Ouch. It sounds like Rand Paul really doesn’t want to see Mitt Romney make a third run at the presidency.
Paul has not been holding back this week on his feelings about the former governor’s probable plans to enter the race. Paul, a likely 2016 contender himself, has been quoted comparing the run to the definition of insanity and as “yesterday’s news.”
Paul told Fox News Radio host John Gibson Monday that Romney’s promise to be a “conservative alternative” to former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the first presidential contender to announce, probably won’t work because Romney’s time has passed.
“If (Romney) runs to the right of Jeb Bush, he’ll still be to the left of the rest of the party, so it may be a difficult spot to occupy,” Paul said.”Look, I like Governor Romney, I like him personally, I think he is a good person, I think he was a great businessman. But you know that’s yesterday’s news.”
Paul tried to dispel any “third time’s the charm” notions.
“He’s tried twice – I don’t really think that there is a third time out there,” he said. “I think he did a lot of things right, but in the end you got to have a bigger constituency, you got to get new people, you got to attract new people to win and I think it’s time that probably the party is going to be looking for something fresh and new.”
The Kentucky senator hammered home that idea of “someone new” in New Hampshire Wednesday.
“When you do the same thing and expect a different result, it’s sort of what Einstein said, that the definition of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result,” Paul told the New Hampshire Journal.
He said he likes Romney personally, but, “A couple of months ago he [Romney] said that he’d had his chance and it was time for somebody new. He was probably right when he said that.”
“I think we do need somebody and something new,” Paul continued. “We had a great 2014 but really a presidential election is a completely different election. Twice as many people vote and a lot of the people who vote in presidential elections seem to vote for the Democratic Party.”
He said a Republican must figure out how to attract those presidential year voters to the GOP “and I think that’s going to take a new approach, a fresh approach.”
