Q&A Friday #3: Alan Keyes On The Ticket?

09 Jul, 2004 by John Hawkins

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Question: “What would it take to get Alan Keyes on the ticket should Cheney drop out?” — Ned_Schnittt

Answer: Not. Going. To. Happen.

The problem Alan Keyes has is that he’s a pundit, not a politician, and like most pundits, I don’t think he’s capable of making the transition. That’s not a slap at Alan Keyes because I’m a fan, but it’s not enough to have the right views on the issues. You have to be able to do the things that make a politician successful to be worthy of national office. If you want to operate at that level, there are questions you have to ask yourself….

Do you enjoy plunging into a crowd and spending 30 minutes shaking hands? Can you whip a crowd into a frenzy? Can you appeal not just to the base, but to moderates, independents, and even a few people in the other party? Are you capable of raising absolutely gargantuan sums of money? Are you willing to compromise your principles in one area to win a greater victory somewhere else? Can you spend hours talking to crowds and the press without letting something slip that the opposition can twist around and use against you?

The skill sets you need to succeed as a columnist, commentator, or radio host are just very different from the ones a politician needs to be elected.

So maybe in a 99% conservative, politically aware, America we could have an Alan Keyes/Rich Lowry ticket battling against Hugh Hewitt & Michelle Malkin to get into the White House, but in the interim, the pundits just aren’t going get invites from the voters to the big dance.