I  know, I know we are still fatigued from the nearly 2-year 2012  presidential election. Yes, I know we are still trying to recover as we  continue to be bounced from one political crisis to the next. Yes, I  realize that we have congressional seats and a couple of governors'  mansions up for grabs in about a year and a half.

But...on Wednesday, the 2016 presidential race took off in a fevered sprint to get out ahead of the pack.

As  I have stated for the last two years, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul would  be picking up his father's mantle and running to take the White House in  2016. Over and over I pointed out over the last two years that the  senior Paul, former Texas Congressman and presidential candidate Dr.  Ron, was grooming his son to take over the Liberty Movement and bid for  1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Today  the junior Paul confirmed that he has his eyes on snagging the  Republican nomination to succeed President Barack Obama come January,  2017.

That  quest for the White House began in earnest Wednesday as Paul took the  Senate floor with an old-fashioned filibuster that would have made Jimmy  Stewart proud. Yes, the stand Paul staked out in questioning the  Administration on the constitutional authority of the President to order  a drone attack against American citizens on American soil preemptively  was the right stand to make. Yes, the question rightly needed an answer.

But  don't let anyone think that Paul did not, while eating candy on the  Senate floor and continuing to speak for nearly 13 hours, wasn't looking  ahead to how his principled posture would play in 2016.

Paul  only spoke on the Senate floor for a grand total of 9 hours in the last  two years while his father ran for president. Without worrying about  his father's campaign, Rand Paul came out swinging and scoring points  with civil libertarians everywhere.

Most importantly Wednesday, Paul was singing to the choir of the Liberty Movement and to the discontents within the GOP.

Will Paul's filibuster be remembered in 2015 and 2016?

I  am sure that the Kentucky Senator will make the most of it airing clips  over and over of his capture of the Senate while delaying the  confirmation vote for John Brennan to be CIA Director. Paul will not let  voters forget.

So hold your hats and get ready.

It's going to be long and exciting ride to the Republican National Convention in 2016.

From the Cornfield, Paul may prove me wrong, but as I see it looking through the cornstalks, the 2016 presidential race is off.