Where You Are and What You Say

There are fans of Senator Rand Paul, the Kentucky Republican and libertarian. And there are critics. But they all tend to give him credit for one thing: speaking in venues that are supposed to be hostile to Republicans. In March, a headline in National Journal read, “Rand Paul’s Heading Deep Into Democratic Terrain.”

The terrain included the University of California at Berkeley. Before his appearance there, Paul explained what the point of that appearance was: “hopefully showing that the message of a Republican with a libertarian twist may well be acceptable to people, even in Berkeley.” His talk was destined to please, really. It was entitled “The NSA vs. Your Privacy.” (The NSA, remember, is the National Security Agency.)