Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) officially announced his candidacy for president about 24 hours ago, and things have been falling apart for his campaign ever since.
First, his presidential announcement was blocked by YouTube over copyright infringement.
Paul’s video used the song “Shuttin’ Detroit Down,” by John Rich, and his team either did not secure the rights to use the song or failed to notify YouTube that they had them, Addicting Info (AI) said.
The campaign announcement also features Kris Kristofferson, who said he was quite surprised to see himself in the video since he had also never given Paul’s office permission to use footage of his performance. He also added that he does not support Paul politically.
Following the “tweet first, ask questions later” approach to social media, Paul’s camp also retweeted a selfie from a “supporter” holding a #StandWithRand sign. They did not notice that the picture was actually of James Holmes, who is currently awaiting trial for the 2012 murder of 12 people in a Colorado movie theater, photoshopped to look like he was holding the Paul sign.
Paul’s website also had its share of problems. When you click on the “Education” tab, it “takes you to a video of Rand stressing how important access to school is. The video is titled ‘Rand Paul Opposes a One-Size-Fits-All approach to Eductation,” said AI.
The website is keeping a running total of donations to Paul’s campaign and displaying recent donors’ names underneath. One of the donors to the Kentucky senator?
Taco Bonerstink.
Taco Bonerstink stands with Rand. Will you? #RandPaul pic.twitter.com/Z861lFblbd
— Luke Savage (@LukewSavage) April 7, 2015
The GOP has criticized President Obama for his use of technology and the internet throughout both his terms, but Obama’s support from younger voters is too big to ignore. Paul and the Republican party are now trying to pull their campaigns into the 21st century, and the results are hilariously awful.