PRESS ADVISORY
January 28, 2000
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Connie Hair
Phone: 818-512-3432
Coburn Endorses Keyes for President
MANCHESTER, N.H. - U.S. Rep. Tom A. Coburn (R-OK) today endorsed Ambassador Alan Keyes for the Republican nomination for President, calling him “the one candidate for President who actually understands what is wrong with our country and who has the vision, the courage, and the clarity of principle to put it right.”
Coburn is a practicing physician who has earned a reputation as a leading budget hawk during his three terms in Congress.
Coburn declared that “Keyes has shown repeatedly that he has a better grasp on the issues...than any other candidate.” But Coburn decided to announce his support for Keyes not on the basis of any specific issue, but because of Keyes’s “recognition that national leadership in our day is not about policies and not about political solutions to political problems. It is a matter of moral leadership to address a moral crisis.”
Comparing Keyes to Abraham Lincoln, the Oklahoma Congressman declared that “Alan Keyes has the capacity to ignite among us another rebirth of freedom.”
“Some people tell me Alan Keyes has little chance to be elected President,” acknowledged Coburn. “But my heart and my conscience tell me that Alan Keyes is the man who should be President. And to my way of thinking, doing right means doing what your heart and your conscience tell you.”
Coburn is the first Member of Congress to endorse Keyes for President. Dr. Coburn’s prepared statement is reprinted below:
“It is clear to me that Alan Keyes is the one candidate for president who actually understands what is wrong with our country and who has the vision, the courage, and the clarity of principle to put it right.
Ambassador Keyes has shown repeatedly that he has a better grasp on the issues – the foreign policy, the fiscal policy, the social policy and all the rest of it – than any other candidate. But choosing a president is not a scholarship contest. The mere fact that he knows more about the issues than any other candidate is not what qualifies Mr. Keyes to be our President.
The real difference Alan Keyes brings to this campaign is his recognition that national leadership in our day is not about policies and not about political solutions to political problems. It is a matter of moral leadership to address a moral crisis.
Alan Keyes is the one man who has come forward to pose the proper question: what are we doing with the liberty that has been bequeathed to us by God through the sacrifices of our forebears, and what should we be doing with it?
Like Abraham Lincoln, Alan Keyes has the capacity to ignite among us another rebirth of freedom. He will bring us together as a nation by reminding us of what it is that makes us one nation. Alan Keyes will be a great President because the Presidency is not merely a matter of issues and policies but of moral leadership.
Some people tell me Alan Keyes has little chance to be elected. My heart and my conscience tell me Alan Keyes is the man who should be President. And to my way of thinking, doing right means doing what your heart and your conscience tell you, not what someone else tells you.
That is why I am proud to announce my endorsement of Alan Keyes for President of the United States.”
Paid for and authorized by Keyes 2000.
So Coburn Endorsed Keyes? What of it? Keyes is a lot better man than what we have now running the nation, and in many respects I regard him as a lot more reliable than is Newt Gingrich. At least I don’t have a dread that he will go against me when it comes to decision time.