Rand Paul: Obama Boosts GOP Election Prospects

According to Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, Obama fatigue will drive a Republican sweep on Tuesday.

“This election will be a referendum on the president,” he said on CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday. “He will be indirectly on the ballot.”

Paul is widely seen as positioning himself for a presidential run himself in 2016. That has made him a popular surrogate on the campaign trail, appearing with Republican candidates across the country.

It has also prompted a stronger line of attack against President Obama’s leadership with an eye toward how he might handle the pressures of the White House.

“He promised that he would be beyond things, that he was going to be a uniter not a divider,” Paul said. “But, you know, I called him a month ago, and I said, Mr. President, I’ll work with you on criminal justice, what I want you to do is try to help me bring American profits home so we can create jobs here. He voted for this in 2005. Lower the tax rate, bring money home, create jobs. It’s a win-win for everybody, both parties.”

But the senator, who tends to be a more libertarian Republican, said that Obama refused to work with him on tax reform.

“I was disappointed that he chose to attack American corporations, attack American businesses instead of saying, ‘Yes, I will help you bring jobs home and we’ll do it together,’” he told CNN’s Candy Crowley.

But she pressed him to explain how so many races could still be deadlocked this late in the campaign if indeed the “wind’s at our backs” and the president is dragging down his party. His response seemed to make clear that he is angling to offer a more middle-of-the-road alternative under a President Rand Paul. Obama, on the other hand, has only managed to divide the electorate, he says.

“I think it shows that our country is pretty evenly divided,” he told Crowley, and then argued that many voters are turned off by the perception that Democrats are anti-business. He even threw in a mention of a potential 2016 general election opponent.

“When you have a president – and then you have Hillary Clinton saying the same thing – saying that businesses don’t create jobs, a lot of Americans are scratching their heads,” he said. “I sense a lot of people saying to themselves…maybe we need new leadership in the country. So I think people are ready for new leadership.”

Given the abysmal approval ratings for both Congress and the president, he may be correct. But other electoral forces may be required for a successful White House run by Rand Paul. Obama, after all, will not be on the ballot in 2016.

[photo credit: Gage Skidmore]

Rand Paul: Obama Boosts GOP Election Prospects