Mediaboss Marketing

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) cast himself as a regular Joe during an interview with The Hill conducted at 23,000 feet in two coach seats on an American Airlines flight from Washington, D.C., to Dallas.

Flying coach is nothing new for Paul, the Tea Party favorite said. Hes logged tens of thousands of miles in coach in recent months as hes flown around the country touting himself as a possible White House contender in 2016.

A flight attendant scolded one of his staffers for standing in the aisle while monitoring the senators interview.

Fellow travelers sitting in the same row or behind him viewed the commotion with a mix of bemused curiosity and irritation.

Paul and other Republicans eyeing the White House are working hard to make clear that they are not Mitt Romney, the wealthy businessman who was easily depicted as out of touch in his 2012 campaign.

I walk to Wal-Mart and shop when Im at Kentucky and home in Bowling Green. We go to Target, Wal-Mart, T.J. Maxx like other people. We look for bargains. We drive our own cars. We really dont put on any special airs, Paul said.

When youre part of your community, he said, you kind of know what your community is upset about.

Pauls regular-guy push comes as other Republican contenders seek to identify themselves with the middle class. Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) recently bragged at the Iowa Freedom Summit about discount shopping at Kohls.

Republicans, who have been seen as the party of high rollers, have decided to put on good, plain gabardine, said Ross K. Baker, a political science professor at Rutgers University.

Paul says his ability to relate to everyday Americans is a key difference between him and Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic front-runner who took more than 200 privately chartered flights during her eight-year Senate career, according to Bloomberg.

View post:
Flying coach with Rand Paul