Rand Paul had it so good.
TheNew Yorker likened him to the Republican Barack Obama, saying he was "the Partys most prized fund-raiser and its most discussed senator, willing to express opinions unpopular within his party, and capable of energizing younger voters."
Vogue chronicled "the air of expectancy around him."
Time and Politico both said he was the most interesting man in politics, heralded as a one-man think tank.
And Mother Jones (perhaps jokingly, perhaps not) called him "the leading fashion visionary of DC, nay, the world," for his commitment to turtlenecks.
He has actively courted the press, cultivating an image of openness and willingness to engage in a wayother possible GOP contenders -- and politicians writ large -- have not. And his press clippings, which almost universallyhinted at the ideological tightrope Paul was on, still suggested it was a good strategy. The Fix even ranked him -- for a time -- as the most likely GOP nominee in 2016.
But this week's debate over vaccines shows how things have shifted. Paul tangled with the press,shushing a CNBC reporter in one interview and blaming the same "liberal media" that he has endlessly courted for twisting his words.
This led Justin Miller, a senior editor at the Daily Beast, to curse Paul out on Twitter-- somethinghe apologized for and explained further to Politico:
"I replied from my personal account to what I felt was spin after Senator Paul said factually incorrect things about vaccines," Miller wrote. "It would've been better to respond with facts than an obscenity, and I deleted the tweet so it wouldn't reflect on the Beast. I'm sorry for the insult."
Now, one reporter's off-color Twitter comment hardly represents a trend. But the press reaction to Paul's unsubstantiated suggestion that vaccines could lead to "profound mental disorders" marks a far different tone than when Paul was the leading voice for privacy in the historically hawkish GOP in 2013. For a time, he has been all potential, a fresh GOP voice bucking the status quo. As he cultivated that image of being a more maverick-y John McCain, others, like Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), have kept their heads down.
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The Fix: The lamestream medias fascination with Rand Paul might be coming to an end