CPAC Straw Poll Winner Rand Paul:Same as the Old Boss

I don't know how much store I should put by the results of the CPAC straw poll, because for one thing, I don't believe it necessarily is a valid cross-section of the conservative vote because it skews a bit younger, male and "wired" for political action anyway. Also, former Rep. Ron Paul won a couple straw polls, and the son may well be the beneficiary of the same mechanism that delivers a straw poll, but can't quite deliver a presidential primary win.

Nonetheless, I am going to take him seriously, because I began to respect a part of his political acumen for message delivery during his 2010 senate campaign. But I do want to point out that if what he is saying here is correct, I'm a little concerned. See, there is a criticism from the right that the Pauls, father and son, are effectively isolationists. But if Rand Paul considers his foreign policy to be similar to Bush 41, we're talking about the first Bush presidency that invaded Iraq.  And that is interesting, because as I recall, GHWB fought against  being labelled a "wimp" by the right wing of his own party. I don't think I'm mistaken in saying he didn't overcome that label by invading Iraq.  He was a one-term president.

Now, this is some old news, but I'm old enough to have been pissed when Bush 41 left the Kurds hanging. So what are we talking about when we say he would be like the elder Bush? I remember the oil fields burning that time. At least his son kept his eye on the ball as far as US corporate interests were concerned, right? I have no idea what positive thing Rand Paul means by comparing himself to 41.

Here's another disquieting thing: he considers drilling in "every conceivable place" the proper response to the Ukranian crisis. Not totally unlike Rep. Paul Ryan's idea that the Keystone Pipeline is part of the solution. Both opinions seems to rely on a bizarre "Jed shooting at some food" notion of how the bubbling crude actually comes up in this world.

I give his political gifts props, but I think his basic understanding of  "how to go about things" is all too familiar, and all too insufficient to the challenges we're going to face. There is no drilling our way to anything--it's at best a bandage on an arterial wound of vital energy need. We need to shift from chasing and battling over commodities, to investing in technologies that make regional sense and lead to energy independence. His approach would be no leadership on that front at all.