Some libertarians won't 'trust but verify' Rand's stand on Iran

For most Republican presidential candidates, opposing the nuclear deal with Iran is a political no-brainer. Whatever the merits of the agreement, supporting it requires asking a GOP primary electorate to trust Barack Obama, John Kerry and ayatollahs in Tehran. Earlier this year, Gallup found that 91 percent of Republicans viewed Iranian nuclear weapons as a critical threat.

Many of the libertarians, realists and noninterventionists who back Rand Paul or supported his father take a different view of the nuclear deal, however. They see it as a repudiation of the Bush Doctrine and a victory of diplomacy over yet another war in the Middle East. An April Reuters poll found nearly a third of Republicans favored the then-incomplete agreement.