Welcome back, and Happy Opening Day to you. From the first Morning Jolt of the week:

Welcome to Rand Paul’s Week in the Sun.
Ted Cruz had his week in the sun, and judging from his ability to raise $4 million in eight days and a new PPP poll that has Cruz in third place nationally with 16 percent, he made the most of it.
This coming week looks like it’s going to be Rand Paul’s:
U.S. Sen. Rand Paul is expected to make an announcement on Tuesday that his camp is being hush-hush about but is among the worst-kept secrets in Washington, Kentucky, or just about everywhere.
Really. What politician who is considering running for president, who has spent the past year traveling early primary and caucus states, rents out a hotel in his home state, invites all the national media in, just to announce he’s not running for president?
So it is on Tuesday at the Galt House in Louisville, Ky., that Paul, a former Pennsylvanian and former Texan, will join the likes of Abraham Lincoln, Zachary Taylor and Henry Clay and become a Kentuckian who is running for the presidency.
Paul’s choice to announce his decision at “Galt House” may sound like a subtle shout-out to Ayn Rand, but it’s an iconic Louisville hotel with a big role in history: “Some notable visitors include Stephen Douglas, Edwin Booth, Charles Dickens, P.T. Barnum, Tom Thumb, and presidents Lincoln, Grant, Taylor, Hayes and Buchanan. In 1864, generals Grant and Sherman planned their military strategies at the Galt House. This strategy led to the capture of Atlanta.”
As the non-interventionist/isolationist/non-reflexive-hawk in the field, Rand Paul is going to get a lot of flak. When the media and political thinkers discussed the “Libertarian Moment”, we didn’t realize they meant it would last for just one moment. Rolling back the national security state and our foreign interventions sounds great when the American people are transfixed by widespread NSA domestic snooping, drones in our skies, and the Middle East dominated by a messy extremist-vs-Bashir-Assad fight with no good guys. It looks less appealing when we’re watching ISIS behead Americans on national television, places like Libya and Yemen collapse and become too dangerous for U.S. special operations forces to operate, and Islamists shoot up Paris magazine offices in the name of a vigilante-enforced blasphemy codes.
Rubio will certainly go after him, and a few days ago Cruz took a shot at Paul for voting against an NSA reform bill. If John Bolton runs, Paul’s isolationist instincts will face the full wrath of the mustache of fury.
I suppose this is the biggest slam Lindsey Graham can imagine:
Graham, R-S.C., and a potential presidential candidate, said a better alternative than to sign something now would be to wait until the next administration takes over, be it Republican or Democrat, and try again. He called the president “a flawed negotiator.”
“What I would suggest is that if you can’t get there with this deal, is keep the interim agreement in place (and) allow a new president in 2017 — Democrat or Republican — take a crack at the Iranian nuclear program,” Graham told host Nora O’Donnell. He added, “the best deal comes with a new president. Hillary Clinton would do better. I think everybody on our side, except maybe Rand Paul could do better.”
Perhaps Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul will cross paths in New Hampshire Wednesday:
On Wednesday, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky will attend a Republican rally at Milford’s Town Hall at noon. Paul is expected to formally announce his candidacy for the GOP nomination the day before.
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina will also be in the Granite State on Wednesday. Graham is scheduled to attend a town hall meeting at Turbocam in Barrington, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Graham will then attend the Belknap County Republican Committee Meeting at the Top of the Town Restaurant in Belmont, starting at 7:30 p.m.
Rand Paul is one of the few GOP contenders not scheduled to speak at Friday’s NRA Convention in Nashville. He’ll be in Iowa that day.
Rand Paul needs the world to not blow up with any crises that make Americans want to intervene militarily for the next ten days… or maybe the next twenty months or so.
But don’t forget, he’s got a big, big ally, who effectively controls the Senate floor and what gets debated and when…
… and having the Senate Majority Leader behind you is a significant advantage.