Yesterday, I said that Rand Paul is on the right track to become a threatening Republican presidential candidate. Today, an aide for President Obama backed me up:

Speaking to reporters, counselor to the president Dan Pfeiffer said the Kentucky Republican is “one of the most intriguing candidates” in the field because of his appeal to younger voters of both parties.

As an example of this, Rand Paul just introduced a bill that a lot of Stranger readers could get behind:

Sen. Rand Paul yesterday introduced S. 2644, the FAIR (Fifth Amendment Integrity Restoration) Act, which would protect the rights of citizens and restore the Fifth Amendment’s role in seizing property without due process of law. Under current law, law enforcement agencies may take property suspected of involvement in crime without ever charging, let alone convicting, the property owner. In addition, state agencies routinely use federal asset forfeiture laws; ignoring state regulations to confiscate and receive financial proceeds from forfeited property.

I doubt the bill will go anywhere, but it's a good bill. It reminds us that Rand Paul is right sometimes. And in the media, where simple dualities win the day, the fact that Paul is right sometimes could flip him over into one of the good guys. The truth is, Paul has a whole lot of repulsive beliefs, but he's so far to the right that some of his beliefs also overlap with those of passionate Democrats. As far as I'm concerned, that makes him really dangerous. I'm not convinced Paul could get through a Republican primary, but if he did, he'd be saying a lot of things that make him very appealing to young and progressive voters.