ALAN KEYES, MR. RADIOACTIVE

Realclearpolitics.com ^ | 10-11-04

[SJackson]

Monday, October 11 2004
ALAN KEYES, MR. RADIOACTIVE: Just how bad is Alan Keyes doing in the Illinois Senate race? Let's just say it's hard to imagine him doing any worse. In the three latest polls taken during the past week, Keyes is drawing between 20-24% of the vote while Obama is pushing close to 70%.

To be fair, this was never really about Alan Keyes beating Barack Obama. The minute Jack Ryan dropped out of the race the GOP strategy shifted from winning to trying to field a credible challenger who could do two things: 1) keep Obama occupied and 2) run strong throughout the state to protect down-ballot Republicans from getting swamped. Keyes is failing miserably at both.

Today's Washington Post reports that Obama is so unconcerned with the threat being posed by Alan Keyes that he's now touring the country raising money and campaigning on behalf of John Kerry and other Democrats:

In the past week, Obama has mailed checks totaling $260,000 to Senate candidates in 13 states, including $53,000 to the do-or-die campaign of Minority Leader Thomas A. Daschle (S.D.). He donated $100,000 to the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and $150,000 to party organizations in key states, including Florida, Wisconsin and Colorado.

Carrying his verbal assault on President Bush beyond state lines, Obama will fly to Los Angeles this week for a Democratic fundraiser and address rallies in Colorado and Nevada for John F. Kerry. In a close presidential race where turnout could prove decisive, Obama said in an interview that he is talking with Kerry advisers about where he can be most effective in the campaign's final days.

"Turnout is huge," Obama said after a Saturday morning rally in the hard-fought presidential battleground of Wisconsin. "If there are selective things that we can do that can be helpful, then we want to do them. The Kerry people are still making determinations as to what states remain in play. Safe to say we will probably have a couple more travel days this month."

Back in Illinois, Keyes is operating in complete isolation. He's alienated almost all of the Republican party operatives throughout the state, starting with his wild-eyed rhetoric about Barack Obama's pro-abortion stance (the "slaveholders'" position, similar to a terrorist, etc) and his attack on Dick Cheney's gay daughter (Keyes called Mary Cheney a "selfish hedonist").

Many members of the Illinois delegation, including the Chairperson of the Party, Judy Baar Topinka, condemned Keyes remarks as "idiotic" and called on him to apologize. (To make matters worse, rumors have been swirling about the sexual preference of Keyes' own daughter for a couple of weeks now. Keyes has refused to comment)

This is how bad it has become: the other night at a GOP fund raising dinner Keyes caused a stir by showing up unannounced - but more importantly, I was told, uninvited. At the dinner a sitting member Congress, speaking semi-privately to the guests at one of the tables, jokingly referred to Keyes as a "lunatic." Everyone at the table laughed and shook their heads in agreement.

The damage Keyes is doing to the GOP in Illinois, however, is no laughing matter. He will be lucky to win 25% of the vote in November and he's become not only a drag on the ballot for Republicans but a weapon for Democrats.

I'll give you a quick example. Beth Coulson is the State Senator from my district. She's a moderate Republican in a moderate to left-leaning district and always a top target of the Democrats. Here's a copy of the latest flier from the Illinois Democratic Party:

Keyes may very well cost Beth Coulson her seat, and perhaps a few others as well. And on November 3rd Alan Keyes will be sitting comfortably on a plane back to Maryland and the Illinois GOP will be in a bigger hole than they were in before Keyes arrived to help dig.

MOTHER TERESA: Can't resist this blurb on Teresa Heinz Kerry from Friday's Tucson Citizen:

In the middle of her [Heinz Kerry's] speech, Bush supporters chimed in with a chant of "four more years." Kerry supporters countered with "four more weeks."

Heinz Kerry told the Bush supporters, "I respect your positions, but you must have manners."

Adele Conover, 54, a science writer and Kerry supporter who had backed Howard Dean, described Heinz Kerry's talk as "sensational."

"She treated them like they were children," she said of how Heinz Kerry talked to the Bush supporters.

Those Bush supporters are just so uncouth, aren't they Teresa?

[EternalVigilance]

I was in a school auditorium the other night with Dr. Keyes and about 400 inner city residents of the projects. The event was a neighborhood meeting called to expose the corruption going on with federal housing funds. A severely neglected apartment building had collapsed and narrowly missed killing or maiming a number of kids.

When Ambassador Keyes was announced, there was scattered booing from the crowd...they are overwhelmingly brainwashed Dems. But by the time he had finished, and they understood that the man really cared about their plight, there was no more of that...he received an ovation, and it took Alan over an hour to work his way out of the hall because so many folks wanted to talk to him.

So, who knows what might happen...

[EternalVigilance]

He hasn't 'damaged the Republican party'.

That's B.S. Obama/RINO spin.

It was a mass of wreckage when he got here, and we are working to clean it up and rebuild.

[EternalVigilance]

Keyes is wrong on the drug war, he is wrong on trade, and he is wrong on Dick Cheney's daughter.

No, he's dead-on right on the drug war and on trade, and the extent of his remarks concerning Mary Cheney was, "Yes, of course."

Your disagreements with him on drugs and trade are understandable if you are a hardcore Libertarian, but on the Cheney thing you're repeating the spin of the radical left who hate Keyes and what he stands for.

