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Rand Pauls 2016 prospects would look a lot brighter if hed bring an end to one of his biggest problems: self-inflicted wounds.

Paul wants to be the guy who broadens the Republican Partys appeal to young voters and minorities, and some GOP operatives say he just might be able to pull it off. He has won attention for his fight against mandatory minimum jail sentences, he has visited Howard University to pitch his ideas to African-American college students, and he won the Maine straw poll this weekend after giving a speech about the need for a broader Republican coalition.

But he has also had a series of stumbles that could threaten his ability to appeal to the same voters hes trying to reach. And some Republican strategists say hell have to start showing more discipline if he does get into the 2016 race.

(QUIZ: Do you know Rand Paul?)

Paul was one of a handful of Republicans who got burned by Cliven Bundy, the Nevada rancher who flamed out after wondering out loud whether African-Americans were better off under slavery. He never actually praised Bundy, and he condemned Bundys statements as soon as they were reported. But he did express sympathy with Bundy and his supporters battle with the Bureau of Land Management calling it a real intellectual and constitutional and legal debate when most other Republicans didnt take the bait and avoided commenting at all.

Hes not the only potential 2016 candidate who got burned by Bundy Texas Sen. Ted Cruz and Gov. Rick Perry both sounded the themes of government overreach, too. But the episode highlighted the fact that Paul has made other unforced errors on the road to GOP stardom. There was the 2010 interview in which he seemed to question the premise of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. There was the former aide who used to work as a radio host called the Southern Avenger, wearing a Confederate flag mask.

And there have been other incidents that have gotten him in trouble. He went from annoying GOP national security hawks with his warnings about drones to disappointing some supporters by suggesting they could be used against liquor store robbers. And last year Paul had to promise to be more careful after a series of speeches used language that appeared to be borrowed from other sources without citing them.

(Also on POLITICO: Rand Paul wins Maine straw poll)

Pauls advisers say he should be judged by his success bringing new voters into the Republican Party, not by a rehash of old stories from his past.

Sen. Rand Pauls message to the Republican Party is to adapt, evolve or die. It is unfortunate that some political analysts will use Sen. Pauls efforts to grow our party as an excuse to lob outdated criticisms, said spokesman Sergio Gor. Sen. Paul should be judged by his engagement of all groups and his message of growth, not old recycled accusations that distract from Sen. Pauls message of inclusion.

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Rand Paul's problem: Self-inflicted wounds

Politics TIME 100 Rand Paul and Kelley Ashby at the Time 100 Gala at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City on April, 29, 2014 Jonathan D. Woods for TIME

Senator Rand Paul was having a good time at the TIME 100 gala on Tuesday but that doesnt mean he planned to dance.

Were excited to hear the music, Paul, a Kentucky Republican and a TIME 100 honoree, said in a brief interview. Pharrell, Happy, is all over the place.

Pauls wife Kelley Ashby chimed in with her own reference to a TIME 100 honoree, Carrie Underwood: Jesus takes the wheel!

Last year we had Amy Poehler at our table, Ashby recalled. We were up dancing to Miguel, which was so fun. We said we wanted to have a good table this year. We want to be up dancing like last year.

Paul chimed in skeptically: One of us will be dancing, maybe.

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Rand Paul: Happy Is All Over the Place

US Senate Candidates Forum in Wilmington
The Libertarian Party of New Hanover will host the third and final U.S. Senate Libertarian Candidates Forum Sunday, May 4 in Wilmington. Candidates Tim D #39;Annunzio and Sean Haugh will attend....

By: Libertarian Party of North Carolina

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US Senate Candidates Forum in Wilmington - Video

A libertarian group operating within the Idaho Republican Party is making its first endorsements in a slate led by Sen. Russ Fulcher in his challenge to two-term GOP Gov. Butch Otter.

The Republican Liberty Caucus of Idaho also backs challengers to three other statewide incumbents: Idaho County Commissioner Jim Chmelik over Lt. Gov. Brad Little; Boise lawyer C.T. Chris Troupis over Attorney General Lawrence Wasden; and Boise businessman Todd Hatfield over Controller Brandon Woolf.

In races for open statewide seats, the group endorses Rep. Lawerence Denney for secretary of state over Evan Frasure, Phil McGrane and Mitch Toryanski; and for John Eynon for superintendent of public instruction over Andy Grover, Randy Jensen and Sherri Ybarra.

The group was chartered as an arm of a national group, the Republican Liberty Caucus, founded in 1991 at the urging of Roger MacBride, a 1976 Libertarian Party presidential candidate.

