I Get Emails: Why Hasn’t Alan Keyes Been Given A Fair Shake In His Run At The Presidency?

29 Jan, 2008 by John Hawkins

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Here’s a question I received this morning via email,

I would like to know why the media has not given any coverage to Dr. Alan Keyes, another candidate in the presidential race. It’s almost Super Tuesday and I, as well as many other Keyes supporters, would like to see Dr. Keys receive equal coverage. Americans need to know that they have another choice for president; a true Reagan conservative. All they need to do is go to http://www.alankeyes.com/ and also print out and read the 8 page newsletter at http://www.alankeyes.com/pdf/iowa_tabloid.pdf. If they think Dr. Keyes is the right man for the job, simply write him in on their ballot and “vote Keyes”. Dr. Keyes website has all the information we need to see him added to the Republican ticket.

Thank You,
Joanna Benka

You know, way back in the day when I was a college student, I went to an event in Charlotte where Alan Keyes was speaking about abortion. I didn’t know much about him, but I was really impressed with him when I left because he was such an eloquent, passionate spokesman for the pro-life cause.

From that time forward, I had a high opinion of Alan Keyes and apparently, a lot of people have shared it, because over the years, I’ve heard many Republicans speak highly of him.

But something, I’m not sure what, has happened to Alan Keyes over the years.

He was drafted to run against Barack Obama for a Senate seat in Illinois back in 2004 and he was destroyed after running one of the single worst campaigns of the 21st century (Obama 70% vs. Keyes 27%). The only thing I can even compare it to was Katherine Harris’ horrific run at the Senate in 2006. After that disaster, Keyes shouldn’t even be running for the presidency.

On top of that, he got in the race very late, hasn’t run a serious campaign, and unsurprisingly, hasn’t gotten any traction. Moreover, I’ve seen him in two debates now: the Values Voter debate (which unfortunately, I think about 12 people, myself included, caught) and the New Hampshire debate. Yes he was passionate in those debates and, yes, he even said some things that might have been inspiring under other circumstances, but didn’t really answer questions so much as go on wildly off topic, thundering rants complete with weird head movements.

Personally, I don’t think Alan Keyes looks at this run at the presidency as anything more than a way to draw attention to himself and regrettably, because I think he was once an important voice in the conservative movement, I think he has diminished himself with the way he has gone about it.

Given the circumstances, when even serious candidates for the presidency who have been in the race from the beginning have had trouble getting news coverage, it’s understandable that people haven’t paid much attention to Alan Keyes.