Taking a road trip to Iowa, U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., joined his father, U.S. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Tx., on the presidential campaign trail Wednesday to enliven supporters leading up to the August 13 straw poll.Congressman Paul is making his third attempt at the presidency, but this is the first time his Sen. Paul has joined his father on the 2012 election bid. The father and son congressional duo spoke to a crowd of about 50 people during a meet and greet in the city of Waterloo, where Kentucky's junior Senator told the audience that both parties need to compromise to bring government spending down."Democrats have to admit that entitlements and welfare need to be reformed," Sen. Paul said. "Social spending needs to go down and Republicans need to admit that military spending needs to go down. They say the tea party won’t compromise—we will compromise.”Oh, and the rest of the Paul family is coming too. Almost three dozen of them.From Politico:About 30 members of the Paul clan — sons, daughters, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and more — piled onto a charter bus that left Texas late Tuesday night. As the congressman and senator were rolling into a meet-and-greet in Cedar Rapids early Wednesday afternoon, they were already about halfway to Iowa on the highway near Joplin, Mo.
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After the bus arrives in Iowa tonight, the family will join Paul at a campaign stop in Ames on Thursday morning. When Paul goes off the trail to prepare for Thursday night’s debate, the family will travel around Ames as a massive campaign surrogate group. The whole family plans to attend the debate, as well as Friday’s Iowa State Fair in Des Moines.