Reflecting on Rand Paul

Trey Grayson (R) talks to New York magazine about the meteoric rise of Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), the man who beat him in their 2010 U.S. Senate race:

“He wasn’t very good at retail politics. He didn’t shake hands very well. He didn’t work the room. I remember thinking, I can stand here and shake hands, and I’m going to win that comparison. But one of the things that struck me was that at events, his staffers would always say to people, ‘Have you heard Dr. Paul speak?’ They wouldn’t say, ‘Have you met him?’ They would say, ‘Have you heard him speak?’ And it was interesting because he wouldn’t get up there and do all these little pleasantries. He wouldn’t begin with ‘Hey, it’s great to be here in Johnson County! It’s good to see Senator So-and-So, he’s doing a great job! I love your apple festival in the fall!’ He wouldn’t even say, ‘Thanks for having me! It’s nice to be here!’ He would just sort of begin his talk and it would be pretty serious. Even the jokes weren’t very lighthearted. But people would go to his town-hall events and tell their friends, ‘Hey, I heard this Dr. Paul guy, you should go hear him speak, he made some really good points.'”