What was Rand Paul thinking?

So what was a libertarian like Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul thinking when he endorsed Mitt Romney?

It’s a question that many of his supporters — and his father’s supporters — have been asking in the aftermath of his Fox News interview announcing his backing of the former Massachusetts governor.

While Rand Paul cited their shared experiences as sons of presidential candidates and their alignment on issues such as auditing the Fed and Internet freedom, a top Paul staffer shed more light Wednesday on the political calculus.

(Also on POLITICO: Rand Paul's signal to the GOP)

“From a practical matter you have to endorse the candidate before the convention. Romney is going to get the nomination no doubt about that at all, and so it behooves everyone to have Sen. Paul endorse him before the convention,” James Milliman, Paul’s state director, told a Louisville Young Republicans meeting in the above video from Kentucky’s Insight Channel 2. “This could enable Sen. Paul to have a prime speaking role at the convention and his dad to have a prime speaking role at the convention, so I think all those things factored in.”

The number of “prime speaking roles” the endorsement “could enable” is what’s most interesting: Not just one for Ron Paul, but possibly one for his son as well.

If that’s the case, that’s some great national exposure for a senator in his second year in office – especially for one who is Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s junior.

It’s not a bad head start for 2016 either.