Crain’s is having fun with the Keyes candidacy. The key to the article is the end:
Later, he belched forth several observations about “moral issues, the greatest challenge facing this country,” when I asked on which issues he intends to focus.
This despite the nearly universal fear among Illinois delegates that he needs to talk a whole lot more about economic issues or he’s going to drive swing voters away in droves. Says Sen. Dave Syverson, R-Ill., perhaps Mr. Keyes’ biggest supporter among Illinois GOP elected officials: “What is the likelihood of directing him? I’ve begged him to stay strictly on those issues.”
Judging from our talk over waffles and his fire-and-brimstone address to the delegates later?his first speech to them this week?Mr. Keyes clearly intends to keep the decay of family values, declining church attendance, abortion, gay marriage, et cetera, at the center of his campaign.
Which brings up his opponent, Illinois Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., who’s ahead in the polls by a few light years of his own.
Asked what government can do about getting more people to attend church, Mr. Keyes replies: “Nothing. Government can get out of the way and create an environment in which people take care of themselves.”
But Mr. Obama, to whom Keyes refers as not merely a liberal but a “socialist,” is one who “wants to tell people what to do.”
Funny, all this talk about morality sounds like Mr. Keyes is the one who wants people to start meeting his standards.
I guess that’s just the way it is on Planet Keyes.
You know, it might have been a wise idea to figure out his ‘style’ before you offered him the slot for GOP nominee. Just a thought.