Posted on 10/08/2004 11:54:01 AM PDT by Luis Gonzalez
October 7, 2004--As expected, Democrats will pick up a Senate seat in Illinois this November.
The latest Rasmussen Reports survey shows Democrat Barack Obama holding a 64% to 20% lead over Republican Alan Keyes. The survey was commissioned by the Daily Southtown.
Just 46% of Republicans in the state plan to vote for their own party's nominee. Eight percent (8%) of Republicans say they will not cast a vote in the Senate race.
Sixty-eight percent (68%) of Illinois voters have a favorable opinion of Barack Obama. Forty-two percent (42%) of voters describe the rising Democratic star as liberal while 34% describe him as mainstream.
For Keyes, 33% have a favorable opinion. Thirty-nine percent (39%) say he is an extremist and another 14% describe him as divisive. Just 7% say Keyes is in the political mainstream.
Overall, 59% of Illinois voters have an unfavorable opinion of Keyes including 39% who say they have a "very" unfavorable opinion of him.
All the way across Indiana?
Which post is this?
You are also seeing the pubbie side of the demo-rat party taking it out on a conservative uppity black man, so it will not offend the jesse Jackson wing of the demo rat party.
if keyes were white and named ryan he would have the support of the illinois pubbie party, but not the rockefeller side of the illinois party, cause he is conservative.
So keyes has several things going wrong for him in illinois he is not named ryan, he is not a demo-rat and is black, and biggest sin of all he is conservative.
I live in NY, but I got a call from the Keyes campaign about a week ago looking for donations to his campaign. First it was a woman on the phone (operator) and then they proceeded to play a recorded message from Alan. Having not much patience for recorded messages anyway, but this was unbearable. It lasted almost 6 minutes, which is a lot for a phone recorded message, and his message was not very centered or focused, either, in my opinion. Too bad. I probably would have donated otherwise, but the nature of the call was not very professional and caused me ultimately to not donate.
Luis originally posted this link with the exciting announcement that Keyes was up to 46%... of the Republican vote. He explained that Keyes may just beat Obama... amongst Republicans.
It was hilarious.
So naturally, it got nuked.
Sending Keyes there to run for the Senate is one of the major dumbass moves in political history.
Any idiot would figure he was a loser. He's never won a race in his life, he damn sure wasn't going to start in Ill.
I find it pretty incredible that we have so many short-sighted people on FR, not to mention in Illinois. I'm sure y'all are going to love the likes of Senator Obama in the US Senate for the next several decades.
I agree; I voted for Keyes in the '96 and '00 Presidential primaries, but his future as a candidate does not look promising after this. I hope he can find another way to advance the cause, perhaps by going back to radio or TV.
Keyes would be 'alright' if he would, gee, I don't know, be quiet for about 3 seconds and let someone else talk. He's more annoying than anything else. I agree with some of what he says but his delivery is ridiculous. Attacking the VP's daughter? Cmon.
it goes to prove what I have always said - much of what we consider to be the Republican "base" is not a reliable voting bloc. The Dem base on the other hand, is. They would vote for Stalin. Even if Keyes doesn't have a realistic chance, I'd vote for him just to keep the race close, and not make Obama some kind of Dem superstar.
The short-sightedness was in the Illinois GOP, picking Keyes as a candidate, and in Alan Keyes, who never missed an opportunity to very visibly screw up.
I am extremely PO'd at Keyes for running as inept a campaign as he has. This is his third time out--you'd think he would've learned something from his previous efforts.
Whatever. They picked him.
Wrong strategy, wrong time.
Rather than helping, you are actually hurting any slim chances he had coming into the race by posting these polls and taking shots at Keyes. If you want to help, I suggest you utilize the time you have on these threads to instead bash Obama or support another candidate who is more worth your while.
If he is far more preferable to Obama, this is, IMO, our responsibility as Americans, as voters, and as Republicans.
Republicans aren't supporting Keyes because they're racist???
Jim, Keyes' standing among the voters in the State of Illinois is my fault?
No, I don't like the idea of Obama in the Senate for the next several years, nor do I like his using this to catapult himself into the national stage, and I blame the current numbers directly on the people responsible: the Illinois GOP.
From the day that this was announced, these results were predicted, as was the notion that it would be spun into a "blame anyone other than Alan" campaign.
I don't blame Alan Keyes, he's just doing what he does best, he's a pundit, not a politician. I blame the Illinois GOP because it was THEIR decision to bring Keyes in, so it was their obligation to bring the voters to Alan...they failed, and no amount of critical posts in FR could have impacted the poll numbers so negatively to bring them down to the current level.
They should have run Oberweis.
I hope that he hasn't actually hurt the cause.
He could spend more time discussing the issues which are of most concern to voters -- the economy and the war on terror -- and less time on the moral agenda.
He could avoid coming out for things like reparations and a universal draft.
So I'll blame him for that part. But for creating the situation in the first place, the blame does rest with the Illinois GOP.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.