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The Fight in Illinois: Alan Keyes vs. Barack Obama
HUMAN EVENTS ^ | August 24, 2004 | Phyllis Schlafly

Posted on 08/24/2004 4:15:41 PM PDT by Willie Green

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use.

Alan Keyes has upset the liberal game plan to crown law school lecturer Barack Obama as the new leader of blacks in America. Ted Kennedy and Hillary Clinton like Obama because he imitates their votes, but Americans like Keyes because he is straightforward about issues we care about.

The Keyes-Obama race for the U.S. Senate from Illinois reminds locals of a similar contest in 1950. Then a conservative Republican traveled up and down the Land of Lincoln and toppled one of the most powerful liberals of that time, Senate Majority Leader Scott Lucas.

The victor in that race, Everett McKinley Dirksen, played to the grassroots rather than to the media. His stunning upset showed that the voters were ready to break with New Deal liberalism and join the Republican landslide in 1952.

Everett Dirksen, the greatest orator of his time, won because he articulated public opposition to the follies of the Truman Administration. Dirksen was equally persuasive whether he was negotiating with a small group over an arcane section of legislation or declaiming broad themes without a microphone to a thousand voters on the hillsides of southern Illinois.

Illinois voters have the opportunity this year to hear Alan Keyes, perhaps the greatest orator of our time and a man with a fund of knowledge about issues that matches his eloquence. His biggest obstacle is not that he is not an Illinoisan, not that he is black, but that the media have already anointed Obama as the winner after viciously destroying his other opponents.

Obama had demanded six debates with his Republican opponent when he was Jack Ryan, a businessman unaccustomed to political argument. Reminding us of history's famous Lincoln-Douglas debates, Obama confidently said the people of Illinois are owed these debates because they deserve more than packaged television ads and rehearsed sound bites. Now that Keyes has replaced Ryan as the Republican nominee, Obama wants only two or three debates. Did the history of the Lincoln-Douglas debates change between Ryan's resignation and Keyes's nomination?

The media were touting Obama's Harvard degree, but Keyes's Harvard Ph.D. is more accomplished than Obama's law degree. Besides, we already have too many liberal lawyers such as Kerry and Edwards running the Democratic Party for the benefit of the trial lawyers.

Alan Keyes is a walking encyclopedia on a wide variety of subjects including the Constitution, the proper role of government, and foreign policy. He was an ambassador to the United Nations during the Reagan Administration, and we can count on him to address the important issues that were conspicuously missing from Obama's speech to the Democratic National Convention.

Obama is one of the most leftwing Senate candidates Illinois has ever seen, a me-too vote for Kennedy and Clinton to raise taxes and toady to the teachers unions. Obama supports abortion rights, socialized medicine, and affirmative action, and he opposes private gun ownership.

Obama voted against the "live-birth abortion" bill which was designed to protect live babies born of botched abortions. Obama voted "present" on an Illinois bill to ban partial-birth abortion, and "present" on a bill to notify parents when their minor children seek an abortion.

Obama wrote a letter to the Windy City Times, Chicago's premier gay news source, to promise his support for gay marriage. He said, "I opposed DOMA [the Defense of Marriage Act] in 1996. It should be repealed and I will vote for its repeal on the Senate floor. I will also oppose any proposal to amend the U.S. Constitution to ban gays and lesbians from marrying."

Alan Keyes, on the other hand, is the country's most eloquent defender of the right to life. He is supremely ready to tackle the cultural issues that will be the key to victory in the 2004 elections -- abortion, traditional marriage, parental control over education, and supremacist judges inventing "rights" such as abortion, sodomy, same-sex marriage licenses, and sending pornography into your kids' computers.

Bill Cosby recently made headlines by decrying the decline in education for African-Americans. Keyes is ready to take on the teachers unions and hold them accountable for failing to teach youngsters how to read.

The Bush-haters rally behind Obama, not because his father was African, but because he can be counted on to protect the teachers unions, abortion, and gay unions. The Democrats had hoped to elect Obama by simply playing the race card, but the nomination of Alan Keyes has checkmated that strategy.

Obama's campaign contributors tell you what you need to know about his liberalism. His donors include George Soros, Hillary Clinton's Leadership PAC, People for the American Way, Planned Parenthood, the National Abortion Rights League, the National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and Progressive Choices.

Alan Keyes has exposed the lie that the Democrats are the party for advancing minorities. Those who want a leader, regardless of race, who will speak up for traditional values such as marriage, life, and education choice, will vote for Alan Keyes.


TOPICS: Constitution/Conservatism; Editorial; Philosophy; Politics/Elections; US: Illinois
KEYWORDS: keyes; phyllisschlafly
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To: Don Joe
CFR violations...

Sheesh...Did we offend the "Council on Foriegn Relations" again???

301 posted on 08/25/2004 12:54:08 PM PDT by Onelifetogive (* Sarcasm tag ALWAYS required. For some FReepers, sarcasm can NEVER be obvious enough.)
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To: Don Joe
I just looked up Keyes itinerary:

He will run for something next in your state.

He will kill in the debates whoever he loses to in that election also!
302 posted on 08/25/2004 12:55:12 PM PDT by Bluntpoint
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To: Don Joe
He criticized Keys...

But, Keys are important. I couldn't start my car without them.

