The Rally for the Republicans at the Kentucky Fair & Exposition Center isn’t your standard rubber-chicken campaign event. Frank Simon, a Louisville religious-right leader known for his strong opposition to gay marriage, leads the crowd of 800 in the Pledge of Allegiance. The Rev. Jerry Stephenson, a conservative black pastor, delivers the invocation, asking “Father God” to “help us start a revolution.” Then the Grammy-nominated rock and reggae singer Aimee Allen, decked out in tattoos, patterned stockings, and high-top sneakers, performs a three-song set, culminating in an anthem helped along by the candidate’s sons on acoustic guitars: “We don’t want no war no more / Bring our boys home to our shore.”

This improbable opening is topped off by the Rev. Jeff Fugate, the right-wing pastor of Clays Mill Road Baptist Church in Lexington, Kentucky. Unlike the previous act, Fugate doesn’t sing about the PATRIOT Act or inciting a riot. Instead he gives a Falwellesque speech about restoring American values.

I believe this is inevitable.  Cong. Paul told courageous truths in 2007 and 2008; the GOP largely attempted to isolate his followers and their message.  But it failed due to the combination of the TARP and Obama’s legislative agenda.  The latest Rasmussen poll is startling:  President Obama 42% and Cong. Paul 41%.  (Thanks to the Lew Rockwell blog for this)

Rand Paul is doing so well that some libertarians are concerned he’ll compromise.  Some think he already has. 

Some libertarians fear the noninterventionist message is being lost entirely. David Adams cautions that “it is an oversimplification to call [Rand Paul] an anti-war candidate,” even though he would not have voted for the Iraq war. The younger Paul is still undecided about what our policy should be in Afghanistan. “Rand is terrified of the foreign policy his father has supported,” opines a libertarian activist who says he was rebuffed when he tried to arrange a meeting between Rand Paul staffers and J Street, an organization that bills itself as a more dovish Israel lobby.

But I believe the Rand Paul campaign may be promising!  So is the Rasmussen poll.  Independents chose Paul over the President by a wide margin but many voters do not know Paul:

Voters not affiliated with either major party give Paul a 47% to 28% edge over the president.  *  *  *  But nearly one-out-of-three voters (32%) are not sure what they think of Paul.

This is encouraging.  Cong. Paul can only go up.  If this report about oil prices is true, we may have an especially angry electorate.  No jobs, inflation, massive debt, and $4 or $5 per gallon gasoline.  I am thus encouraged.  We need a constitutionalist President.  To have that, we need constitutionalist elected officials.  Of course, we dare not trust in men but in the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

This is a bit of a surprise.  I thought Romney and Palin would be strong but not behind Huckabee.  Jindal did not place in this poll but many believe he will not run in 2012 and the Louisiana governor has not been in the public eye.

Palin’s book is about to come out and that will increase the visibility of the former VP candidate in 2008.  Speaking of visibility, it appears that Palin is not campaigning in either NJ or VA.  Governor Jindal has a book coming out soon, too – sometime next year.