DALLAS Its 7 a.m. on a Saturday, Rand Paul is exhausted and airport security has just confiscated his morning joe. <\/p>\n
The TSA took away my coffee, the libertarian-leaning senator, Houston-bound for a day of events with GOP activists, complains of the federal agency hes proposed abolishing. I offered to drink it to show it wasnt a bomb. <\/p>\n
The Kentucky Republican has many more sleep-deprived moments in store as he prepares for a near-certain 2016 presidential bid. On an early February political swing through his native Texas, where Paul was joined by a POLITICO reporter, the contradictions and challenges that would define such a run were on vivid display as was Pauls belief that his blend of libertarian-infused conservatism could forge an entirely new path to the White House. <\/p>\n
(QUIZ: Do you know Rand Paul?) <\/p>\n
In an extensive in-flight interview, the first-term senator outlined his vision for a more inclusive GOP only to meet a frosty response hours later when he spoke favorably about immigration to a roomful of people enamored of the tea partys luminary of the moment, Sen. Ted Cruz. <\/p>\n
Paul didnt talk much during the trip about his roots as the son of an ex-congressman and libertarian folk hero. But Texans at every turn brought up his father, the highly polarizing former Rep. Ron Paul, from whom Rand Paul knows he must stake out a separate identity to have any shot at the GOP nomination. <\/p>\n
And as Paul argued that the GOP needs a 2016 standard-bearer with broader appeal than its recent nominees, Mitt Romney and John McCain, he did not evince Barack Obamas ability to move a crowd, George W. Bushs everyman relatability or Bill Clintons love of the game. <\/p>\n
At the same time, Paul made clear his ambition to remake the Republican Party by drawing support from constituencies that have voted reliably Democratic. Just as Ronald Reagan drew working-class Democrats into the GOP fold and Bill Clinton pulled his party to the political center, Paul has a vision of that magnitude in mind for his party. <\/p>\n
(PHOTOS: Rand Pauls career) <\/p>\n
The countrys a mess, and I think there needs to be a program that Republicans put forward, and also there needs to be a messenger who can actually win, Paul said, in perhaps his most overt remarks to date about what a presidential bid would look like. And Im concerned that if we put forward the same sort of candidate again, that we wont be successful. <\/p>\n
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\nRand Paul's Republican revolution<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"