The Keyes-Indian Parade Pic
ArchPundit
August 2004
The Video of the Smelly Toad is Even Better
Click here to watch it (wmv file)
Unbalanced anyone?
Smelly Toad?
I’m not holding a cocktail, but I may need one while trying to figure out this rant:
“It’s sort of like you’re sitting in a room and off in a corner of the room is a deeply smelly toad that is filling the room with a nasty odor,” Keyes said. “And everybody is holding their cocktails and wearing their ties and they’re not talking about this smelly toad but the room is filled with the stink of it.”
If link isn’t working, Go Here and choose my documents and then click on smelly toad.
Feel Like a Traffic Cop
Describing in Detail the trainwreck known as the Keyes Candidacy. Josh Marshall is more like a lawyer arguing the case with a little more distance
Moore’s Story on Keyes and the Mosh Pit
Via Zorn,
The story was so old to me I didn’t even think to link to it. It’s a hoot and a perfect fit for the other side of Jake Weisberg’s coverage of the 2000 Presidential Debates
I hauled this mosh pit around Iowa in a large flatbed truck, crisscrossing the state and inviting the Presidential candidates to join the teeming and tattooed masses. The response from the candidates varied from a stunned and frightened Steve Forbes (who quickly walked by the pit giving it a nervous thumb up), to front-runner George W. Bush (who told me, “behave yourself, Michael I see you’re up to your old tricks why don’t you go get a real job?”)
Gary Bauer, on the other hand, called the Des Moines police who sent five cruisers and a paddy wagon to arrest the pit. The police, though, could not contain their laughter when they arrived and saw the group of purple-haired, pierce-lipped, 18-year olds jumping wildly in place to the music of Rage Against the Machine.
Next, we drove over to a town hall event being staged by former Reagan ambassador, Alan Keyes. As the mosh pit rolled into the parking lot, with Rage music blaring (“It has to start somewhere/ It has to start sometime/ What better place than here/ What better time than now…”), Keyes staffers came outside to see what all the noise was about. When informed that Keyes could get the endorsement of “The Awful Truth,” Keyes’ national field director dove into the pit, hoping that would suffice for our support. He then brought out “Uncle Sam,” a Keyes supporter who was dressed in full Uncle Sam regalia. He, too, jumped in.
But we told the Keyes staff that it had to be Keyes himself. Minutes later, Alan Keyes emerged and, against the loud protests of his Secret Service agent, Keyes climbed to the top of the makeshift stage on the back of the truck and dove backwards into the screaming mosh pit. He then body-surfed the entire pit, carried like a wave on the outstretched hands of the tightly compact crowd. He did a couple of body slams with a spiked-hair youth from Ames High School and left the pit with the official endorsement of the show.
“We knew Alan Keyes was insane,” I told the press who were trying to understand the irony or the point. “We just didn’t know HOW insane he was until that moment. We now feel a responsibility to test the remaining field of candidates.”
Bauer called the cops?
We’ll let that lie
Perhaps the most hypocritical response from social conservatives is that somehow they are being sold out by moderates who refuse to support Keyes. Proft tries to be cute and say he’ll let Thompson’s non-endorsement lie. Yeah, sort of like Keyes refusal to endorse or campaign for any pro-choice Republicans? Given Alan Keyes thinks that Thompson or Edgar have no role in the Republican Party, why should they think Keyes should?
And let me suggest that if Proft’s publication seeks to damage anyone’s reputation who is not a sitting office holder in order to discredit their response to Keyes, you and your hare brained friends at the Leader will be banished from Illinois politics. And any candidate you have ties to will face an incredibly difficult and harsh campaign for Governor next go around.
Will Keyes Pin Down Obama
My only fear is that Keyes might literally pin down Obama as he tried to pin down Lamar Alexander. Keyes right now is getting a lot of attention and for all the efforts to paint him as a legitimate candidate, his schtick will wear thin with the press within a few weeks and he’ll be ignored. He’ll claim that is racism, but the reality is that the press only finds loons funny for a while and then they turn on them.
Rich Miller argues the National Republicans are going to be giving him cash to keep Obama pinned down. The problem with that? What if Keyes spends money near swing states—including Missouri with Metro East, Quincy, the Quad Cities and Wisconsin with the QC, Rockford and Chicago. All of a sudden a stark raving loon is on TV blasting away at everything and saying he is a proud Republican. Great swing state strategery there.
This isn’t a criticism of Rich–he probably has it right, but the national Republican have to be thinking about how that hits the larger audience.
Word from on-high is that the national Senate Republicans are planning to contribute lots of money to Republican US Senate candidate Alan Keyes.
It’s not that the national poobahs actually believe Keyes can win, mind you. You’ll be hard-pressed to find a sane person to predict that. Then again, what sane person could have predicted a month ago that Alan Keyes would be one of our US Senate candidates?
The national GOP’s main object is to keep Barack Obama pinned down in Illinois. And, with a little bit of money, Keyes will most likely complete that task .
There are a lot of theories floating around about why the Illinois Republicans chose Keyes. I’m not sure if any of them are completely true. And I’m pretty sure that some of them, whether true or not, are downright cock-eyed, particularly the whole notion that Keyes will help the Republicans take back the state Senate.
In terms of chaining himself to a building–if only Obama could get so lucky. The crazier Keyes acts, the more it builds up Obama’s dignified presence.