Speaking of Ron Paul, his son Rand is no longer the frontrunner for the Senate seat from Kentucky.

According to Public Policy Polling, he's now tied at 43% with his Democratic opponent Jim Conway.

Here's the most devastating part:

The more Kentucky voters get to know Rand Paul, the less they like him. When PPP first polled the race in December Paul's favorability was a +3 spread at 26/23. By May it was a -7 spread at 28/35. Now it's a -8 spread at 34/42. The national media attention Paul has received has hurt his cause with voters in the state- 38% say it has made them less likely to support Paul while 29% say it has made them more inclined to vote for him and 33% say it hasn't had an impact on their attitude toward Paul one way or the other.

Why isn't Rand surging? Perhaps he stumbled a bit with his impolitic answer regarding the Civil Rights Amendment (he decline to say whether the government should enforce integration at the level of private institutions), and his comments about how the unemployed should just get lower-paying jobs may not have gone over well, either.

This will appall people, but if you're an investor, and your interest is the short-to-medium term, you should probably welcome the bloom coming off the tea party rose. Yes, we probably need to do something severe about the deficit, but if you own stocks, you want stimulus and spending. You don't want to see demand retrenchment.