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Sen. Rand Paul (R., Ky.), told an enthusiastic but hawkish audience Friday that his inclination to limit U.S. military intervention does not mean he opposes a strong defense.

We must our protect ourselves from jihadists without losing ourselves as a people, Mr. Paul told a meeting of thousands of activists at the three-day Conservative Political Action Conference.

Asked to address criticism that his foreign policy was insufficiently aggressive which some see as Mr. Pauls biggest liability in seeking his partys nomination the senator sought to portray his view as a middle ground.

Not all Republicans are the same on foreign policy, said Mr. Paul, one of several potential presidential candidates who tested their campaign messages at the annual conference. It is a spectrum. There are people who believe we should never be anywhere outside our borders. There are people who believe we should be everywhere all the time.

His audience at CPAC was packed with supporters especially young people who wore Stand with Rand T-shirts and chanted President Paul! President Paul! at various intervals, giving him one of the most raucous receptions of any of the candidates.

Many among them seemed receptive to his more restrained view of the use of military might, but the audience throughout the conference has responded enthusiastically to hawkish messages from the podium. Some of the best-received applause lines throughout the conference have been bellicose language and criticism of Mr. Obamas foreign policy.

Mr. Paul linked his call for foreign policy limits to the kind of anti-government rhetoric that is popular with conservatives.

We should not succumb to the notion that a government inept at home will somehow become successful abroad, that a government that is unable to deliver the mail will somehow be able to build nations abroad, he said.

On domestic policy, Mr. Paul promised that in the coming weeks he would be proposing the largest tax cut in American history and a plan to cut spending and balance the budget in five years. Asked how he would amend the constitution if he had only one amendment, he said he would call for term limits for elected officials as well as for out of control judges.

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Rand Paul Rouses CPAC, Defends His Foreign Policy