"Imagine a time when the White House is once again occupied by a friend of liberty," the libertarian-leaning lawmaker told the Conservative Public Action Committee (CPAC) yesterday, where he is hugely popular with small-government Tea Party Republicans.
The son of longtime congressman and former presidential candidate Ron Paul, the libertarian-leaning senator is an unapologetic defender of constitutional liberties and advocate for reducing the role of US government in Americans' daily lives.
His stock soared when, in the aftermath of revelations that the National Security Agency was scooping up most Americans' phone records, he sued the president in an effort to end the secret program.
"Will we be like lemmings rushing to the comfort of Big Brother's crushing embrace?" he asked, stoking the crowd by insisting the NSA phone data collection program is eroding their liberties.
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It was Paul who perhaps most effectively drew listeners to the issue of the Constitution and how Obama is putting its personal protections under threat.
"A great president would have protected us from the prying eyes of the NSA," he said. "A great president would have proclaimed I will not abide it, the Constitution will not abide it."
If the executive branch can initiate war, amend legislation or detain people without trial, he said in a reference to war-on-terror detainees at the US Naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, "then government unrestrained by law becomes nothing short of tyranny."
Paul won 2013's CPAC straw poll, and he is leading again this year. Results will be announced Saturday.
The 51-year-old lawmaker from Kentucky has substantial credibility among conservatives, including the Tea Party movement that helped send him to Congress.