Rand Paul Betrays Liberty Movement?

The news of Rand's 'endorsement' of Mitt Romney has absolutely ignited the Patriot movement today -

HANNITY: All right. First of all, before you say what I think you are going to say, did you check in with your congressman father, presidential candidate, I guess officially, finally dropped out of the race?
PAUL: Well, you know, my first choice had always been my father. I campaigned for him when I was 11 years old. He';s still my first pick. But you know, now that the nominating process is over, tonight, I'm happy to announce, that I'm going to be supporting Governor Romney.

The Real Effect
Based off the context of the interview, which was admittedly brief, I come up with the following points:

1. Rand is no fool. If you read the interview, he makes a point of bringing his and his father's issues to Mitt's table. Note the focus on the Fed and other issues. It seems as though Rand is trying to use the momentum of his father's campaign and the most likely inevitable nomination of Mitt at the RNC to paint Romney into a corner.
2. As in all other cases, do not look at his rhetoric, look at his actions.
1. He shut down the Syrian war earlier.
2. He's tussled with the TSA.
3. He's an adherent to many of his father's positions.

As such, one of two things is going to happen here. Rand Paul is getting into the shark tank with some of the nastiest, meanest creatures on the planet, he's either going to join them to save his skin or the sharks or going to try to eat them. It's up to him to try to reign the sharks in.

Either way, he has earned our attention and our respect, we owe him a bit of patience but he needs to be on an incredibly short leash for his own benefit.

What do I think is going to happen? I think Rand means well, but I know the Patriot movement sees this as selling out. Look for the Paul camp to splinter (This might be what the globalists want) as things start to get incredibly real. There's a chance that Rand might be positioning well to have some huge impact on the national scene if his father loses in Florida, but what good is it if your entire base (rightly?) abandons you? Either way this constitutes the first major throw down in the CFL group and will have some huge ramifications down the line.

Rand, you might lose all support over this, it better darn well be worth it.