Maryland Lt. Gov. Michael Steele, who has been a rising star in the party, never touched on the Keyes campaign despite evoking Keyes’ opponent Barack Obama’s name in his speech on Tuesday.
Steele quipped that Obama gave a “moving defense of the conservative principles of the Republican Party” in his speech at the Democratic National Convention in July.
“I won’t comment on Ambassador Keyes’ decision to run the race that he is running in Illinois,” Steele said in an interview. “He has made a very strategic decision. Maybe he sees something in polling trends that I don’t see. I don’t know. I can’t comment on that.”
Very strategic, huh? I love the mental image of Keyes spending his evenings poring over polling data, brainstorming about how to run his campaign for maximum strategic benefit. Clearly that comports entirely with the Keyes we know and love.