Posted on 04/26/2008 5:34:17 PM PDT by deport
Constitution Party stunner: Chuck Baldwin KOs firebrand Alan Keyes
Convening its national convention in Kansas City today, the Constitution Party picked radio talk-show host Chuck Baldwin over former Ambassador Alan Keyes as its 2008 presidential candidate.
The pick was seen as something of an upset, given Keyes' higher national profile. Known for his fiery stem-winders, Keyes is a two-time GOP presidential candidate who abandoned the Republican Party this month to join the Constitution Party, which believes in limited government and is committed to ending abortion and bringing American troops home from Iraq.
But Baldwin's roots in the Constitution Party run deeper. He was the party's 2004 vice-presidential candidate, and party members said his stands were more in line with party thinking.
"Chuck is the real deal," said Jim Clymer, the party's national chairman.
Still, the two waged a fierce battle described as the most contentious in the party's 16-year history. Baldwin wound up winning easily on a 384-126 vote. The Missouri and Kansas delegations basically split their votes between the two.
"They just rejected the most qualified man to be president," said Tom Hoefling of Lohrville, Iowa, Keyes' national political director. "Chuck Baldwin will have no impact on this election whatsoever."
The party's immediate tasks, Clymer said, are raising money and gaining ballot access in each state. The party now has qualified to be on the ballots of 21 states. He expects the eventual total to top 40 and include Kansas and Missouri.
"We're always short on money," Clymer said.
In his acceptance speech, Baldwin said his presidency would result in the ending of illegal immigration, abortion, the streamlining of the federal government, the tapping of oil reserves in Alaska and withdrawal from Iraq.
"We will stop the international meddling...this international empire-building," Baldwin said.
When he takes office, Baldwin said, "The new world order comes crashing down!"
He pledged not only to pull out of the United Nations, but to push the international organization out of New York.
"The U.N. is going to have to find themselves another (home) because their rent is up in New York City," he said.
He said he would phase out the Internal Revenue Service and end the paying of personal income taxes. He said the country should return to the gold standard.
Home schoolers, he said, would have the best friend they ever had in the White House.
What Chuck Baldwin promises to do would be fine and dandy....if the President ruled by decree. Did the good constructionist Reverend forget there is a legislative branch?
I can see the Constitution Party has kept its time-honored tradition of nominating nobodies. “Chuck who?” is the word out there.
Dr. Keyes is as intelligent as he is eloquent. He should gracefully make a clean break from the Constitution Party, which, in the end, does not speak for Reagan conservatives such as himself.
You have to wonder if race was a factor in Dr. Keye’s not getting the nomination.
That break is already complete.
Issues aside, the man, "Chuck Who?" (in the real world with a name identification of maybe 1%) is not qualified to be President of the United States.
This means more and more likely that the President portion of my ballot this year goes blank.
It seems to me the Constitution Party has been taken over by a bunch of cranks on the fringe; you know, like those who find conspiracies everywhere.
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