Fresh off a day of meet-and-greets in New Hampshire, likely 2016 Republican Presidential candidate Rand Paul was at a hotel near Logan airport headed back to Washington D.C.
Over the next 60 days, the Ophthalmologist turned United States Senator from Kentucky believes he may well be the person who can cut through what will surely be a pack of hopefuls to win the Republican nomination.
"I call myself a 'constitutional conservative' -someone who believes that we should have a government that only spends what comes in- that one of the biggest problems that actually faces us as a country is an $18 trillion dollar debt," Paul told NECN.
Paul is well aware that the 2016 spotlight is not pointed on him right now, but on 2012 Republican nominee Mitt Romney and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush- both of whom Paul describes as middle of the road moderates.
According to Paul, a key difference between him and his competitors is their viewpoints on foreign policy. He says that Bush and Romney are among Republicans who consider war to be a first option and uses conflicts like Libya as an example.
"We have radical Islam run amok now in Libya. The Republican view point, was 'well, we just should have more boots on the ground, we should have left more boots there,'" Paul explained. "You've got democrats who start wars and don't finish them and then you have someone like me who says, 'you know what, maybe we should think a little bit before we get involved in somebody else's civil war.'"
Paul calls Bush a big government Republican, calling for example, more federal control over education. As for Romney, Paul says he's had his chance- that Republicans need more blacks, Hispanics, working class and young voters that Romney was not able to assemble.
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"We need to be a more diverse party and just the objective facts are we haven't done that in the last couple of cycles and that's not a personal insult to Governor Romney. It's just to say that maybe we need to try something fresh and new," Paul concluded.
Rand Paul hopes he is that fresh, new face.
