Keyes/Obama: What IS IT with today's Repub party?

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

I have heard some IL DUers comment that their state politics often isn't as acrimonious and bitter as in some states with all the bashing of the other party.

Instead of picking some generic party soldier from IL, they have to get one of the more offensive mofos out there?!?!

Is it their goal to try to say "FU" to everyone in the whole world who isn't a Repub? To stick their thumb in the eye of the world? Is that the instinct of the party now, a la Rove? To always do the most inflammatory and divisive possible thing?

Or is there some actual half-assed strategy happening here? That by picking someone like Keyes they will lose big (a given anyway) but will shore up some fundie votes for shrubya? I mean, :wtf: :shrug:

[RandomKoolzip]

1. I don't get it either.

I'm a recent transplant to Chicago, and I gotta say that the GOP here must be out of their fucking minds if A) they think they can beat Obama, and B) that they think Keyes is not insane.

I think you may have a point here; the GOP in general seems to have adopted a real "fuck you" stance that seems to be mobilizing people in the opposite direction. I certainly don't know anyone who IS a Bush supporter here. Their bulldog tactics are backfiring, I think.

[mopinko]

2. illinois is

in a place where the rest of the country may be after november- taking a reckoning of the depth of thug criminality. really, an amazing situation. i think the point is just to change the subject. it took a clown like this to take the spotlight off the corruption in springfield.

[NukeProf]

3. It's red meat time

Obama is in such a strong position, the Repugs know they are going to lose. So why not through a little red meat to the nutcases by nominating Keyes? It solidifies the party's standing with their more radical elements, at no cost.

[Walt Starr]

13. Actually, this move could be EXTREMELY costly for the GOP

Keyes will alienate the moderate Republicans wo will stay home since Bush cannot win and they dislike the GOP Senate nominee.

What this could result in are some districts that are curently held by the GOP going over to the Dems.

Ultimately, this move by the IL GOP could cost the national GOP the House of Representatives.

[SidDithers]

16. Walt, how many IL reps in the House?

Same as electoral votes?

Senators i can figure out myself :)

Sid

[truebrit71]

4. It is more of a back-lash against the 'moderate' republicans

that picked Jack Ryan than anything else...

Keyes is an absolute nutjob, and will get his head kicked in come November, but the gop wanted someone to try and take a little of the lustre off Barack Obama....you see, the poor little darlings are just green with envy...the level of jealousy and invective levelled at Obama by the gop in this state is amazing...

There is no doubt that the right-wing extremists have taken over the Il gop, and the moderates are being left to fend for themselves...

I actually think that having Alan 'Carpet-bagging' Keyes on the gop ticket will help cement in people's minds just exactly how out of touch and whacked-out the modern republican party is...

Case in point, Keyes is talking about this race as a fight between good and evil, and that he is carrying the message from God...He is an absolute psycho....

The Il gop has done itself irreparable harm with its' pick and it couldn't have happened to a nastier bunch of bastards....

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

6. But how the hell did they think picking KEYES was going to take any

lustre off of Obama?

I mean, WHAT WERE YOU THINKING, MAN?!?

[KharmaTrain]

10. Watch The Liberatarians Rise...

All my fellow Illinois DUers have many of the reasons Keyes will fail here miserably and how this could be a harbinger of things to come on the national level.

May I suggest you pop into the Illinois forum...we've been having lots of fun discussing this there. If you'd like a real laugh...check out http://www.illinoisleader.com/discussion/display_forum_topics.asp?ForumID=40 ...that's the local GOOP message board. Circular firing squad practice occurs there regularly.

The state powers-that-be were majorly embarassed and I think Rove (through Hastert) forced Keyes on the state as it appeared they couldn't find a "bona fide" candidate. There were reports of a stormy meeting with Keyes and then his on/off decission. I think in the end Rove said "this is how it's gonna be...".

There is a definite Obama fascination here...it was bad enough, while the local GOOP couldn't find a warm body, the Democrats were parading their rising star. I think the national party thinks that Keyes was somehow the best of all worlds here...a minority (like that would matter as long as there's an R associated with his name), a "true Conservative" (WTF is that?) and a national figure.

Methinks Keyes is looking at the book deal promised by Renigery Press, the $5 & 10 grand speaking gigs for the next several years and getting his decrepit mug on the tube. He'll get plenty of national time, but it won't mean a hill of beans here. This Repugnican party is in a shambles. And it couldn't happen to a finer bunch of crooks.

Cheers!

[NightOwwl]

5. And I find it offensive that they felt they

had to find a black man to run against him. I'm not sure why, I just do. :shrug:

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

8. Ya, not sure I understand the thinking with THAT, either.

"We'll show 'em! We'll run our OWN black candidate! He hah!"

"Who've we got in the Rolodex?"

"Alan Keyes! Yeah!"

"He'll do it! He'll run for anything!" (like the "Life" cereal commercial)

Definitely a "Scenes We'd Like to See", the IL GOP strategy session that produced this beaut.

[timefordrinking.com]

7. Pity poor Alan Keyes...

...for he is in for the ass-whupping of the century. The GOP must really hate Keyes to send him all the way to IL just to get spanked. I almost feel sorry for that woman-hating, gay-bashing, right-wing bastard. Almost.

[iconoclastic cat]

14. I know that I never curse on DU, but as for pity for Keyes I have to say F

CK THAT. That prick is a misogynist, a hypocrite, and a sleazy bastard. The coming ass-whupping is sorely needed and deserved. Have empathy for cancer victims, not offensive, opportunistic nimrods.

[Eric J in MN]

9. What has Alan Keyes said that people here are implying he's

so rightwing?

[NYCGirl]

11. Read this:

http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=16725

[PsN2Wind]

12. Easy campaign slogan or signs for Obama

"Alan Keyes, twice rejected in his home state
where the people know him best"

[rocktivity]

15. Keyes isn't just ANY mofo, he's a BLACK mofo

If the GOP had wanted to run a black candidate against Obama, Keyes would have been among their first choices, not their last. Now they've apparently decided that black and Republican voters will not notice Keyes' mofo-ness because he and Obama are the same color. As Arnold Schwarzenegger's character said in The Last Action Hero, "BIG mistake!"

But the really sad thing is that I think Keyes actually believes that he can win, and that the GOP is behind him. Has he considered the consequences of losing? Does he realize the GOP will simply dispose of him the way they did with Sharpton--and will with Nader?

:headbang:
headbang

[johnfunk]

17. All Obama need do is run a few TV spots of Keyes in the mosh pit...

... and cavorting with Michael Moore from his old TV series The Awful Truth.

Let's just say you'll hear heads a'poppin' all around you à la the Cronenberg flick Scanners in GOP strongholds like Naperville and Cicero.

Hmmmm... the population control potential boggles the mind...