Rand Paul Starts His Six Month Anal Exam

Now that Rand Paul has handily won the Kentucky GOP Senate primary, he should have a pretty easy road to November.  The first polls show him with a commanding lead.

However, on his first day as the nominee he wandered in to a little landmine set for him by the liberal press, and unfortunately, he wasn't ready for the question. And now he can expect loaded questions from now until November as they try to kill his candidacy:

Liberals are aflame because Rand Paul doesn’t think the 1964 Civil Rights Act was constitutional.

This, of course, is being interpreted as Paul saying that he is racially uncool.

Republicans who have been squeamish about libertarianism making inroads into their party are getting panicky at the thought that they will again get branded with the same claims of racism that dogged the party after Paul’s intellectual forebearer, Barry Goldwater, opposed the act back when it was passed.

Democrats were very successful in suggesting that because conservatives opposed the federal government integrating private establishments, conservatism was racist.

I can’t say how this will affect the race in Kentucky just yet. The state has a not-negligible black population  (8 percent) and certainly lots of folks who would not like to be associated with anything that smacks of the era of segregation in Louisville and elsewhere.

Although his answer is being spun by the libs as representative of racism, it's not. It's representative of libertarianism which doesn't believe that government has a role in our everyday lives. His answer could have been a little more diplomatic.

I've long felt that in a free country private businesses that are not receiving federal aid or subsidies should be free to serve or refuse service to anybody at any time for any reason. That also means they're free to be stupid and racist if they want to be.

Of course, being stupid and racist is not a well-thought out business plan. You drive away business you might have otherwise gotten and can develop a reputation that could eventually put your business out of business. However, you should be free to be stupid if you want to.

Rand's going to have to come up with some solid talking points on his libertarian beliefs to avoid the pitfalls that will be strewn in his way.  The risk with his candidacy is that things he says can be twisted and used against all Republicans whether warranted or not.