April 12^th

Rand Paul has now been a Presidential candidate for about a week and he has already managed to irritate a surprising number of people. He has declared that members of both parties want to increase defense spending as he does but that he alone doesn’t want to borrow the money to do that; he prefers to cut funding for other programs.

Tell us Senator, exactly what programs will you cut? The Senator hasn’t made that explicit but it probably won’t be any portion of the new farm bill, the one that for the first time provides price support for rice farmers and peanut farmers.

Finding more money for national defense will surely not require any tax increases. The money will have to come from cuts in existing programs and we all know what sorts of programs Paul has in mind. They’ll be social programs. His new-found populist image probably doesn’t extend to holding the line on money for food stamps or Medicare. Still, we‘ll have to wait and see; just don’t hold your breath!

He was also asked about his nastiness, particularly when facing those really mean female interviewers. He insisted that he had the greatest respect for women interviewers, that he treated them exactly like men. That’s unlikely; when Kelly Evans of CNBC interviewed him recently his frustrated comment to her was, “Calm down now Kelly….” Isn’t that exactly what he might say to a fractious ten-year old? Paul made a considerable point that during these encounters he doesn’t raise his voice and he doesn’t lose his temper. That’s true he always speaks very calmly, indeed almost without emotion.

In his medical school rotation he should have had a stint in psychiatry where, assuming he was paying attention, he would have learned about passive-aggressive personalities. Aggression doesn’t always involve screaming, throwing crockery and threatening mayhem. The classic passive aggressive ploy is to belittle the target, exactly the, “Calm down now Kelly…” he pulled on Kelly Evans. He would like people to believe that he was being the sole of reasonableness during the exchange; that’s exactly what the passive-aggressive personality aims for, to create the impression that they aren’t hostile at all.

That might work for a while but his comments about the far right of his own party as well as the progressives, don’t really leave many politicians who might be willing to support him.