Sen. Rand Paul is taking his expansive presidential bid to the conservative media next week, specifically the leader of the so-called “vast right wing media conspiracy,” the American Spectator, which views the Kentucky lawmaker as the freshest conservative voice since Ronald Reagan.
Paul is addressing the conservative magazine’s Robert L. Bartley Gala on Feb. 11 — an annual event that has attracted past presidential candidates.
“The annual Bartley Dinner has usually been forward looking. Rand Paul is riding the currents of the future with regard to personal liberty, limited government and balancing privacy with the legitimate demands of government,” said R. Emmett Tyrrell Jr., editor of the magazine that dubs itself the leader of the “conspiracy” coined by former first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in her early defense of her husband at the start of the Monica Lewinsky sex scandal.
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“I don’t know that he needs our audience, but he certainly resonates with us. American Spectator has always been youthful, and Rand appeals both to youth and to the broad-based conservatism of our audience. … He resonates with the Independents,” Tyrrell told Secrets.
He added that Paul’s message is a kick-start for conservatism and from somebody he views with the best sense of the movement since Reagan.
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“Why primary voters should consider Paul is because he can reach audiences that other candidates have not reached, the young, the adventurous and the Independents. He speaks to their concerns for limited government. He represents a fresh start for conservatism. He has the freshest sense of politics that anyone I have known since Ronald Reagan,” said Tyrrell.
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Paul Bedard, the Washington Examiner’s “Washington Secrets” columnist, can be contacted at [email protected].
