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.
Let's make a deal and be fair.
How about we back off if EV stops calling people who don't agree with Keyes Obama supporters and anti-Christian and traitors?
Well, compared to Barack Obama as the other choice, that is correct.
If Keyes breaks 40%, though, I'd be very surprised.
"I would opine that Keyes getting 35% of the vote would be a major victory in the battle to establish conservative in-roads to the minority communities."
A loss by 5% is usually considered a trouncing. How can anyone even begin to think a 35% vote is anything other than a landslide for the other side - get real. Keyes has already proven himself to be a political punching bag in his home state of Maryland - twice. Now he's going to be a carpetbagging loser in Illinois.
Talk is cheap, winning takes a bit more & Keyes has already proven he can't do it with rhetoric alone.
You know you can't stay away from this place too long. Glad you're back.
YOU ARE heading for one of the worst major-party electoral defeats in US history. You back baby killers and are against someone who defends innocent Life.
With 'friends' like you, who needs Democrats?
Washington should have just surrendered. It was just too damned hopeless against those Brits, you know...
Thanks.
With your attitude, yes, he'd lose big.
Let's support Keyes with all we've got. He's certainly the underdog, but let's not do the Establishment's work for it. Let's support him. If we don't, Obama will be senator for life.
I don't believe that's implied at all.
In which case, it's our duty to educate such people.
Amen, brother. Preach it!
In this particular race, yes.
Tells me two things:
One, Keyes has a real message, unlike so many "Republican" senate candidates and "Republican" senators.
Two, he wants it to be heard.
Anything wrong with that?
Why is this thread being dominated by anti-Keyes potshots?
Are y'all a bunch of liberal trolls?
Mrs. Schlafly and Dr. Keyes are good people.
That Keyes and the IL GOP are insane?
"With 'friends' like you, who needs Democrats?"
Friends don't send their friends to the slaughter just for kicks. The Illinois GOP would have done much better finding a 'homeboy' to run, but they punked-out and brought in a 'wringer' to take a dive for them. Is that being a friend?
Reality is always there, you just have to look.
I have a bit of time, and thought I'd drop in on this thread.
The first poll was taken August 13-16, just days after Keyes accepted the nod. I'd regard it as a starting point merely. It's a long way to go, but that's understandable, given Obama's lead in publicity and money.
Keyes is raising funds, has an excellent grassroots roster, and will probably benefit from the debates. He has some nice op-ed support from Star Parker, Phyllis Schlafly, and Tom Sowell. Sowell was especially effective, I think. No one knows the future, so I'd rather not speculate about the outcome. I'd at least wait for post-Labor Day polls and a debate or two. The crucial thing for folks with time or money to spare for the purpose of bringing Obama down a peg, or even beating him, is to pitch in now.
I have no interest in old grudges or current name-calling, and won't go there with anyone.
Best to you and all,
Richard F.
ANYONE WHO WANTS TO TALK ON RADIO NOW! CALL 1800 850 5043. BRING IT ON ITS ON TALKONE.COM ROGER FREDINBERG SHOW
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Why live in the past?
Keyes is the nominee and is the only hope of stopping Obama from becoming one of the most liberal U.S. Senators.
Face reality and leave the sour grapes behind.
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