Pandering.
Via WaPo:
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) made one of the boldest and most memorable statements on the shooting death of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo., going a place members of his party wouldn’t touch with a 10-foot pole.
Now, he’s literally gone to the place — as in, Ferguson — where he’s meeting with the NAACP, the Urban League and other church and business leaders about criminal justice.
A cynic would say that Paul, a likely 2016 presidential contender, is simply trying to expand his appeal.
That cynic wouldn’t be entirely wrong.
“I am a politician, and I do recognize that [Republicans] haven’t done very well with people who live in cities — primarily African Americans — and I do think we need to do better,” he said in a phone interview from Ferguson. “The thing I found is that you might interview 20 people, and you find that they are not ready to vote for a Republican yet, but they are interested in Republicans competing for their vote and showing up in their communities.”
Paul has been on something of an urban America tour, meeting with leaders all over the country. He is the closest thing the GOP has to a race man, unafraid to put himself in the shoes of African Americans and to talk about disparities.
But in steadily talking about race, about hopelessness and a sense of powerlessness — as well as what the federal government can do to help — Paul is up to something entirely different. He is becoming the closest thing the Republicans have to an Al Sharpton or a Jesse Jackson, a comparison that prompted laughter from the man himself.