Normally it isn't news when a father supports a political campaign being waged by his son. Especially when the father and son agree on most political issues. Ron Paul has backed Rand Paul throughout his young political career.

But there's been a large subgenre of stories devoted to the idea that there is some kind of rift between the Pauls. The two often differ tactically and sometimes even on major issues of substance, like the proposed nuclear deal with Iran.

Ron Paul undercut such commentary with a strongly worded statement to his supporters wholeheartedly endorsing Rand Paul for president in 2016. "Rand is the ONLY one in the race who is standing up for your Liberty, across the board," wrote the elder Paul (emphasis in the original), a 12-term Texas congressman and two-time Republican presidential candidate in his own right. He was also the Libertarian Party nominee in 1988.

Ron declared his son, the junior senator from Kentucky, "our best hope to restore liberty, limited government and the Bill of Rights and finally end the big spending status quo in Washington, D.C."

"Even where Rand and I do have minor differences of opinion, I would take Rand's position over any of his opponents' in both parties every time," he continued. He then took aim at the press. "I know the media likes to play this little game where they pit us, or certain views, against each other," Ron said. "Don't fall for it. They're trying to manufacture storylines at liberty's expense. You've spent years seeing how the media treated me. They aren't my friends and they aren't yours."

None of this is surprising, but it is a slight tactical shift. When Rand Paul launched his presidential bid, his famous father sat in the audience rather than on stage. It was symbolic of the small role his father was going to play in the 2016 campaign, perhaps even smaller than the one he played in Rand's run for the Senate. The younger Paul has occasionally refused to answer questions about his father's post-congressional political activities.

There have been kerfuffles involving his father's institute. No less a radical libertarian than Walter Block, who managed to get booed at a Ron Paul event, has remarked, "If I were Ron, and my son were running for president, and we were in the same situation, I would shut up."

Paul the elder's missive shows he still has a big part to play in firing up the libertarian base, for whom this has been a dispiriting summer. Rand Paul's campaign has been flagging in recent weeks and some libertarians have been distrustful of his efforts to broaden his appeal to more conventional Republicans. A spirited performance in the first presidential debate didn't seem to stem the bleeding.

In my view, Rand's problems have more to do with the party's current mood rather than his attempts to smooth the rougher edges of his father's message. But it can't hurt to reassure the base and there is only so much reframing that is possible, especially on foreign policy. If Republicans must have a hawkish presidential nominee, that candidate won't be Rand Paul.

There's more than one way to win an election, but the only way to win a political argument is to engage it. Maybe the noninterventionist Ron Paul's timely intervention in his son's campaign will be the libertarian reboot the Los Angeles Times reported on a while back, helping the candidate stand out in a crowded field dominated by media coverage of Donald Trump.

If not, there are worse things to do than go out in a libertarian blaze of glory.