In June, Rand Paul was very skeptical about bombing ISIS. In August, he was ambivalent. In September, he strongly supported airstrikes.

The Kentucky senator’s rapid evolution from war skeptic to war hawk surprised many of his libertarian allies and conservative critics. “The sudden evaporation of Paul’s doubts reeks of political desperation,” wrote Reason‘s Jacob Sullum. “The challenge for Paul will be to demonstrate that his new opinions are the result of new facts, rather than a change in the temperature of public opinion,” wrote David Adesnik of the American Enterprise Insitute.