Major Attack Against Rand Paul to be Launched Today (Bigger Than the Swiftboat Attack Against Kerry)...

Has Rand been outplayed, yet again?

Mitch McConnell said that he wasn't going to attend Rand's announcement today, where Rand will officially launch his bid to gain the Republican presidential nomination.

McConnell said he doesn't want to play favorites.

This after Rand went out of his way to support the crony elitist tool in his re-election bid.

Now, comes word that a major player is spending big bucks to launch attack ads against Rand today, Heavy suspicion is that the big bucks backer of the attack is Sheldon Adelson,

Just weeks ago Rand seemed pretty confident after holding a private meeting with Adelson that an attack by Adelson would not be launched.

Does Rand even understand how to play this game? First it appears that he has launched a strategy that will require him to be on the opposite end with regard to positions to gain the voting blocs he is after. Second, one of the blocs that he is fixated on, the evangelicals, have many other options among the large field of candidates that have much more consistent and long-term evangelical creds. Third, it appears that he is being lied to an outmaneuvered by very serious players.

The attack ads that are coming sound as if they will be very damaginhg. Josh Rogin at Bloomberg broke the story about the ads:

In the first salvo of the 2016 Republican ad wars, a conservative group is about to unleash a seven-figure ad campaign targeting Senator Rand Paul for being out of step with the party on Iran, just as he launches his presidential campaign.

The Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America, a 501(c)(4) group led by veteran Republican operative Rick Reed, will go live with its campaign against Paul on Tuesday, while the senator is in Louisville, Kentucky, announcing his presidential candidacy. The group will begin airing ads on broadcast TV, cable and the Web in several early primary states accusing Paul of being weak on Iran and tying him to the Barack Obama administration’s Iran policy, which polls show is deeply unpopular among Republican voters...The scale of the campaign is remarkable this early on in a primary fight, and reflects not only the depth of the hostility toward Paul’s worldview among many conservatives but also the prominence of national security in the 2016 cycle.

This is not the first major campaign Reed has influenced from the outside. He was the architect of the 2004 “Swiftboat Veterans for Truth” campaign that attacked John Kerry’s national-security record and credentials. His new campaign against Paul will be bigger than even that effort, he said...

Tuesday’s ad will hit airwaves in states that are part of Paul’s rollout, including Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina, Reed said. The millions committed to the early effort ensure that Paul’s deviation from the Republican field on foreign policy will be among the top issues used to illustrate his alleged divergence from the Republican voting public....

Reed declined to disclose his group’s donors. As a registered nonprofit, the group doesn't have to reveal its funding sources. But there has already been reporting that several big-dollar Republican donors are planning to open up their checkbooks to attack Paul on foreign policy, including as pro-Israel billionaire Sheldon Adelson.

The ads threaten to disrupt Paul’s launch by forcing him to choose between appeasing his critics or staying true to the libertarian base that brought him this far. If he tries to play both sides, the calls for him to clarify his Iran policy will follow him for as long as he is a viable candidate.

Of course, Rand has tried to move in the direction of the war camp, but it is not enough for the war hawks.

Adelson is perfectly willing to spend big bucks to back a U.S. attack against Iran. but he is also willing to spend big bucks to blow up Rand. The bombs against Iran will come later, the bombs against Rand will start today.

Aside from the disgusting divergence from libertarian principle to reach out to war hawks by Rand, it is a strategic error. The war hawks don't need him---and they don't really trust him. And when they talk war, they mean it. Rand is going to find that out today.

He should have stuck to principle and done what his father did, adopt a populist economic message.

-RW