RAND PAUL: THE MAKEOVER

On TV you see makeovers of people and houses. One guy who could use a political makeover is Rand Paul.

Paul has said too much to the national media. He can probably win the Senate seat anyway. But how does he get from the Senate to the White House? He must start modifying his performance now.

He is so intoxicated with his libertarian vision that he hasn't realized what it would do in practice. He wants weak government for the sake of freedom, but he doesn't see that it takes a strong government to keep people free from health-destroying environmental degradation, discrimination in employment, monopoly, oligarchy, etc. He isn't for racism, but he hasn't recognized that freedom to practice racism is incompatible with freedom from racism. He and his aides must work out a new overview and rehearse it.

He thinks too abstractly. He oversimplifies. He lacks a sense of nuance. But he can adapt.

He doesn't seem mad at anyone, which is a plus. Despite his zeal, he comes across as good-natured. While he hasn't much charm, he can be engaging. And he has a slightly elfin quality.

What about that makeover, then?

Okay, Rand, babes, here's the deal:

>Your task is to complicate your worldview and your persona. You can say, "I'm a liberty boy, yeah, but I get that there has to be regulation. Businesses should be free to do right, not wrong." Make yourself harder to categorize. Stress practicality and the limits of theory.

>The fury of the teabaggers, with whom you are so identified, alarms the independents and conservative Dems you want to attract. So take pains not to be unfair. Don't call your opponent names. Play down the "liberal" and "socialist" language, as that doesn't persuade anymore. Tell your audiences that this is still one country, not two, and that what works best will be evident to everyone in the long run. That fits with your native optimism.

>You are thought even by some who know you to take yourself too seriously. Put some humor into your act. Above all, poke fun at yourself. That's disarming. Seem like a good guy who can take a joke.

>Try to be thoughtful and imaginative rather than rigid and predictable. A good proposal for you to make might be an end to the Constitutional prohibition against foreign-born persons serving as president. When there are so many legal immigrants among us, that prohibition has to seem bigoted and unrealistic to contemporary people. Your party has alienated Hispanics, the fastest-growing minority. You can appeal to them with this proposal, offering them a chance to be first-class citizens all the way. That is not inconsistent with what you believe. And what is your Dem opponent going to say? "No, I'm for keeping them inelligible"? Hardly. He will have to go along with you. Whatever common ground you have with him will make you look less extreme.

That's what I'd suggest Paul do. Now we'll see what he actually does.