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"Keyes is brilliant. Alas, he has no place in today's GOP."

I'd vote for Keyes over Obama. In fact, I did vote for Keyes in '92, when he ran against Barbara Mikulski for Senate in Maryland. In fact, I even contributed money to Keyes in 1992. Having said that, let me ask:

Have you ever met the man? Have you ever worked with him?

A) Keyes is NOT brilliant, and B) If Keyes has no place in today's GOP, it is NOT due to his politics. It's due to the way he treats his supporters. It's due to the fact he owes back taxes and campaign debts. It's due to the fact he is smug, inexplicably arrogant, egotistical without reason, and more than a little hypocritical. Believe it.

There are reasons those who've worked closest with Alan Keyes want the least to do with him - and, again, those reasons have nothing to do with his politics. Nothing.

I've worked closely with Dr. Keyes, and I support him 100%.

Disgruntled ex-campaign workers are hardly a source of clear thinking generally.

And he is without a doubt a brilliant man. For you to claim otherwise just makes you look foolish, and in-credible.

A) Keyes is NOT brilliant, and B) If Keyes has no place in today's GOP, it is NOT due to his politics. It's due to the way he treats his supporters. It's due to the fact he owes back taxes and campaign debts. It's due to the fact he is smug, inexplicably arrogant, egotistical without reason, and more than a little hypocritical. Believe it.

Precisely. Quite a lot of baggage, if the Illinois press was able to get Ryan's sealed divorce records, I wonder what they will find on Keyes.

There are reasons those who've worked closest with Alan Keyes want the least to do with him - and, again, those reasons have nothing to do with his politics. Nothing.

I've worked closely with Keyes since 1995 ... also with Ward Connerly, FWIW ... and I know, in my case, that what you write is simply false.

You are nearly alone in thinking him "not brilliant." Even his enemies usually admit him to be both learned and deeply intelligent.

Richard Ferrier, President, Declaration Foundation

www.declaration.net

Hmmmmm.... You give no specifics, but I'm inclined to believe that he may be a jerk.

However, I've SEEN him dozens of times (his lame MSNBC disaster doesn't even count), and you can't deny that he's a dazzlingly brilliant conservative.

Can you?

There are people who are posting on this very board who work closely with him and tell a different story. I respect your opinion, but I also respect theirs. those of us without personal contact with Keyes have little basis to take your word over their or vice-versa. It seems to be an impasse.
That said, supporters of any candidate in any race do him and themselves a disservice to put him on a pedestal. We set ourselves up for disappointment if he turns out not to be the knight-in-shining-armor we suppose, and we feed his ego in a profession already prone to inflating one's opinion of one's self. I believe in letting the men I support be free to be human.

Is he arrogant? Possibly. How does that make him different from thousands of other successful prominent men and women? it virtually comes with the territory.

I do not excuse such behavior, I merely recognize from whence it comes and further recognize that few are the people at that level of prominence who aren't similarly afflicted. Should he ever be posed in a race against a humble man, it will be an issue for me - but not until then.

In any case, it is his IDEAS that I support. In that he is the most articulate and gifted spokesman for those ideas, he will continue to have my support. If he doesn't have the personality of Gandhi, so be it.

"There are reasons those who've worked closest with Alan Keyes want the least to do with him - and, again, those reasons have nothing to do with his politics. Nothing."

You don't know what you're talking about.

I've worked for Dr. Keyes since 1999 and know him personally. He's an amazing person. You can't ask for a finer person to be associated with.