We were reminded over the weekend that not every potential Republican presidential candidate is conceding Florida to its favorite GOPster sons, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul spoke in Sarasota over the weekend and underscored a big difference with Bush and Rubio: He agrees with the Obama Administration’s decision to pursue normalized relations with Cuba.
While Paul could be an energizing, primary-season candidate, a basic libertarian reality will inevitably stalk him. Libertarianism works so much better in the abstract. It becomes an impossibility in the real world without the candidate becoming an ideological contortionist–from foreign-policy and national security/privacy concerns to vaccinations and the greater good.