>> bloomberg politics special report. >> i'm putting myself forward as a candidate president of the united states. >> will america stand with rand? will be rand brand expand, or is the rand brand bland? tonight the rand brand plan. can rand paul do it all? he came in like a wrecking ball.

bloomberg politics. john: happy national rand paul announcement day. the senator for contacting -- kentucky. he made it official today. and he brought a special message . rand: i have a message. and message that is loud and clear and does not mince words. we have come to take our country back. today i announce with god's help, with the help of liberty lovers everywhere that i'm putting myself forward as a candidate for president of the united states of america. john: mark, you were there in louisville, and you are still there in louisville. tell us how did rain to do --

rand do? mark: a very solid internet. more than solid. with 1500 people in a ballroom, he delivered a speech that was pretty well done. the execution throughout the day, moving people and in and out a solid campaign. ithe gave the speech he wanted to give, the message he wants to deliver, what you will win or lose on. john: i am sure there are a lot of liberty lovers in that room. we are all liberty lovers in the end. i thought there was something telling in the fact that those words that he started his speech with, about how he had a message for the country that he wanted to take the country back, that a similar what he said when he was elected to the senate.

that encapsulates the whole rand paul thing. he has to be bigger than the tea party no longer the flavor of the month. he took a step forward today, but he is going to have a fight to get there. mark: he is going to have to hope the rules of the republican nomination change. he needs to be bigger than his dad, bigger than he was as a senate candidate am a bigger and bigger than the character of him as someone out of step with the party. i thought he showed he is well aware of all of those factors. john: many are asked him what he would look like as commander-in-chief. he outlined his philosophy when it comes to national security. mark: i envision an amerco with the national defense that is unencumbered by overseas

nationbuilding. [applause] i envision a national defense that employs peace through strength. john: that would be a reason to stand by rand, but if you're looking for a reason to stand against him, here is a different talking point. >> rand paul is wrong, and dangerous. tell him to stop siding with obama, because even one iranian bomb would be a disaster. john: that was quite a welcome to the race. as you know, lindsey graham and others are hard on this as well. do the justice of the peace folks not like his ideas, or are they afraid of him in some way? mark: i think they are

afraid his ideas could catch fire. on one hand they say this shows people are afraid of rand, and on the other hand dentists a lot of money to be dropped on the head still defining himself. john: loose talk about seven figures. i've not seen any confirmation of what the actual ad is. there is no doubt that there is an ideological split. it feels emboldened, and the want to crush anybody on the ideological grounds. they feel it is dangerous for the party and the country. mark: as he adopts and modify

some of his foreign-policy positions to be more acceptable he was to define himself not just on for policy national security, but on every policy on his own terms. that is going to leave him isolated potentially defined before his the time and money on his own to fight back. john: we're in a moment right now jeb bush is having to make apologies for james patterson the third. if james is too liberal, and rand paul is going to be way too liberal. moving on to the next topic. 70 said that rand paul has only an outside shot. and he would like to hear from someone who is high on his prospects. >>'s first line of attack was

telling me you know everyone says i have a less than 10% chance at reading congress -- winning congress. [laughter] i heard him speak that night in town square park, and i knew. with this uncertainty in clarity that sometimes you have in life, i just knew. i looked him in the eye and said if you do this, you're going to win, i know it. mark: after that impressive performance by kelly paul i caught up with them in a chaotic moments, and i asked him how he rated his wife's performance. how you think she did? pimm: she did great. mark: did she practice a lot? rand: i do not know. mark: were you able to watch her speech? rand: i was able to listen. mark: he is expecting more of

the same including she is wanting a book tour in the coming days. she has a very high profile over some of the other spouses. is she the secret weapon going forward? john: she is not secret anymore. i think a lot of people this is the first time they saw her in the country and the party. she played a big role in his senate campaign, doing a lot of videos of things. she was very poised today. we understand how important and how big an asset a really solid spouse can be. look at her and say she looks like more of an asset than a liability or a no asset as it would be. mark: with the exception of william jefferson clinton i am not sure there is another spouse involved in this race.

for an announcement it was strong, and he needs more than anything else someone who loves him, who will testify to the country about what a big heart he has. he is not regularly good at showing his heart. she testified for him very power play. you will see a lot more of that. john: if she has that level of poise, for a woman making her debut on the national stage she was very poised. mark: 100%. in the fall people were over the moon -- and the paul people were over the moon. john: very soon there could be more than a dozen announced republican candidates. on the basis of this speech, how is planning -- he planning to

position himself against the emerging field? mark: the haves -- he has a three straight strategy. there is no one who can lay a stronger claim to them as rand paul. let me tell you, if he wins two or three of those good luck trying to stop him. i'm not saying that cannot stop him, but he would have quite a head of steam. go state-by-state, he is well-positioned or better positioned than anyone in the field. john: in terms of geographic position, he looks very strong. he has serious digital chops on his campaign. they're going to try to organize and expand the caucus universe in iowa. the same time, it is all about what exactly he is.

with the thing that rand paul was, the brand of rand paul of two years ago, which is a much more unadulterated version of libertarian, that has been watered down. he is try to water himself down to become appealing to a broader sense. a broader segment of supporters, but might be losing some of his magic for the most ardent members of his base. mark: do not forget the fundraising mad. there are people in all caps athlete he will have raised the second was the against all the other republicans except for jeb bush, and that includes what they say is an underrated plan to raise hard dollars from big bundlers. not just super pac, not just small dollars, he's going to be formidable. i think we'll see eclectic showdown. they will come after him. he's going to be right in there in the final. john: i agree with all of that.

