Rand Paul’s decision to drop out of the Republican presidential race Wednesday marks the end of a primary season that he can’t help but regard as a disappointment. On paper, Ron Paul's heir seemed poised to capitalize on the growing number of voters whose mistrust of big government extends to the GOP establishment, its neoconservative foreign policy, and its support for mass surveillance.

https://www.behance.net/gallery/33683950/Rand-Paul-for-President-2016-Io...

Recently I have started following Rick Koerber @freecapitalist on Periscope and his website www.freecapitalist.com.  He also has a facebook page https://www.facebook.com/freecapitalist

I will be avoiding the upcoming debate.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/abc-news-announces-debate-criteria-for-feb-6...

Apparently we've allowed the media to choose who will continue and who will be packing their bags. I hope this Saturday is the point when many realize the silence is deafening for liberty. And that it doesn't matter if Rand has suspended his campaign, for what should he do if he is unable to avert people from mistaking liberty? He is on all ballots

I was sad to read this morning the deflating and yet inevitable headline: “Rand Paul to suspend his 2016 presidential campaign.” Even though I have already crossed the Liberty threshold and divorced myself from the GOP swearing ‪#‎noturningback‬, I couldn’t help but watch and listen and feel that warmth of hope that maybe this time; maybe this time will be different; all the while being restrained by the warnings in my heart

What made Paul interesting, according to Time in 2014, was that he seemed to be the only Republican paying attention to “the emerging demographics, the young minorities, the urban shifting away from older generations and embracing of more libertarian views on privacy, drug sentencing and foreign intervention.”

Would the libertarian-leaning Paul be able to appeal to African-Americans and Hispanics? Would he change his party’s traditional hardline stance on drug prohibition? Would Paul challenge Republicans’ hawkish foreign policy?

2016 Libertarian presidential candidate and former N.M. Republican Gov. Gary Johnson said on Monday that the results of the Iowa Caucuses show that the Democratic and Republican parties are not going to nominate a candidate that appeals to fiscally conservative and socially tolerant independent voters.

Rand Paul had a certain kind of grace and eloquence about him during his first presidential run.  

It won't be his last.  4 years is not a long time as we all know by now.  2012 feels like a year ago in the current state of warp speed we're all traveling in through space and time.    

In a way, Rand stood above the fray.  He decided it would be best to be a Senator in Kentucky instead of jumping in the pool of political sewage and participating in the current crap throwing contest that is about to ensue.

His presidential campaign is over, but his political achievements are just beginning.

With Rand Paul's suspension of his campaign for the Republican presidential nomination comes an understandable deluge of autopsies, elegies, screw-yous, and snarky subtweets.

Yet I come not to bury the "libertarian-ish" Paul but to praise him. In five short years as a senator, he's already elevated a host of issues that almost would have never seen the light of day. Assuming he keeps his Senate seat in the fall (as safe a bet as can be made in politics, which entails serious risk), he's still at the start of a career that, along with other newish colleagues, may well transform not just the GOP but the country as a whole. Here's hoping. 

I just started watching the 5 videos about this.  Looks interesting.

I was asked this morning if I watched the Iowa Caucus, whatever dog-and-pony show that was in our political process. I replied, no, because I have not had a television for over twenty years. I evicted it for non-payment of reality and worth. I haven’t missed it. People say, “How do you know what’s going on??!!” Easy. I say, well, I’m guessing we’re at war somewhere, there’s been some natural disaster someplace else, some horrific crime in some state, politicians in some scandal, and products advertised you can easily make yourself. Am I right. “Uh…well…yeah…”, they reply. In the time they’ve watched two television shows, I’ve made my own bread, set a tub of cabbage to fermenting, read two chapters in a book, and meditated. Gosh, and the world went on without my watching it on TV!