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Keyes is reportedly opening to the idea of taking on Barack Obama for the Illinois seat in the US Senate. If he does, I predict he'll get pasted by Obama. Though Keyes is undeniably brilliant, he just seems to be unelectable. It wouldn't just be an contest between liberal and conservative; Obama has charisma and Keyes has the cure for adult ADHD. Nevermind that Keyes doesn't even live in the state. He's a current resident of Maryland. Yet it worked for Hillary in New York. Maybe it could work for Keyes, too.
Yeah, Keyes is brilliant and could be a great public intellectual. But he is Exhibit 1 in the "turns voters off" category (remember "Alan Keyes Is Making Sense"? Of course you don't.)
I'd bet that Obama will get at least 65 percent against him -- and certainly Obama will get the most-lopsided Senate victory of any non-incumbent.
It's not so much that Keyes is boring (I don't think him boring at all, but that may just be me; I've seen EYES WIDE SHUT 12 times and read BEING AND TIME once). It's more that he's obsessed and thinks being right is the be-all and end-all for a candidate -- I once read that **while running as a candidate** for the Maryland Senate seat, he chased after someone in the audience to continue explaining to her why her pro-choice stance was wrong. (Which of course, it is; point being that he never finds the right circumstance for shaking the dust off his feet).
As an Illinoisian, this entire Senate race has been nothing but a fiasco. The IL GO has been in extreme shambles since prior to the last elections.
The IL GOP KNOWS, and so do many of us conservative thinkers, that we NEED a wild card to win the Seante seat.
Mike Ditka would have been the wildcard- Dems, repubs and indi's would have voted for him to victory by a landslide.
Keyes is a good choice for us in Illinois. At least this late in the game.
One, he will be head to head with the infamous Dick Durbin -pro abort Catholic-. Keyes has enough of the Chicago "Regean Democrats" to pull off a victory in the state and deliver IL to Bush.
For more up to date information see
www.illinoisleader.com
I will vote for Keyes and support him, at least when he comes to the Cathedral for Mass, he will be receiving the Eucharist FAITHFULLY!
this race will be definately one to keep an eye on!
Head to head with Durbin? Durbin's seat isn't up this year. It's the other one, the one being vacated by Peter Fitzgerald and Whatshisname Obama would be his opponent.
My liberal friends have pointed out that Keyes sounds like Marvin the Martian.
I think that's an impediment to voting for him for many finicky voters right there.
Ken,
I assume you mean that his voice, and not the content of his speeches, sounds like that of Marvin the Martian. Am I right?
I didnt mean running against Durbin.. Sorry if it came uot that way!
He yes indeed is running against Obama.
What I mean, and should have expanded was==
head to head..
Pro Abort Catholic vs Faithful Catholic..
If Keyes is in.. lookout Catholic Chicago Democrats-- The IL Bishops would have a tremendous allie and perhaps make the hard-core moves we have all been waiting for!
It's official ... at least the invite is:
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CHICAGO (AP) – Illinois Republican leaders asked two-time presidential hopeful Alan Keyes on Wednesday to be their U.S. Senate candidate, but like a string of previous possibilities, Keyes said he needed a few days to think about it before deciding.
It's been a laborious six-week search as Republicans have sought a candidate willing to tackle the daunting task of taking on Democratic rising star Barack Obama in the Senate race.
The first republican primary I voted in here in CT was the presidential one in "96 and I voted for Alan keyes with pleasure and pride.........but he'll be deomonized again by the julian bond bigot society...
Keyes takes race out of the equation, so you force individuals to look at the issues. I like that.
Being a member of the "Anybody but Obama" crowd, I fully support Keyes as a faithful Catholic and good politician, so I will vote for him without reservation.
Josh:
I don't think Keyes takes race off the table, simply because the Dems, the NAACP et al have never hesitated to smear conservative blacks, viddy Clarence Thomas and Condoleezza Rice, and they have a ready set of narratives -- Uncle Tom, house negro, "blanching," inauthentic, etc.
Keyes' fundamental problem as a candidate is that he is not likeable. Not that I wouldn't vote for Keyes myself -- but I think he's more valuable as a commentator and public intellectual than a politician.
Keyes comes across on television as a no-nonsense, cut-the-horseplay-and-get-the-job done kind of guy. I admire him very much for his common sense, traditional values, and the intestinal fortitude to speak up and speak out, as he did during Clinton's Lewinsky period. Am in Texas and therefore haven't the foggiest what the electorate in Maryland is like, or what it will be like for him in Illinois, but Alan Keyes is surely on my prayer list. Good luck, good hunting, and Godspeed, Ambassador Keyes!