Lincoln-Douglas Redux?

Alan "Is Alan Keyes Making Sense?" has been in the Illinois senate race against media fave Barack Obama for, what, a day, and he's already injected the contest with appeals to the country's founding, abortion, slaveowning, and who knows what else. As this Chicago Sun-Times headline puts it: "Keyes: Obama holds 'slaveholder's' view".

Keyes is already a two-time loser in Senate bids in Maryland and there's no reason to believe his third time will be the charm. But he's definitely going to make the race even more worth watching than when Obama's opponent was square-jawed sex-club regular Jack Ryan.

Story here.

Comments

[Jeff Trigg]

Republicans and Democrats in Illinois can do anything they want and still get on the ballot. Including ignoring deadlines, like Bush did. And you won't even cast a protest vote for the lesser of three evils when it could help the LP Illinois overcome some of the most anti-democratic election laws, not only in the US, but in the entire world?

[ibertarianL]

Libertarian Jerry Kohn IS the best candidate in this race.

Not to mention the Libertarian Party's best hope of capturing dyslexic Kerry voters!

[drf]

not to a libertarian who's not pro choice based on bullshit definition of life (including a component of metabolic independence). since liberty over one's own immediate property, i.e., his/her own body is the alpha and omega of liberty, i think a libertarian who isn't pro choice is full of shit. THAT'S my protest.

[Jeff Trigg]

I don't agree with Jerry on abortion either, but I can recognize very libertarian arguments on both sides of the abortion issue. The difference is not whether one is libertarian or not. The difference is when one believes a person exists, and that has nothing to do with being a libertarian. If a libertarian believes a person exists at conception (his/her own body) to them that is also the alpha and omega of liberty and no one has the right to end that life. Your difference isn't that pro-life libertarians are full of shit. Instead the difference is when you believe a person exists that enjoys liberty of his/her own body.

[Douglas Fletcher]

Keyes has always struck me as being a bit of a nut, but I think that his 2 lost Senate races in Maryland against him doesn't really say much about him except that he probably has a quixotic streak in him. Maryland has become such a yellow-dog Democrat state that it took 8 years of rule by a supreme jackass like Paris Glendening for most voters there to consider voting in a Republican for governor. I think for a Republican candidate to unseat a couple of straight-arrow Democrats like Barbara Mikulski or Paul Sarbanes there would need to be a major scandal, which from either of those Senators is unlikely.

In sum, I think Colin Powell would have had trouble getting elected in Maryland as a Senator, much less an outspoken firebrand like Keyes. That Keyes chose to run at all there to me says little except that he doesn't have much of a realistic sense of political geography. I think he might have done well in Virginia, for example.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/printer-friendly.asp?ARTICLE_ID=39867

Last I heard the bid for Keyes's sweaty napkin is $200. Maybe they should take an imprint of his face on a towel and sell it as a relic.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Excuse me, it's up to $460 now for the napkin. I wonder what the going rate is for a used Kleenex?

[flippy]

ibertarianL: Brilliant (actually, wasn't Kohn the Kerry family's original name?).

[kevrob]

straight-arrow Democrats like Barbara Mikulski...

Is "straight" an adjective that one uses with Mikulski, anymore? Not that there's anything wrong with that.

Kevin

[joe]

I think Alan Keyes is the guy who used to hand out margin-less, mimeographed pages about the government at Metro stops.

[Jeff Trigg]

Libertarian Jerry Kohn IS the best candidate in this race. Minus the money, sure, but what if...

Has taught economics and government in public high schools for 15 years. Elected library board trustee in Cook County. Endorsed by the Chicago Tribune and Chicago Sun-Times for his 2002 state rep. race ahead of his R and D opponents. During a debate in the primary with R and D opponents, Jerry got the most applause for his nail on the head answers.

Hey Reason, how about an article on Jerry Kohn to help counter the Obama hysteria and the Keyes hysterical? All the cool kids on the national rag scene were kissing Obama's butt, and us Illinoisans could use a counter to that. Keyes 15 minutes of fame are up.

[drf]

hey jeff!

will you be there tonight at goose island? will that currency pyramid scheme circus freak be there too? if yes, see you next time...

cheers,
drf

[Jeff Trigg]

Nope, I live in Peoria, about 3 hours away. I'm in Springfield tomorrow. I don't know the currency pyramid scheme circus freak, sorry.

[drf]

oh well. (he was the liberty dollar guy from last meeting. phew. talk about the worst possible advertisement for the LP out there).

cheers,
drf

[Jeff Trigg]

Oh yeah, Von Nauthaus or something like that. I'd never heard about him before but got some of the same reactions you gave. You can't say we aren't an open-minded bunch at least.

[drf]

you bet. that's why i am a card carrying LP member... 🙂

oh well. val et al are really cool.

[Skeptikos]

I don't know guys, he is still whining about the whole "gold standard" issue. And specifically uses phrases like "First, we must abolish the Federal Reserve System and end this banking/government cartel's ability to create money out of thin air."

Maybe I'm missing something, but he reminds me of the Yippie pamphlets advocating the abolotion of money that were circulating in '68. He might have some good ideas, but he creaps me out in the same exact way that Dukakis did.

I actually agree with a lot of what he says, but I also believe that there would be one HELL OF A LOT OF PAIN AND SUFFERING if we followed his advice, sure I do believe that his policies are possible, but they would precitpate and great deal of political instability, not unlike the political situation on the ground in pre-marxist russia. So while I can feel a kinship with him, I feel that actually following him would be a little to anti-Hayekian. As we know from Russia, extreme change can leave a social system without equiliberium, and put you in a place you never meant to be. Good intentions, but he seems like just another elite telling me to scrape the system.

[Skeptikos]

I was speaking about Jerry Kohn, but in speaking about the whole situation here in IL, I am really not laughing. But I am ashamed, the one thing no one notices, is none of the candidates are making any attempt to represent the people. Just themselves and thier parties. Oh, I know I'm old fashioned, I think they should work for us, not us for them. But even Kohn seems to be confused. If someone walked into my office with these guys attitude, telling me how I should think. I would send them packing.

[Gary Gunnels]

Whatever happened to Keyes' show?

[drf]

actually, what are our rules in illinois that a carpetbagger can get on the ballot so easily? we're like new york, i guess 🙂

GG: you're right. i miss maximum extreme elimination challenge on spike... 🙂

Skeptikos: understood. i'm not voting for senator this time 'round, BTW. none of the candidates are appealing to me.