The Republican primary in Kentucky is getting nasty. Ron Paul's son, Rand Paul, is getting hit by Trey Grayson, his opponent, over having "Strange Ideas" about 9/11. They compare him to his dad, and then compare him to JEREMIAH WRIGHT. While I can't believe that guy actually made an appearance in another campaign, it's a pretty out there line of attack. Let's see if it changes things in Kentucky.
It's going to be interesting to see if this ad moves the electorate at all. During the past few cycles, national security issues have trumped just about everything on the Republican side. A break from that now will show a shift away from national security as their deciding issue. Rand Paul has built his level of support by preaching about overburdening federal control and misguided taxing and spending priorities by the Democrats.
On top of that, if the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq start to drag out and Iran reacts in a bold way to sanctions being placed on it, I think we could see a situation in a few years where Republicans depart from their Hawkish platform and start trying to make the Wars belong to the Democrats.
The Tea Party movement doesn't seem like it wants anything to do with national defense, and many of the Libertarians fueling it have been openly critical of the War in Iraq since the beginning. If the Tea Party does take hold of the GOP during the 2010 primaries, I would look for some of that sentiment to start seeping in.