Rand Paul is signaling that his campaign for president may be nearing an end. Paul told the Boston Globe in an interview that if he fails to make the cut for the main debate on Tuesday night that “we will make an announcement.” These are rarely good words coming from a candidate.

CNN (will someone tell me why the GOP is letting a basically unwatched news network like CNN, which has one of the most partisan and dishonest group of reporters and anchors anywhere, host a GOP debate and make lots of money off from it?) has set the criteria for the main debate as 3.5% in one national poll or 4% in either an Iowa or New Hampshire poll. Right now, Paul doesn’t make the cut. [UPDATE: the new NBC/WSJ poll puts him at 2% but CNN has included him, in violation of their own rules, in the main debate.]

Paul should bow out of the race. His candidacy never caught fire, I suspect the subscribers to his dad’s newsletter are supporting Trump. During his tenure in the Senate he has been much too close to [mc_name name=’Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY)’ chamber=’senate’ mcid=’M000355′ ] to appeal to movement conservatives. At the end of the last quarter, the Paul campaign reported raising only $2.5 million and had $2.1 million cash-on-hand showing they spent nearly half a million more than they raised. A lot of good will he had accrued was burned down by getting Kentucky to change a law and allow him to run simultaneously for president and senator. Of course, having two of his closest advisers under federal indictment didn’t help much, either.  And it isn’t like he’s said anything that is influencing the national debate.