Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky.,  addresses the Conservative Political Action Conference at the  Gaylord...  
    Rand Paul didn't need to explain himself.  
    In May 2010, the small crowd    assembled at a country club in Paul's hometown of Bowling    Green, Ky., was already sold. Paul had just posted a    commanding, unlikely victory in the Republican Senate primary    in Kentucky, marking an important,    legitimizing moment for the national Tea Party movement.  
    But on this night of triumph, Paul    wanted to make sure that his audience of true believers    understood that his platform was not on the fringe of American    politics.  
    The Tea Party message is not a    radical message. Its not an extreme message, Paul said. What    is extreme is a $2 trillion deficit. Thats whats extreme. The    Tea Party message calls for things that are widely popular    among Republicans, Democrats and Independents.  
    Just look at the polls, Paul said.    Most Americans support term limits or mandating that Congress    balance the federal budget.  
    Paul was not challenging anyone to    cross party lines to support him, but emphasizing post-partisan    points of overlap. Harnessed though he was with the Tea Party    label, Paul was speaking to the center.  
    As Paul now looks toward a    potential bid for president in 2016, he is still struggling to shake the    notion, held by many powerful Republicans and average    Americans, that he is outside the political mainstream. The    word transformative is thrown around regularly by Paul's    allies as they envision what shape his presidential bid could    take: Paul doesn't have to change, the subtext reads; it is the    Republican Party that must evolve and expand to accommodate his    vision.  
    Indeed, Pauls policies seem to    cater to a yet-emerging idea of the American political center,    which was outlined in great detail in an Esquire-NBC News    survey last year. The poll was remarkable because, rather than    relying on party identification to classify voters, it assigned    them to one of eight groups of like-minded Americans across the    political spectrum based on policy preferences, with four of    the eight groups comprising the center.  
    The poll showed that most    Americans identify most closely with Democrats on some    important policy preferences, such as social issues, but    simultaneously gravitate toward some Republican economic    policies. They want the U.S. to be a strong international    superpower, but largely disengaged. And yes, they support term    limits.  
Read the original:
Rand Paul bets his future on redefining the political center