To gain the endorsements, candidates were required to sign The Liberty Compact, which reads:

I pledge to the citizens of this state, and to the American people, that as their elected representative I will work to restore liberty, not restrict it; shrink government, not expand it; reduce taxes, not raise them; abolish programs, not create them; promote the freedom and independence of citizens, not the interference of government in their lives; and observe the limited, enumerated powers of our Constitution, not ignore them.

Founded in 2012 at the Idaho Republican Party convention, the Liberty Caucus also made what it calls a first round 31 of endorsements for the Legislature.

Among the notable legislative endorsements: Scott Smiths bid to unseat Senate President Pro Tem Brent Hill of Rexburg; Danielle Ahrens over nine-term Sen. Shawn Keough in Sandpoint; Toby Schindelbeck over Rep. Luke Malek in Coeur dAlene; Lee Rice over Sen. Todd Lakey in Nampa; Robert Muse over Rep. Rick Youngblood in Nampa; Diego Rodriguez over Sen. Fred Martin in Boise; Charles Pratt Porter over Lori DenHertog and Rich Jarvis for Fulchers open Senate seat in southwest Ada County; Lance Earl over Rep. Kelley Packer in Bannock and Power counties; and Ron Nate over Rep. Doug Hancey in Madison County.

RLC state charters are organized specifically to bring voters back into the Republican Party at the state level that left due to apathy, antagonistic behaviors of of GOP county central committees or poor candidate choices, said RLC Idaho Secretary Jason Robinson.

Robinson said the Idaho chapter is the largest state organization in the country, but he said both state and national membership numbers are confidential and not something I can release.

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New Republican Liberty Caucus endorses Fulcher, other challengers

Submitted by Logn Albright of the Mises Canada blog,

As libertarianism begins to gain in popularity and seep into the youth culture, there is increasing pressure from certain strains of the movement to attempt to modify the theory and transform it into something that it is not.

To begin with, let us examine what is meant by the term libertarian, what its limits are, and what it attempts to explain. Libertarianism is exclusively a political philosophy describing the legitimate use of force in society. It claims that humans have the right of self-ownership, and that theft, assault and other forms of aggression violate this right, except in the case of legitimate self-defense against an aggressor. This is where the philosophy begins and ends, and although some libertarians dispute the circumstances under which force is acceptable (the Night Watchman state versus no state at all), it still has the legitimate use of force as its core.

It is not an economic philosophy, although its conclusion tends to support free market capitalism due to the lack of coercion inherent in such a system. Still, there is no dictum against collective ownership so long as it is voluntary. This is what anarcho-communism is all about.

Similarly, libertarianism has little to say about politics except for what follows directly from its central precept. Taxes are immoral because they involve coercion. Democracy is no better than dictatorship if it imposes the will of the many onto the few by force. And so on.

But because libertarianism has become fashionable among a certain segment of the population, and because we wish to expand the movement and convert others to it, there has been a push to expand this simple definition into a more holistic ethical code encompassing every aspect of life, almost akin to a religion. We are told that non-discrimination based on superficial characteristics like race and sex is an inherently libertarian position. It is not. So long as discrimination does not violate anyones rights of self-ownership, the theory simply has nothing to say about it (although we can observe that a capitalistic system is unlikely to encourage such behavior due to the way it tends to impact profits.)

Where these well-meaning meddlers go wrong is in assuming that just because libertarianism per se doesnt have a position on racism, that libertarians qua human beings do not have such a position either. This is absurd. Libertarianism is by its nature a narrow philosophy, with plenty of room to coexist along with other philosophies as well. Just as being a vegetarian does not exclude one from being Jewish, so does being a libertarian not exclude one from being a humanitarian.

We are more than a simple political philosophy, and while this defines the moral lens through which we see much of the world, it is not the totality of our being. For example, libertarianism has nothing to say on the subject of suicide. If we own ourselves, we have the right to terminate ourselves. Period. However, no libertarian I have ever met would encourage such an activity, and most would find it utterly reprehensible. The point is that you can hold a belief that something is wrong without having to fold it into a specific political philosophy where it has no business being.

Granted, certain ethical outlooks fit nicely within libertarianism while others do not. Kants categorical imperative that we treat humans as ends in themselves rather than means to an end works well, as does the Biblical Golden Rule, treat others as you would like to be treated. They are not explicitly part of libertarian theory, but they are compatible with it.On the other hand, one would be hard pressed to combine a restrictive set of laws, such as Sharia, with the non-aggression principle.

The trouble is that by attempting to redefine a narrow political philosophy to encompass all things that we like and think are nice like non-discrimination, like treating people as ends rather than means we dilute its power and simplicity. We destroy what makes it great. Once we proceed down the road of declaring everything we think is good to be libertarian, we will quickly find that libertarianism suddenly has no meaning at all.

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As libertarianism begins to gain in popularity and seep into the youth culture, there is increasing pressure from ...