[saradippity]

I appreciate your post #56 and agree with it entirely. Something is very puzzling and doesn't speak well for the "time and time again" responders. It's like the shark fest the media enjoyed so much that occurred with Dan Quayle, that was so vicious,vitriolic and absurd.

The good and interesting part is that there is much to learn from who is saying what and how often. Some hidden agendas among the regulars,I would say.

[GovernmentShrinker]

The voters as a group seem to have that under control.

[unspun]

A-w-w-w.... Don't you feel better, now that you've gotten that out of your system?

Please gargle.

[ImpBill]

"But it's always the same small group who get on just about every Keyes thread and begin aggressively shouting down anyone who supports the man... and VICIOUSLY, too.

Correctomundo!

Dr. Alan Keyes - The last true conservative today's mainstream GOP wishes would just go away.

[outlawcam]

The voters as a group seem to have that under control.

Let me just say right now that I am very happy that what is "sane and stable" in the political spectrum is not defined by the majority as "human beings worthy of rights" was during the slavery debate and currently is in the abortion debate.

What the polls, if they can be trusted, indicate is a classic case of groupthink. The same can be said of many people who post on these threads to bash Keyes or other posters without any sense of decorum or reason. In fact, the groupthink here probably contributes to the groupthink there. Groupthink tends to grow more powerful feeding on itself.

Whatever informed or uninformed speculation I can offer about the ills of either the campaign or the detractors of the campaign, I can pretty near guarantee that if I talked about Bush and Bush's campaign like many people here talk about Keyes and Keyes' campaign on these threads, I would be banned for life.

And before you say it, I am NOT saying that anything Keyes says or does is above criticism. I have taken issue with several of his positions and offered my arguments against those positions in a rational manner. That, I think, is the proper way to handle disagreement with a Republican candidate--especially during an election season.

What most seem to be doing, however, in their "criticism" of Keyes, is offer the conclusion (he's a nutjob) without supporting arguments (A+B+C=). It comes across, then, as petty and even viscious.

If you have the time to come to FR and post, why not instead of bashing a good conservative, use that time praising someone you think is more worthy? Do not contribute to the groupthink, and if a candidate is going to lose, rest well knowing that you did nothing to contribute to that negative outcome.

[MrLiberty]

I don't need to gargle, but Keyes does need his mouth washed out with soap.

[unspun]

I don't need to gargle, but Keyes does need his mouth washed out with soap.

Tough on people who tell the truth?

[outlawcam]

Keyes does need his mouth washed out with soap.

For what?

[Dave S]

One final point--for a state that virtually never votes Republican for president, Illinois recently has shifted to a state that is "in play". If Keyes was as bad a liability as is stated, President Bush couldn't be that close to Kerry in this state.

Illinois is not in play and probably never was. There was one poll prior to the debates that suggested it might be but its been superceeded by several other nasty polls with 10-15 point margins in favor of Kerry. President Bush isnt campaigning in Illinois and wont be. Its a lost cause like California and Massachusetts. If he did come to Illinois, he wouldnt come within tweny miles of Keyes and he would probably have the Secret Service sit on Keyes to make sure he didnt get any closer.

[EternalVigilance]

'Groupthink', or the mob mentality, may be one legitimate way to look at this.

But I think a clearer picture is to be had if you just realize that the people of Illinois have been deceived about who these two men really are, and what they truly believe.

The good people of Illinois think Obama is a moderate, when nothing could be further from the truth. He is a radical leftwinger. Any objective look at his record makes this abundantly clear.

And Alan Keyes is not the radical right-winger he has been portrayed as...he is a seasoned stateman with a vast storehouse of knowledge of world and national affairs who would be a tremendous servant of this state in the Senate. He is respected by world leaders, by men and women of good will in the Congress, and by millions of great folks around the country.

This deception has been foisted by the media, and can only be remedied by us taking the truth directly to the voters, bypassing them completely.

That is what we are in the process of doing.

[Dave S]

Am I mistaken in assuming that he obtained that position by some process of nomination by his party?

He was appointed by a bunch of jerks.

[EternalVigilance]

Yep. The Bush political team won't get near longshot conservative candidates. That is an irrefutable fact.

[Dave S]

They should have kept Jack Ryan on the ballot and defended him against the Democratic smear campaign

I agree. At least Ryan had good tastes in women. Except for sanctimonious crowd that support Keyes now, most Republicans would have voted for Ryan despite the scandal.

[Dans Friend]

What truth came about Keyes' remarks about Cheney's daughter? All I heard was that he answered "yes" when asked if she was a "selfish hedonist". Is that not what happened? Thanks.

[Dave S]

Keyes had the guts to come to Illinois to help the people out.

Guts? LOL. The guy is a loon. He shows no fear because he is crazy. And he certainly did not come to Illinois to help anyone but KEYES. WIth KEYES, its always about Keyes.

[MrLiberty]

For defaming the vice president's daughter and being a general nuisance to the entire country. I can't mask my disgust of Keyes.

[MrLiberty]

Nope. But Keyes doesn't speak the truth.

By the way, I just love the way that he takes his campaign contributions and spends them on himself and his family. Keyes likes living on his supporters' largesse, just like another idiot, from the other end of the political spectrum, Al Sharpton.