Rand Paul is announcing his presidential run for 2016 Tuesday morning at the Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky. On Monday, Paul got his blood pumping by releasing a lengthy campaign video that tells the voters that they need a new and different kind of Republican to lead them.
He was hoping to get the same kind of jubilant reception from the media that Sen. Ted Cruz received when he was out of the gate very quickly. However, Rand Paul's day is not going to go the way he envisioned it because he's already being swiftboated.
As Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is set to announce his presidential campaign on Tuesday, a television ad tethers him to President Obama’s policy on Iran as part of a $1 million advertising buy painting him as “dangerous.”
The ad is a 30-second spot that will run on broadcast networks and on Fox News this week in the first four early primary states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina, according to a person familiar with the buy, who provided the spot. It is unusual for an outside group to try to swamp a candidate’s announcement day, but Mr. Paul has been viewed with deep concern by foreign policy hawks for his noninterventionist views. The ad is being run by a 501(c)4 group, the Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, that doesn’t have to disclose its donors and is led by Rick Reed, a strategist involved in the “Swiftboat Veterans for Truth” against John Kerry in the 2004 presidential campaign.
The warhawks will not be denied their desire to push for war against the middle east and are willing to spend millions of dollars against someone (Sen. Paul) they think will not stand with their blood lust this early in the campaign. That is very creepy. I wonder if Senator Paul realizes he's the Hillary Clinton of the Neocons?
The first spot highlights Iran, the yearslong negotiations to curtail its nuclear capabilities, and President Obama’s stand against new sanctions.
“The Senate is considering tough new sanctions on Iran,” the ad’s narrator intones. “President Obama says he’ll veto them and Rand Paul is standing with him. Rand Paul supports Obama’s negotiations with Iran. But he doesn’t understand the threat.”
The audio then cuts to a recording from a 2007 interview in which Mr. Paul, talking about Iran as he defended his father’s world views, said, “You know, it’s ridiculous to think that they’re a threat to our national security.”
The ad concludes with imagery of a nuclear bomb detonating as the narrator says: “Rand Paul is wrong and dangerous. Tell him to stop siding with Obama because even one Iranian bomb would be a disaster.”
The project is being advised by a Republican firm, the Black Rock Group, with the former Capitol Hill aide Lisa Boothe as the top spokeswoman.
