海角大神

As Rand Paul tests the 2016 presidential waters, he has been busy making the case to mainstream Republican economic and foreign policy circles that he is not the libertarian extremist that even some in his own party have pegged him to be.

In just the past week the first-term Kentucky senator with the famous dad has taken his message to mainstream and deep-pocketed Republican donors in Atlanta and to a couple of Washington鈥檚 most prominent think tanks.

Tuesday night he told an audience assembled to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the prestigious realist organization, the Center for the National Interest, that he is not the 鈥渋solationist鈥� that some detractors would like to label him as.

Rather, the junior senator who filibustered for 13 hours over the Obama administration鈥檚 drones policy said, 鈥淥ur foreign policy and national security policy are too belligerent.鈥澛燗 better foreign policy, Senator Paul said, is one grounded in 鈥渢he idea that negotiation can improve our world鈥� 鈥� and he cited how he believes that intensified relations with China can lead to progress on North Korea, and how stronger engagement with Russia can yield results on Syria.聽[Editor's note:聽The original version of this story mischaracterized Senator Paul's reasoning for his filibuster.]

And Paul鈥檚 rather traditional internationalist ideas didn鈥檛 fall on just any ears. In the audience were such realist Republican foreign policy icons as Henry Kissinger and Brent Scowcroft.

Paul, whose antiwar father, former Texas Congressman Ron Paul, was a repeat Republican presidential candidate, was clearly comfortable criticizing the 鈥渘eocons鈥� who flourished under the George W. Bush administration. His words suggested he felt he could reliably assume that the National Interest audience contained few of them.聽 聽聽聽聽

In the first of several swipes at the neoconservative thinking that underpinned the Iraq war and spawned the vision of a Middle East democratized by way of Baghdad, Paul said foreign policy must be pursued by addressing 鈥渆vents as they are, not as we wish them to be.鈥�

Paul鈥檚 foreign-policy talk followed a brief appearance earlier in the day across town at the Heritage Foundation, where he introduced the conservative think tank鈥檚 annual global Index of Economic Freedom.

This year鈥檚 index, which is developed in partnership with the Wall Street Journal, found that while economic freedom is expanding globally 鈥� in Asia, Africa, and in parts of Europe 鈥� in the United States it slipped for the seventh year in a row.

For the first time this year, the index has the US falling out of the list of the world鈥檚 Top 10 freest economies 鈥� largely as a result of Obamacare鈥檚 going into effect, rising regulation, and tax policy.

In addressing the Heritage audience, Paul zeroed in on Obamacare, calling it 鈥渢he biggest loss of freedom of choice in 50 years.鈥� But he cited as the larger culprit in the US fall on the index the growth of Big Government.

Economic freedom is 鈥渋ncreasingly proportional to the size of your government,鈥� he said, adding that the US government 鈥渃ontinues to grow at an alarming rate.鈥�

At Heritage, one got the impression that Paul鈥檚 brief remarks were in part a favor to Heritage president and former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, who raised mainstream Republican eyebrows when he endorsed Paul in Kentucky鈥檚 2010 Republican senatorial primary over the establishment Republican candidate.

But at the National Interest dinner, Paul鈥檚 longer talk 鈥� focused on the more mainstream idea that 鈥減roblems should be approached first by engaging鈥� 鈥� sounded more like the vision of a potential presidential candidate out to appeal to a broader audience than the one he鈥檚 usually associated with.

Not only is the diplomacy-first approach one that can appeal to both Republicans and Democrats in a war-weary America, but there were other clues that Paul is out to reach a wider swath of voters.

As the dinner鈥檚 emcee, National Interest board member Richard Burt, noted in introducing Paul, the senator was the only speaker of the evening 鈥渢o come with his own teleprompters in tow.鈥