Behind the Ad: An attack on Rand Paul from the right as he launches his campaign

By Richard K. Barry

Who: The Foundation for a Secure and Prosperous America (a 501(c)4 group)

Where: On Fox News this week in the first four early primary states — Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

What’s going on: The New York Times reports that “it is unusual for an outside group to try to swamp a candidate’s announcement day, but Mr. Paul has been viewed with deep concern by foreign policy hawks for his noninterventionist views.”

“The Senate is considering tough new sanctions on Iran,” the ad’s narrator intones. “President Obama says he’ll veto them and Rand Paul is standing with him. Rand Paul supports Obama’s negotiations with Iran. But he doesn’t understand the threat.”

The audio then cuts to a recording from a 2007 interview in which Mr. Paul, talking about Iran as he defended his father’s world views, said, “You know, it’s ridiculous to think that they’re a threat to our national security.”

The ad uses the tried-and-true imagery of a nuclear explosion with the narrator saying “Rand Paul is wrong and dangerous. Tell him to stop siding with Obama because even one Iranian bomb would be a disaster.”

(Cross-posted at Phantom Public.)