coming up, we will have more judging of rand paul and rand paul wordplay. ♪

john: it is time to do to rand paul speech and what we do after every song. break it down. he says he is different. not like the other republicans. should make his point, today he waged war. rand: as i watch our once great economy collapse under mounting spending and debt, i think what kind of america will our grandchildren see? it seems to me that both parties and the entire political system are to blame.

under the watch of both parties, the forcing to get horrors, and thehe rich get richer is. . usually we have squandered our victory by becoming part of the washington machine. that is not who i am. john: i have not heard many president candidate announcing their presidential bid attacking their own party. that is an unusual stance to take. a political and establishment posture -- anti-establishment posture. i do not know it is the way to win, but it was striking today. mark: it leaves them vulnerable. part of the reason you do not hear a lot of the republicans coming to his defense when he is being attacked by big television ads because he attacks the party. it is the very delicate balance.

people in the party establishment and congress say we agree with his goal of expanding the party, we recognize there are flaws in the republican party, but they do not want to see their leading public and -- republican presidential candidate attacking both. john: if you were an independent candidate running for president that would make a lot of sense but in a republican nominee electorate needs to talk to enough of the audience. it is to be a little careful there or is going to get himself in trouble. mark: it will be interesting to see how much he sticks with that answer republican debate. moving on, a big issue for this guy will be that he seleka democrats -- sounds like a democrat in talking about changing business. rand: can you imagine what $1

billion in stimulus could do for detroit, or for appellation? a? i am convinced most americans want to work. i want to see millions of americans back at work. in my vision for america, we will bring back manufacturing jobs that pay well. more than $2 trillion in american profit currently sits overseas. in my vision for america, new highways and bridges will be built across the country, not by raising your taxes, but by lowering the tax to bring this american profit home. mark: it sounds like barack obama circa 2008. bring money home from work corporations and ill roads and bridges in america. john: in the speech there was an attack on crony capitalism they

don't like big business, big government, but he is also talking about corporate tax holiday in order to bring the money home. that's also a special interest tax break to me. there's also the confusion going on there. mark: and for those that think this is all a barrage, and his message is not going to find a big audience, they just need to think back to cap buchanan. he got big reaction from the crowd it seemed like he was a real threat, and then somehow ended up being a paper tiger. john: hard to forget that great race. give us the next one. mark: one thing about rand paul, to paraphrase mario, most of his rhetoric is all pros know

poetry. he wrote into his announcement speech today a very nice story, very well written about helping a couple in guatemala failing eyesight. listen to how he tells this story, draining it of all intended effect. rand: one day in guatemala nhlbi operated on his wife the day before. his wife could see clearly for the first time, and she begged him to get on the bus and come back to our surgery center. he too was nearly blind. the next day his wife sat next to me, as i unveiled the patch from his eyes, it was a harmful emotional moment to see them looking at each other clearly for the first time in years. to see the love in their faces again. as i saw the joy in their eyes, i thought, this is why i became a doctor.

mark: i don't want to diminish his great work in guatemala, or his emotional let. but if that is the way he tells an emotional story, i think he is going to have trouble connecting with people who want a president who speaks not just to their head but to their hearts and their get. ut. john: think back to ted cruz and the announcements we have seen. all that rhetorical fire, deeply emotional. the performance level was so high and felt so sincere, this felt very wooden, very rote. i have not seen much of a sense of humor, or a sense of emotion. you think would come relatively iseasy. you're right, voters went to see

his, and he is going to find a way to get there. mark: my feel of the room was it was the weakest part of the whole speech. that crowd was not swept away. his supporters are drawn to his ideas in general, it is just the messenger. but if you see him as commander-in-chief every day for four years, i think the performance level on that was not very good. they showed a video before the speech where they told much the same story and one about his grandmother. the video executed it, not rand paul. john: ellis of humanity that seem to follow him his ideas and causes. there's no cause that means more to him than the cause of civil liberties. listed a listen to this last soundbite. rand: searches of america's

phones and theater records are un-american and a threat to our civil liberties. [applause] i say that your phone records are yours. i think the phone records of law-abiding citizens are none of their business. [applause] mark: no absence of emotion even in profanity. if he could summon that emotion when telling story, we would be on a very different page than we were a second ago. john: they are fired up by the issue. he was so fired up at one point. after the break, the

constitution signed by rand paul and rand paul emporium. ♪

john: rand paul has a ton of awesomeness on his website. we did some online windowshopping. this is all very real. >> the rand paul store takes it to another level. we have the blocker/ . mark: a practical product. >> this is a work of art. mark: i might just go online and buy a $20 pocket constitution and go to an event with rand paul and get it signed.

>> and entrepreneur, that is what rand is fighting for. mark: that is a big blanket. >> curled up next to the fireplace. mark: this strikes me as a safety net. >> this is the market telling me how to say happy birthday to your favorite libertarian. it is the same picture as the blanket. it comes with a giant envelope. >> this is the best deal so far in the rand paul store. it seems like a giant kickstarter campaign. . do want a shirt, and iphone case, a giant blanket?

john: the guy in minnesota wants that blanket. breaking news from the white house when we come back. ♪

john: seen and reported that russia hacked the white house. the national security advisor

says it does not leave its classified systems were compromised. you can read about it on bloomberg.com from all o of us here sayonara

pimm: hello i'm pimm fox and this is what i'm taking stock of on this tuesday, april 7, 2015. fedex will buy the delivery company tnt express for four point. four $4 billion. ubs tried to buy tnt in 2013, but was locked by regulators. >> it will not result in a great deal of redundancies or market shares, which would appear to be problematic as was the case in the previous transaction. pimm: royal dutch shell is said to be in talks to acquire