You are facing YOUR worst nightmare.Keyes isn't up for this,no matter what you think.
Alan Keyes has yet to win one election.He's an outsider,whose own words are going to be played and replayed on every local channel as well as the national ones.And before you say that Hillary just swanned into N.Y.,yes,she did,but she also got Moynihan to "invite" her,publicly,to run for his seat.
You and others here are suffering under the wild delusion,that outside of Chicago,the rest of the state is filled with staunch Conservatives.This is NOT the case at all.Evanston,Hillsdale,Champaign-Urbana,Glen Coe,and many more areas are solidly Dem.
The South Side blacks,the elite blacks,and the "ethnics" are NOT going to go for Keyes.Those who have claimed that abortion will swing them to Alan,don't know what they're talking about.These people vote for Dems;they usually do.
Alan Keyes is an outsider and people in Ill. do NOT like outsiders coming in to run against someone from Ill.!
These are facts.Calling anyone who posts facts,which just don't happen to match up with your delusions,won't dissipate by calling them names.
It doesn't matter how Keyes got the nod. What's important is that he is a constitutionalist running for the U.S. Senate with the backing of the Illinois GOP instead of some RINO. Although Obama is certainly a rising star, he doesn't have it locked up yet. He went from being basically unopposed (since Ryan shot himself in the foot and Ditka wouldn't make the run), to facing a brilliant, passionate and articulate foe. This is a golden opportunity for the Land of Lincoln, and a great chance to add a real conservative to the Senate.
In 1980 Reagan took Massachusetts because of the crossover Democrat vote. Keyes will bring a lot of crossover votes.
No one has ever presented the conservative case as well as Alan, including Ronald Reagan.
I think Keyes will pick up a few votes on that basis alone.