303 posted on 08/25/2004 12:55:45 PM PDT by Onelifetogive (* Sarcasm tag ALWAYS required. For some FReepers, sarcasm can NEVER be obvious enough.)
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To: Howlin
I have had my disagreements with you in the past, but I must admit that you are spot-on in this topic and deserving of my admiration for the gutsy stand you're taking, as well as the eloquence you are demonstrating as you devastate the "arguments" of the "shut up and do as you're told" contingent.

It's no big deal to "win an argument" when the side doing the winning has the power to call in the heavy artillery and have the other side silenced by force, as we have seen time and again in this "debate".

It's something entirely different to stand up to that bullying, and win by virtue of the power of your words

My hat's off to you, lady.

304 posted on 08/25/2004 12:56:00 PM PDT by Don Joe (We've traded the Rule of Law for the Law of Rule.)
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To: Bluntpoint
He will kill in the debates whoever he loses to in that election also!

He actually WON in my state! The 2000 Alabama GOP Straw poll.

305 posted on 08/25/2004 12:56:55 PM PDT by Onelifetogive (* Sarcasm tag ALWAYS required. For some FReepers, sarcasm can NEVER be obvious enough.)
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To: Onelifetogive

Straw President Keyes!


306 posted on 08/25/2004 12:58:07 PM PDT by Bluntpoint
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To: Bluntpoint
Straw President Keyes!

Admittedly, it ranks up there with Junior Class Treasurer, but it was a WIN! For some folks, those are hard to come by.....

307 posted on 08/25/2004 1:00:41 PM PDT by Onelifetogive (* Sarcasm tag ALWAYS required. For some FReepers, sarcasm can NEVER be obvious enough.)
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To: Onelifetogive

Crack jokes if you like, but if you don't think that law has TEETH that are intended for squelching dissent, you are sadly mistaken.


308 posted on 08/25/2004 1:01:08 PM PDT by Don Joe (We've traded the Rule of Law for the Law of Rule.)
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To: Willie Green

Our host is not arguing with me Willie, you are.

Do we have a bet or not?


309 posted on 08/25/2004 1:21:28 PM PDT by Luis Gonzalez (Sin Patria, pero sin amo)
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To: churchillbuff
"What, precisely, are those issues?"

I've stated my issues all over this forum, I'm not interested in repeating them yet again.

"Also, do you believe that posters on FR should be allowed to campaign against George Bush."

This is THE BIG LIE. Being critical of Keyes does not equate to campaigning against Keyes and for Obama, any more than being critical of Bush over border security, government spending, or stem cell research translates into campaigning against Bush and for Kerry.

And there are plenty of threads in FR critical of Bush on many issues.

So, stop it with the lies, this site is a political discussion site, not a cheerleading site for the anointed one.

310 posted on 08/25/2004 1:30:24 PM PDT by Luis Gonzalez (Sin Patria, pero sin amo)
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To: Luis Gonzalez
No Luis, we don't have a bet.
If Keyes wins, I don't want you to disappear.
It would be much better to keep you around where we can keep an eye on you.
311 posted on 08/25/2004 1:31:43 PM PDT by Willie Green (Go Alan Go!!!)
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To: Willie Green

In other words, you don't think he'll win either.

I thought as much.


312 posted on 08/25/2004 1:36:10 PM PDT by Luis Gonzalez (Sin Patria, pero sin amo)
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To: Luis Gonzalez

FMCDH, Luis.


313 posted on 08/25/2004 1:51:18 PM PDT by Willie Green (Go Alan Go!!!)
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To: Willie Green

That's always been your problem Willie, you lack the courage to put your money where your mouth is.


314 posted on 08/25/2004 2:07:31 PM PDT by Luis Gonzalez (Sin Patria, pero sin amo)
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To: Onelifetogive

campaign finance reform law. CFR.


315 posted on 08/25/2004 2:19:35 PM PDT by Robert_Paulson2 (the madridification of our election is now officially underway.)
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To: Luis Gonzalez
you lack the courage to put your money where your mouth is.

That's an unsanitary practice, Luis.
But at least you're being consistant in that respect.

316 posted on 08/25/2004 2:23:26 PM PDT by Willie Green (Go Alan Go!!!)
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To: churchillbuff

I'm not pro-Obama, but I'm not pro-Keyes either. Keyes lost me with the Reparations BS he was spouting and carpetbagging leaves a bad taste in my mouth. This is especially true since he came out so strongly against carpetbagging when Clinton was running in NY. I'm more a Republican than an Independant, but if a man doesn't deserve my vote, he doesn't get it regardless of whether he's a Republican or not.


317 posted on 08/25/2004 2:42:06 PM PDT by Zeroisanumber
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To: Zeroisanumber
I'm not pro-Obama, but I'm not pro-Keyes either.

God save us from the lukewarm.

318 posted on 08/25/2004 2:53:09 PM PDT by EternalVigilance (A REPUBLIC, IF YOU CAN KEEP IT...)
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To: EternalVigilance

More personal attacks EV?

This must be coasting you a small fortune.


319 posted on 08/25/2004 2:55:22 PM PDT by Luis Gonzalez (Sin Patria, pero sin amo)
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To: Luis Gonzalez

You still obsessing, Luis?


320 posted on 08/25/2004 3:00:32 PM PDT by EternalVigilance (A REPUBLIC, IF YOU CAN KEEP IT...)
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