The following should be ample reason by itself to vote for Keyes if you live in IL..... jmo.
Posted on 10/08/2004 7:49:02 AM PDT by EternalVigilance
This election is not a foregone conclusion as long as good people are hard at work in Illinois and elsewhere, drumming up support wherever they go. Whether or not he wants to, Obama cannot generate votes out of whole cloth (well...possibly in Illinois, but hopefully with the army Keyes assmbles there, cheating will be unlikely). Last I heard, Keyes has somewhere between 5,000 and 7,000 volunteers getting the word out in Illinois. That's a phenominal number! With three debates on the horizon, Obama may yet be exposed for the farce he is. If that happens, you can be glad that Keyes ran a principled campaign that will not require him to contradict himself in office.
By the way, unlike 99.9 % of the people here, I have actually voted for the guy twice for public office. So I think I can afford to talk about the quality of his "electability"..
If he can get as much of the vote percentage that he got in Maryland (29 %), I'll give you five bucks.
No, the fact you've voted for him doesn't give you carte blanche to empower Obama.
If several million more Illinoisans had your great attitude and outlook, this state would be a very different place politically.
I would be satisfied if you just took the time you use to smash Keyes' "electability" or other qualities on this forum to instead praise his good qualities, or even the qualities of another candidate who you find more "electable." I'd say I would give you five bucks, but if I had that to spare, I'd send it to the Keyes campaign.
You may also choose to smash Obama's record every chance you get. Time better spent, IMO, than showing distress or disappointment in his opponent.
That's the problem with him. He's too bombastic and has said some pretty stupid things here. I'm totally frustrated with the guy, although I agree with a lot of what he says. He's just said some really off the wall things that make me uncomfortable. So, I haven't decided yet whether to just not vote for Senate or to vote for him. Good Republicans in this state are very frustrated with Keyes. He's come across as a nutball.
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Conservatives always come across that way after the information has gone through the media filter.
I'm surprised how many of our people don't know how to just ignore it and fight on.
thanx!
Great posts.
There is also a Rally planned at the Old Capitol before the debate. Dr. Keyes will address the crowd briefly before he enters.
Then the Keyes campaign will be providing a place nearby to listen to the debate, to be joined by Alan afterwards.
Knock off the personal attacks on Keyes. This is the last warning.
I'm told that C-SPAN will be taping, for later rebroadcast.
So in fact this will end up being a televised debate in the end.
Thanks for the attention.
I don't want to suggest to you that I think that you don't have the right to feel frustrated or uncomfortable, and I would never encourage you to vote for anything or anyone that your conscience will not countenance. I don't agree with anyone 100% of the time, and that includes Keyes.
It appears to me that you're trying to figure out how to best utilize your vote. I wish everybody would really contemplate political responsibility as you seem to be doing rather than blindly following a political brand out of habit or for completely self-serving reasons.
You mentioned some generalities about some of the things he's said here (I presume this has to do with articles you've read here), and on this forum you will find plenty of arguments and frustrations to go around. I would suggest, though, that perhaps some of the way he's been construed have not been entirely accurate. If you relied on news reports from CBS to decide your presidential selection, would you really vote for Bush? I could be wrong, but my guess is that you wouldn't. Similarly, IMO, you shouldn't rely on the news media to judge Keyes. If you read the transcripts (such as this one), you'll see that he's not the "nutball" that the media makes him out to be. Without exception, every time I've read a quote attributed to Keyes that made me stand back and wonder what he was thinking, an examination of the transcript reveals a distortion of his position due to incomplete information.
What sort of things do you look for in a candidate, typically? Is this the sort of issue where you can put the pros and cons in different columns and add them up to determine whether or not it would be more beneficial to vote for him or to not vote for him?
While I may wish sometimes that Keyes be able to manipulate the media to write great, platitude-laden, vague articles on him, further reflection makes me realize that this is what all politicians do, and I'm not at all satisfied with current politicians.
That's the thing I like the most about Bush, for instance. When he's not talking in platitudes, he pretty much does what he says he's going to do--whether or not I agree with him. He lays it all out on the table and gives voters a chance to decide whether or not they agree with him through their votes. So he smirks (which the media loves to count against him in "style" points). In Texas, we call that "smiling." ;)
The point is, I don't vote based on style. I vote based on substance--not only of policy, but also of character. That is the reason I support Keyes, and that is the reason I will vote for Bush. Of course, your conscience may lead you to a different conclusion than mine, but I hope that our similarities outweigh our differences.
That said, I see that you did not agree with my assessment of "time better spent." That's too bad.
Let's talk again after the first debate.
Uh, hello? I'm not talking about media filtration. I'm talking about actual things Keyes has said. Like that he's for slavery reparations. I'm not. His comment about Cheney's daughter was totally inappropriate. I don't like Alan Keyes. I wonder how stable he is. Therefore, I will make my decision in the voting booth. It will not cause Obama to win - he's going to win with 60-75% of the vote.
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