The mainstream media, as we've begun seeing, will ask Dr. Rand Paul all sorts of questions designed to trip him up.  All those lefties at the New York Times, Washington Post, and the major networks want to paint Paul an extremist.  Paul shouldn't hand the media the brush to do it.  

Talk all you want about how refreshing it is to have Rand Paul running for the U.S. Senate.  You know, how he's a doctor by trade, not a professional politician.  He's a dad and an average guy stepping up to help his country.  That's all well and good, but Dr. Paul has stepped into the political arena.  He's playing politics for bigger stakes, a senate seat, and he's got to play it tougher, smarter and shrewder than he showed with his remarks about civil rights.     

Come to think of it, Rand Paul isn't an average guy.  He's a libertarian and the son of outspoken libertarian Congressman Ron Paul, meaning he's got a big fat target on his chest. 

Dr. Paul needs to learn quickly the value and importance of always being on the offensive.  In other words, the good doctor needs to learn to take a question like he was asked on civil rights and turn the tables.  Instead of explaining himself on civil rights, Paul needed to say something like this:

"Historic discrimination against blacks was a great injustice.  Civil rights laws have gone a long way in righting a great wrong.  But let's talk about the injustices occurring against poor blacks today, in the nation's inner cities, where welfare traps blacks in perpetual poverty; where public schools fail to educate.  Where crime and drug abuse run rampant.  Where families have been destroyed.  Where big city Democratic machines have failed to liberate poor blacks. 

The next great movement in civil rights needs to free poor urban blacks from government-induced cycles of poverty.  That can be accomplished by pushing aside Democratic machines; by creating more jobs in cities through cutting taxes and red tape to boost business development; by giving the poor the same option as the rich: school choice; and giving the police more resources to fight drug and gang crime.  Whatever I can do in the Senate to make real, positive change happen for poor blacks, I will do." 

Framing the issue of civil rights as a contemporary problem caused by Democratic machine politics and policies is guaranteed to drive the left and the mainstream media nuts.  It'll also throw blinkered liberal journalists (or propagandists, if you prefer) on the defensive. 

And if Paul's opponent, Democrat Jack Conway, is tempted to debate Paul on civil rights, so be it.  He who frames the terms wins the debate.  In fact, Paul may want to ask Conway to debate him on the failures of liberal Democratic unban policies and governance. 

The mainstream media and Democrats never play beanbag.  They always play to win.  So must Rand Paul if he wants a November victory.