Rand Paul Woos the Base With Hot Monica Lewinsky Talk
Michael Tomasky
Tweaking the Clintons may help win over Republicans for a presidential bid. But talk of a 15-year-old affair wont convince women who oppose his libertarian policies.
What on earth is Rand Paul thinking, bringing up Monica Lewinsky? On cable TV, they shake their talking heads: ancient history, irrelevant, etc. Quite true, its all those things. But in terms of intra-GOP presidential-positioning politics, I think its actually quite shrewd, and another sign that he is not to be underestimated in terms of possibly nabbing the GOP nomination. Unfortunately for Paulalthough fortunately for Americaits only shrewd in terms of intra-GOP politics. Among the rest of the electorate, responses will range from indifference to hostility, and the GOP War on Women narrative wont suffer a scratch.
Heres what Paul is doing. First, hes getting right with the base. As a devolutionist-libertarian, he takes some unorthodox positions from the conservative point of viewhis neo-isolationist, anti-neocon foreign policy views, his comparatively soft-line views on same-sex marriage (hes not for it, but hed leave it to the states). There are reasons, in other words, for hard-shell conservatives to give him the gimlet eye.
Given that, what are some ways to make conservatives think youre one of us without having to alter those positions, which he surely knows would be a disaster for him, destroying the very basis of his appeal as principled and so on? Find something conservatives hate and say you hate it too. What bigger something than the Clintons? Well, theres Obama, but hating on him is old hat. Dredging up Lewinsky, on the other hand, shows that some care was taken to cultivate conservatives. As Paul knows, Clinton-hatred is still mothers milk for that crowd.
He is also, as Peter Beinart noted, aiming specifically at the Christian Right. Hes been doing this for some time now, talking, for example, of the persecution of Christian minorities around the world. His father never bothered much with evangelicals, an error the son, recognizing their importance in the Iowa GOP caucuses, clearly hopes not to make.
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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/02/12/rand-paul-woos-the-base-with-hot-monica-lewinsky-talk.html