Cobb

To your list I add one more:

• A national embarrassment

Oh well, a little more comedy for the fall tv schedule.

Greetings,

I hail from the land of Lincoln and I think Keyes is going in simply to cripple and pigeonhole Obama. During the attack ads and debates we'll hear about gay marriage, partial birth abortion, gun control, affirmative action, slavery reparations, etc.. Obama will probably win, but the stage will be set for his replacement and if he follows the party line while serving in the Senate he'll be crippled by liberal positions and votes.

Obama could be the next governor (Blago is a goner, tried to create user fees/taxes in first 100 days, anti-gun, anti-Chicago casino, etc), but Obama must distance himself from heavily liberal positions. Governor Blago only won because Jim "Clueless" Ryan couldn't distinguish himself from Governor George "Crooked" Ryan. Too bad Jack "Sleazy" Ryan had to drop out.

BTW, we did have a black FEMALE senator from Illinois. ;-) Welfare fraud (hid assets to put mother in nursing home), un-authorized visits to Nigeria, and irony of irony her male manager/boyfriend was accused of sexually harassing female subordinates. She got elected because the previous senator took his phone off of the hook and doubted Anita Hill.

Lastly, Obama is a part of that whole U of Chicago intrigue that elected Carol Mosley Braun. He is caught between a rock and a hard place.

Dexter, your points are well taken: nothing like a radical conservative (like Keyes) to "flush out" Obama's true liberal ideology. I think we can easily err by underestimating white Illinois GOP members who will LOVE this race; it allows them to back a black candidate (thereby proving they are not racist, only conservative!), and they will relish the thought of forcing Obama to defend his liberal views, albeit with great eloquence. Too many GOP members are willing to drink the kool-aid for the good of the party, and will wholly embrace Keyes as "their" candidate. Will be interesting to see how this plays among African Americans in the GOP--if someone coaxes them from the shadows to give their views.

I like your attitude on this Mary. I wish I had been a bit more thoughtful myself. We all understand how important it is for the Republicans to field black candidates who can win. We can only hope that coming close here demonstrates something positive.

i am from Illinois as well, and admire Mr keyes a lot. i would vote for him too, except he will have to square his critique of Hillary Clinton with his action SHOULD he decide to run (he hasn't yet - no matter what the local papers say).

Christians don't do Relative Morality. Will he do it "cuz she did it?" Hmmmm!

I would think less of him if he ran now considering his expressed opinion of this kind of thing.

Besides, the party leaders of the state GOP are - quite frankly - more concerned with holding their positions and the largesse it allows. Keyes represents no threat to their power as did the outgoing Republican senator (who they hated) and other insurgent candidates. He's safe because - if he does it - he would arrive, state a conservative position, be run out of the state as a carpetbagger and go home without threatening anyone's place in the Illinois GOP.

More's the pity - as I would love to see him in the Senate - but that's the facts jack.

Please elaborate. What was the deal between the state GOP and the Senator?

Peter Fitzgerald was an "insurgent" in the ranks. The party leadership in Illinois did not select him, but he beat their select in the primaries. Now after one term he has basically had enough.

The top ranking Republican statewide (not counting Hastert or Hyde) is Treasurer Judy Barr Topinka. She is the virtual in-charge of the party. Well, Hastert or Hyde notwithstanding, she participated in the Gay Pride parade and is pro-abortion. I would say a RINO and sort of a female Arlen Specter relative to the President (ok that's opinion only).

Anyway the IL GOP is moderate to liberal in its views, and also very intrenched. Fitzgerald rattled their cage where Al Salvi didn't.

Salvi was an anti-abortion, anti-gun control grass roots conservative who also won a senate primary years ago by beating the party's choice.

Suddenly the money dried up, and his campaign withered on the vine.

See, people think the Chicago Democrats are a machine - well, they're not all we've got in this state...

BTW as much as I admire Mr Keyes, i will vote LP as usual.

Keyes looks like a four-time loser: Talking Points Memo mentions Keyes' previous runs in 1988 (Senate), 1992 (Senate), 1996 (president) and 2000 (president). As a former Maryland resident, I wasn't old enough to vote against him in his first run.

Keyes is a carpet bagger.

He has had ethical issues in past races that will hammer him.

He's running for the visibility.

Why do I keep reading about revealing the "real" Obama and exposing him as the liberal he is? Is this a secret? The man graduated from the best school there is and didn't go after a lucrative paycheck. That's what liberals do; they care about other people. What's so wrong with that? I'm a liberal and darn proud of it! It's time we took back that word from the right-wing smear machine and said it with pride. Say it loud, I'm liberal and proud!

"I deeply resent the destruction of federalism represented by Hillary Clinton's willingness to go into a state she doesn't even live in and pretend to represent people there," Alan Keyes on Fox News on March 17, 2000.

Let's assume for a moment that the IL. GOP has decided that the race is lost and they have brought in Keyes to "expose him."

If that's the case, Obama is in the good spot of being seen as a serious threat to the GOP in the long term. Compare Obama to Harold Ford, Jr., and you would see that Ford, Jr. is more towards the center than Obama. But they haven't brought out a hit squad against Ford, Jr.

So does that mean they don't consider him a threat, or his he being targeted as a possible party switcher.

DarkStar: Exactly.

I heard the IL. GOP head on the Tavis Smiley Show. He said that they went after Keyes because Obama was being talked about being the only Black senator. He claimed by people making that statement, they changed the dynamics of the race.

IOW, the IL. GOP pulled the race card!