything to get elected” culture. His father was an old-school hard-core racist right wing reactionary, who couldn’t help saying what he really thought even when he tried to hide it.

But underneath it all, they’re cut from the same cloth. Rand is just more deceptive and cunning.

Rand’s strategy seems to be “pivot early.” He’s defying the historical wisdom that GOP primary candidates need to run to the right and then move to the middle in the general election. If he does win the nomination he thinks he’ll be in a better position, or at least a more plausibly believable one, than his two immediate predecessors were.

He probably figures that his only real competition right now is Ted “Smarmy McPunchFace” Cruz, and can beat him by appealing to a middle that includes financial conservatives and war weary independents. The entire strategy is cynical as all fuck.