May 20, 2010 11:33AM 

# George Will on Rand Paul 

By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) 

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George Will, whose speech at the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty Dinner can be heard [here](https://www.cato.org/dailypodcast/podcast-archive.php?podcast_id=1157), writes today [about Rand Paul’s victory](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/19/AR2010051903297.html?hpid=opinionsbox1) in Kentucky:

> Democrats and, not amazingly, many commentators say Republicans are the ones with the worries because they are nominating strange and extreme candidates. Their Exhibit A is Rand Paul, winner of Kentucky’s Republican primary for the U.S. Senate.
> 
> 
> Well. It may seem strange for a Republican to have opposed, as Paul did, the invasion of Iraq. But in the eighth year of that war, many Kentuckians may think he was strangely prescient. To some it may seem extreme to say, as Paul does, that although the invasion of Afghanistan was proper, our current mission there is “murky.” But many Kentuckians may think this is an extreme understatement.

These critical commentators range from [David Frum](http://www.frumforum.com/rand-pauls-troubling-victory) and [Commentary](http://www.commentarymagazine.com/blogs/index.php/boot/297096) to the [Huffington Post](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/20/rand-paul-tells-maddow-th_n_582872.html) — the entire spectrum of the welfare-warfare state. But as Will says, Paul’s opposition to the Iraq war is shared by [60 percent](http://www.pollingreport.com/iraq.htm) of Americans. And plenty of mud was thrown at Paul by his Republican opponents, and Republican voters had this reply:

![Media Name: 201005_blog_boaz2011.gif](/sites/cato.org/files/styles/pubs_2x/public/wp-content/uploads/201005_blog_boaz2011.gif?itok=5XaLxOf7) 

(H/T: [Dai​ly​Paul​.com](http://dailypaul.com/node/135089%20))

Will also notes the surprising support for Rep. Ron Paul’s book *End the Fed* from Arlo Guthrie, whose anti-bailout song “I’m Changing My Name to Fannie Mae, was celebrated [here](https://www.cato.org/2008/12/29/im-changing-my-name-to-bank-holding-company/).

##### Related Tags 

[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) 

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