Thursday, August 05, 2004

Alan Keyes Versus Barack Obama?

According to The AP (link via Matt Drudge) the GOP is considering running Alan Keyes against Barack Obama:

"With the general election less than three months away, former presidential hopeful Alan Keyes says he needs a few days to decide whether he wants to accept the Illinois GOP's offer to be its Senate candidate.

"Keyes, a Maryland resident, told Republican leaders who offered him the nomination Wednesday night that he would make his decision known Sunday. Under the law, Keyes would have to live in Illinois only by Election Day.
Asked how he felt about making a Senate run from a state he had never lived in, he responded: 'As a matter of principle, I don't think it's a good idea.'

"'It has to be something where I would be convinced it's not only consonant with federalism as I understand it but that it's in the best interest of the state and of the nation,' Keyes said.

"If he enters the race, Keyes will be stepping into the national spotlight with another Harvard-educated, polished debater � Democratic rising star Barack Obama � and setting up the first Senate election with two black candidates representing the major parties."

The debate between Keyes, a Straussian who studied under Allan Bloom, and Barack, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School would be magnificent.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree with you on that - I have always been a fan of Alan Keyes! There was an exceptional article on the man in the Economists during the summer of the 2000 election - I wish I could find it - I would try to post. Thank you for your interesting blog.

The Corsair said...

Thank you, anonymous. I have to say that -- and I know my Democrat friends will blast me on this -- Keyes is an INCREDIBLE speaker, and a first class political philosophy mind. He tends to come off populist and preachery, but when he gets on American political history, esp. Alexander Hamilton and "sparation of Church and State," he is mesmerizing. I don't think Obama can touch him in a debate, unless he paints Keyes as eccentric, as all hugely intelligent people are, and scares off voters. Obama's momentum out of the Dem Convention is probably unbeatable, but I really am looking forward to an interesting competition between the two. FINALLY, after how many hundreds of years, African Americans are getting a foothold in the aristocratic Senate.