RAND PAUL: DESTINY'S CHILD?

The GOP wants the teabaggers' passion and fears their wrath. I have been on the lookout for the Big Bagger, the person who commands their loyalty and would be viable as the party's presidential choice. It may be that he is in view.

I am referring to the Repub nominee for U.S. senator from Kentucky, Dr. Rand Paul. Forty-seven years old, he is an eye surgeon and a son of several-time presidential candidate Ron Paul. Rand has promoted low taxes but had not run for office till now.

The teabaggers are wild for this lad, and he has pledged his fealty to them. I doubt he needed their help to win, and he has given them a victory after a string of primary election defeats.

Already White House talk has begun.

Rand Paul is different. He is different to the ear and even to the eye. Youthful-looking and curly-haired, he is glib and has been accused of sounding messianic. Most of these right-wing pols come across as frowningly cautious and dour, but Paul speaks with conviction and enthusiasm.

He has his own point of view and isn't just going along with a party trend. So in that sense he is refreshing. His forthrightness and openness contrast nicely with Mitt Romney's phoniness and opportunistic positioning.

It has been noted elsewhere that old Ron Paul has an air of humility that makes him likeable while he is being a know-it-all, while Rand is cocky and arrogant. You can get away with arrogance in politics if it translates as self-assurance and leadership ability. But you must let people see that you recognize your limits.

Like his father, Rand is against an interventionist foreign policy and was opposed to the Iraq invasion. There are many in the GOP, perhaps Dubya and Cheney above all, who do not want to see a Republican with that viewpoint get somewhere. They will not be his fans.

The Repubs have notoriously nominated for president the person whose "turn" it was perceived to be. In '12 that might be Newt Gingrich. But if Rand Paul wins this Senate seat, the new populist uprising in the otherwise lifeless party might bear him on its shoulders to the nomination. One senses that that would be fine with him.

A Rand Paul-Scott Brown ticket? Could happen.

First, though, there is this year's election. Polls have had Paul far ahead. But, like other political novices, he is in danger of getting in trouble by being incautious. Lately skilled interviewers have been drawing him out and revealing how Martian some of his thinking is.

Though he emphasizes that he abhors racism, he expressed displeasure that the landmark 1964 Civil Rights Act prohibits businesses from being racist in employment; what he dislikes is the loss of local discretion. Only a conservative would think that a businessman's "right" to be a bigot outweighs the right of his employees to be treated fairly.

This disclosure at once put him on the defensive, though I'm sure not for long.

Then he blew it twice more: defending the oil company BP against President Obama in the oily wake of that terrible spill, and grousing about the cost to business of the Americans With Disabilities Act.

Paul is untested, still a kid politically. He is going to have to catch on fast about what he can and cannot say. Being seen as sticking up for segregation and oil pollution and discrimination against disabled workers is uncool. Democratic candidate Jack Conway has been jumping all over him, and rightly so.

Paul has clammed up. Look for him to stay "on message" hereafter.

It's a shame that he can't continue being candid. Authenticity is good for a human being. And it is good for the voting public to know what a candidate really thinks. Unfortunately, Paul's authentic self is a little creepy, putting bigger profits for international corporations ahead of the well-being of Americans and the success of American ideals.

Kentucky is Dem in registration - by half a million votes - but is also a conservative state that often votes Republican. The president is unpopular there. My suspicion is that if Rand Paul handles things well from now on, he will be elected by a wide margin. If anything defeats him, it is likely to be his assumption that history is calling and that nothing can.