What in the world are you talking about? Ryan dropped out because he had taken his wife to sex clubs, or so it was alleged. If this was not true, why did he drop out? If true, he was a sleazebag. Even Republicans acknowledged that whoever replaced Ryan had little chance of catching up. Keyes had only about 4 or 5 months to start and run a campaign. Given enough time, he might have had a chance. As such, it was a hopeless cause. They should have run someone with a higher profile, someone who had already been a senator, the way Lautenberg jumped into the 2002 New Jersey race at the last minute.
It’s not Keyes’ “fault” per se but he let himself be used as a pawn so deserves some of the blame. They decided to go with a conservative they knew would get reamed so they could say “see a conservative can’t win in Illinois”. See corrupt Republicans in this state would rather have the democrat win than a reform Republican like Fitzgerald was and I guess they were worried about Jack Ryan too otherwise they probably would have defended him from the super scandalous allegations of wanting to have sex with his own wife (allegations she made in sealed divorce proceeding with getting the kids being her goal).
It’s absolutely not true not that no one could have beat Obama after Ryan quit, someone FROM THE STATE who didn’t have a “hard right” reputation would have had a chance. Obama was the ultraliberal with a weird name, the Republican would only have needed to run 6 points ahead of Bush, very doable against a Chicago cipher with an African name, I think Fitz would have done it if the combine hadn’t driven him away (and I’ve criticized him for leaving though I understand why he did). This was all before his Majesty’s majestic coming out speech at the rat convention were he was elevated to demigod status. At this point his only claim to fame was winning the rat primary against the (then untested in a competitive election) State Comproller and some millionaire who beat his wife or something (Blair Hull, I forget what he was alleged to have done)
Make no mistake, the Republican bosses in this state chose to just give the seat to Obama. They weren’t just being stupid choosing Keyes they wanted him to lose and lose big. I was young and stupid so I was happy and even went to a Keyes rally. There was no chance Keyes could come close to winning.