Jennifer Jacobs,

jejacobs@dmreg.com

After Rand Paul's three-day mad dash across Iowa last week, zigzagging around the presidential testing grounds for 800 miles, he appears the most likely to declare a White House bid among all the politicos putting out feelers in the first-in-the-nation voting state.

Paul is a Republican U.S. senator from Kentucky and the son of three-time presidential candidate and former Texas U.S. Rep. Ron Paul.

Here are some observations from his visit last week:

1. He showed he can draw a crowd here.

Some of Paul's stops piggybacked on events that had ties to other Iowa politicians, which helped boost the numbers.

Paul's audience at an event at the lakeside Barefoot Bar in Okoboji on Monday night was a couple hundred strong, but it was hard to tell how many people had just docked their boat for some umbrella drinks and dinner. And Republican U.S. Rep. Steve King, who is wildly popular in northwest Iowa, organized the fundraiser, so some people likely showed up simply out of loyalty to King.

But at the Davenport GOP victory headquarters Tuesday, people were there just to see Paul — and the crowd, estimated at 250, packed the building and poured out the front door. News about the event made the front page of the Quad City Times.

Tom Wassenaar, 36, a power company lineman from Spirit Lake, sipped a Bud Light after Paul's speech in Okoboji. "I think he stands out amongst a lot of the other people," he said.

"It was pretty inspirational," said Wassenaar's friend, Chad Thompson, a 35-year-old mortgage lending company vice president from Okoboji. "He's fun to listen to. I'd come back tomorrow if he were going to speak again."

2. Paul went out of his way to meet with every faction of the GOP in Iowa.

Business leaders got Paul's undivided attention at a roundtable at the headquarters of the Von Maur department store chain in Davenport on Tuesday afternoon. Meredith Corp. brass got a private audience in Des Moines on Wednesday morning.

Paul did a one-on-one at a Starbucks coffee shop with GOP heavyweight David Oman, who later told the Register: "Paul is an engaging guy who is saying some of the right things on entitlements, poverty, privacy, debt, limited government, and smart national security vs. nation building."

Evangelical pastors got a read on Paul over lunch Wednesday at the Holiday Inn by the airport.

Christian conservative Sam Clovis, the GOP state treasurer candidate, was invited to ride along between two Des Moines events. State Rep. Bobby Kaufmann, a property rights advocate and son of the Iowa GOP chairman, was on board for Tuesday's leg between Iowa City and Davenport.

A variety of non-Paul folks — meaning those who weren't among the elder Paul's supporters in 2012 — sized up the Kentucky senator at a gathering Wednesday afternoon organized by Lowell Scott, husband of Iowa's GOP national committeewoman.

Ron Paul-backing liberty movement conservatives were invited to a private reception at the Embassy Suites in Des Moines on Tuesday night. Among the 70 or so who showed up were at least a couple of registered libertarian party members. And Paul had dinner with his father's 2012 Iowa campaign chairman, Drew Ivers, on Centro's patio Tuesday night.

The whole time, Paul and his advisers took the temperature on how he was received.

3. He got a taste of the pressure he'd deal with should he run.

Paul's Iowa political advisers crafted a schedule that was so jammed with back-to-back events that Paul and aides either skipped meals or bolted down power bars and deli sandwiches in the car. Paul could be heard doing radio interviews as he rode between stops.

The number of news reporters he attracted — from the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, CNN and the major TV networks — resembled coverage of a presidential campaign 100 days out from the Iowa caucuses.

Paul continually had cameras on him, not only from journalists but from Democratic trackers hoping to catch him making a gaffe. The video that got the most buzz was of Paul leaving his table in the middle of dinner with King, seemingly to avoid a confrontation with an activist who immigrated illegally from Mexico at age 11. Observers viewing the viral video on the Internet noted he grabbed his beer as he left.

4. He fostered gratitude among multiple Republican candidates in Iowa.

Paul barnstormed the state to do appearances with the four GOP congressional candidates, then, standing next to Gov. Terry Branstad at a rally in Urbandale, endorsed the entire Iowa GOP ticket.

That's something his father never did, and Republican insiders took it as a signal that he intends to be a team player.

He hung out with an establishment GOP crowd, even as posters that said "Stop the liberal media Republican establishment lynch mob!" were available on tables at his events.

5. Although Hillary Clinton isn't playing yet, he went after her anyway.

Paul took a swing at the Democrats' presumptive nominee in almost every speech. He's the only GOP Iowa visitor to do so with such frequency.

Aides to Clinton, who hasn't yet said whether she'll run, didn't respond to the Register's request for response to Paul's criticism.

The political messaging, like last presidential election cycle when there was no question about whom the Democratic nominee would be, has been lopsided. Eleven Republicans exploring a bid have spent 50-some days in Iowa, generating hundreds of inches of newspaper copy and hours of TV video. There has been only a little bit of toe-dipping from Democrats — from Vice President Joe Biden, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley, Minnesota U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, former Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer and soon former Virginia U.S. Sen. James Webb.

6. He softened up the GOP in Iowa on ideas he thinks will win elections.

Paul lectured to almost exclusively white Iowa audiences about why they should care about black incarceration rates and about reducing the length of sentences for drug crimes.

He told them the GOP's overarching message is one minority voters can connect with, but Republicans also have to "reach them where they're at."

7. He's in the top tier in Iowa, but is he a front-runner?

Polls show former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who can tap back into the gigantic Christian conservative pastor network that secured his 2008 win in the Iowa caucuses, still has a leg up over Paul.

Paul's chief Iowa strategist, Steve Grubbs, thinks the way to win Iowa and New Hampshire is with what he calls a "conservatarian coalition" — a mix of conservatives and libertarians.