Carpetbagger - An outsider, especially a politician, who presumptuously seeks a position or success in a new locality.--from Dictionary.com
Sorry - whitewashing Keyes as being different because he's not "like Hillary" isn't the same thing.
Dole was a carpetbagger, Kennedy was a carpetbagger, Clinton was a carpetbagger, Keyes is a carpetbagger. Period.
As I said, I respect him. I like him. But I'm not comfortable with this tactic, and I'm not so sure he can win in Illinois.
I'll happily eat crow should he win.
Kind of the same general message as the left's "anybody but Bush" argument, isn't it?
By your definition, then, the term does not apply. Keyes did not "seek" this responsibility...and certainly is not being presumptuous at all.
Thanks for the definition. Keyes isn't "presumptuously seeking" anything. It was initiated entirely from the Illinois GOP State Central Committee, who desperately have asked him to run. Keyes therefore isn't a carpetbagger.
But even if you believe he is, the unwritten "rules" of gentlemanly campaigning have changed. I'd liken it to the trend in the NBA of drafting kids out of high school. No team likes the idea of drafting 18-year-old kids, but any team given the opportunity to draft a Kobe Bryant would be foolish to not seriously consider it. It's not the way things ideally should be done, but that's they way things are today.
Let's hope the drafting of Keyes pays off.
Question: how does "presumptuously" fit in with being drafted?
I agree.