Posted on 10/19/2007 3:48:29 PM PDT by CounterCounterCulture
October 19, 2007
Des Moines, IA — In what he called "a major abuse of the electoral process," former Reagan administration diplomat and long-time national conservative activist Alan Keyes has been blocked by the Florida GOP from participating in Sunday's Fox News presidential debate in Orlando.
The Florida party used a 1% or better showing in polls from three of six polling firms as their criterion for inclusion in the event, even though none of the selected polling firms included Keyes, the latest entry in the presidential race, in any of their statewide surveys to date.
However, had Keyes been included in these polls, objective observers — including staff of some of the polling firms in question — agreed, based on past electoral performance in Florida, and on current polling that is taking place in other states, that he would have received a percentage meeting or exceeding the threshold.
In 2000, in the last contested GOP presidential primary, 32,354 — or nearly five percent — of Florida Republicans, and about one million voters nationwide, cast their vote for Keyes. He was included in the Values Voter Debate in Fort Lauderdale last month, after only three days in the race. In the post-debate straw poll, Keyes surpassed all the other candidates in the GOP field except Mike Huckabee and Ron Paul.
The Des Moines Register's Iowa Poll, the most-recognized media measure in the first-in-the-nation caucus state, was released during the time period in question, showing Keyes at 2% after only two weeks in the race, equaling or surpassing several long-time GOP candidates, all of whom received invitations to the Orlando debate.
When asked about his exclusion from Sunday's debate on the Adam McMannus radio program Wednesday, Ambassador Keyes said, "Rather than thinking about what they should be doing to make sure that voters are informed and able to get a clear idea of the choices available to them, [some party officials] are doing their best, I think, to make sure that articulation of the kind of conservatism that corresponds to what is on the heart and mind of most grassroots Republicans is not there."
In later comments, Keyes asked, "Why such an effort to assure that the so-called top-tier candidates don't have to face me? Do they fear me because they're not good enough for the job that needs to be done, or because they don't represent the conscience and heart of the Republican Party or of the American people?"
To register your opinion concerning Dr. Keyes' exclusion from this debate, call the Florida Republican Party and Chairman Jim Greer at 850-222-7920, send a fax to 850-681-2063, or email the party using the form at www.rpof.org/contact.php
You can learn more about Alan Keyes at www.AlanKeyes.com
Yes, he was excluded and protested in 1996. Didn’t have that problem in 2000, but it looks like 1996 all over again (Dole II foreshadowing?)
That's where I've been for a long time.
And I didn't even know Keyes was a candidate. Keyes views are great but he probably will not be elected to much of anything because of his sanctimonious attitute which even bugs me.
His campaign just gave a press conference at the National Press Club on Wednesday and laid out the facts why Paul is a front-runner. He has more cash on hand than all of the other GOP candidates aside from Fred and Rudy combined. He technically has more money than Mitt if you don't count the money Mitt has loaned himself. He is only several hundred-thousand dollars away from Fred's cash on hand. Paul's campaign has zero debt.
He's the only GOP candidate who is seeing an increase in donations and supporters after each quarter. It's quite possible that he can reach $20 million for the 4Q with the holiday blitz and the anticipation of the primaries being held in January. And keep in mind that all of his money are not allocated for the general election like Rudy or Romney's funds. You can laugh but if he isn't a front-runner considering the donations he raised, then he's damn sure ain't no "fringe", "bottom-rung" or "low in the polls" candidate either.
All the FL GOP wants Giuliani anyway, even though most of the voters don’t.
CCC, I agree with you but you know that Keyes simply isn't viable as a presidential candidate. Now he's ran in 5 races (3 Senate and 2 Presidential) and lost all of them. Ironically, if he had not have ran for elective office, he'd be in a high-ranking position right now, such as Secretary of State or heading the RNC.
>> Paul is technically a front-runner and deserves just as much time as Fred and Rudy does.
Huh? Technically a frontrunner? Under what technical definition?
Here is a list of the most recent polling data on Ron Paul (for October 12th-14th).
- CNN has Paul 7th with 2% ... margin of error of 5%. (beating Tancredo and Brownback)
- Gallup has Paul 6th with 5% (beating Hunter, Tancredo and Brownback) ... margin of error of 5%.
- Reuters has Paul at 6th with 3% ... MOA 5%. (beating Hunter, Tancredo, Brownback).
- American Reasearch Group has Paul 7th with 2% (beating Tancredo and Brownback)
- FoxNews has Paul 7th with 2% ... moa 5% (beating Hunter and Tancredo ... LOSING to Brownback).
- NBC has Paul 6th with 2%.
- ABCNews has Paul 7th with 3%.
In each of these cases, Paul is 6th or 7th in a field of 9 or 10 candidates (depending on whether Keyes or Gingrich is included). Mike Huckabee is polling at double or triple the support of Ron Paul. Thompson and Giuliani, the true frontrunners, are polling at 5 to 10 TIMES the support of Ron Paul.
He’s not polling above the margin of error in ANY poll ... and he’s not close to any of the true frontrunners. Ron Paul’s not even polling in the top 2/3 of Republican candidates. He is simply not a frontrunner under any reasonable definition of the term.
H
You know "party of white people" disenfranchising the African American not only at the polling booth but in the debates.
(A) MSM polls purposefully excludes Paul's name from most polling questionnaires
(B) They are polling the same registered Republicans who voted in the 2004 elections...
(C) Many of Paul's supporters are newcomers in politics or they're independents, so they're not polled.
(D) MSM still uses landline phones for polling - Most of Paul's supporters have cellphones. Read what the Centers for Disease Control had to say about polls, they're frustrated because everyone has cell phones and they have a hard time gathering polling data for their statistics because of it.
(E) Who determines what makes a poll "scientific" anyway? So internet & text-message polls are not objective but the ones that call people during dinner with loaded questions are? Do you know that on Internet polls you can only vote once per ISP address, and that Paul has always been ahead in these polls?
>>> The debate should include Giuliani, Thompson, Romney, McCain
>> The debates without those four men were more engaging and substantive.
I am sure BOTH viewers would agree.
Why would anyone watch a debate between a half-dozen candidates with a cumulative 9% support among GOP voters?
It might be more engaging because it felt like the candidates were talking directly to you ... but that might be due to the fact that the candidates are talking ONLY to you.
Personally, I don’t care much for meaningless political posturing. The top 5 candidates are the only ones with meaningful answers anymore ... none of the others are having any effect whatsoever, and they’re generally wasting my time.
H
I remember this event when it happened. It was taped and shown quite a few times. IIRC, Keyes at one point shouted to a cop, “Get your hands off me!”
Problem of what, being criticized by an ex-Commie with remaining leftist tendencies? Pfft.
Horowitz is good for exposing the Communist agenda and mindset, but his opinions on how the Republican Party should run is a recipe for disaster.
You sound like those in the mainstream, not wanting to hear a debate of ideas but want the warm fuzzy feeling of having a real politician in office. You must work for the media.
You sound like those in the mainstream, not wanting to hear a debate of ideas but want the warm fuzzy feeling of having a real politician in office. You must work for the media.
Watch me yawn as the so-called top tier try to explain their flip-flops for the umteenth time. They are the ones wasting my time.
Huckabee should be out.
McCain should be out.
The vanity candidates have already had several “debates” to get their ideas out in front of the public. Fine. They served their purpose. Now I’m glad they’re finally starting to drop out. So far, Gilmore, Tommy Thompson, and Brownback have left. Huckabee, Hunter, Tancredo, and Paul need to follow suit. Keyes was never in it to begin with.
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