Alan Keyes Runs For President and Runs…and Runs…and…
By Glenn Church | Related entries in 2008 Election, 3rd Party
(A series on little-known candidates for President)
Alan Keyes is not a little-known candidate, but many people may be surprised to know he is on the ballot in three states this general election - California, Colorado and Florida. The real news is not that, but how many times Keyes has run for President this year.
Keyes ran in the Republican primaries, eventually putting together his best showing in North Carolina when he gathered 2.7% of the vote and two delegates. Prior to that, Keyes complained that the media ignored him and excluded him from the Presidential debates. In the debates he did appear, Keyes complained that the moderators did not ask him questions.
In April, Keyes announced his departure from the Republican Party. He sought to get the Constitution Party’s nomination, but was defeated by Chuck Baldwin. Party leaders criticized Keyes for being out of sync with Constitution Party issues and lingering in the Republican Party until a week before the Constitution Party’s convention.
After that defeat, Keyes announced, “I kind of represent, in political terms, the abortion.â€
After two failed tries for President in one year, most people would move onto another cause. That is not Alan Keyes. After his Constitution Party defeat, Keyes immediately announced his intention to run as an independent candidate and notified the FEC he was doing so.
In the process, he started America’s Independent Party. You have to give Keyes credit there. If he cannot win a party’s nomination, he may as well start his own. At least that way the nomination cannot be denied to him.
Yet Keyes was not through with his nomination pursuit in 2008. One of the state delegations at the Constitution Party’s convention was California’s American Independent Party. Since 1988, it has aligned itself nationally with the Constitution Party or its predecessor the U.S. Taxpayers Party. The AIP delegation backed Keyes at the convention.
Keyes had the backing of the chair and 14 of the 23 members of the AIP executive committee. Back in California, they hastily convened a meeting breaking their longtime affiliation with the Constitution Party and nominated Keyes. The remaining nine committee members met at a separate convention, two to three times larger than the pro-Keyes convention, and reaffirmed their support to the Constitution Party.
In the end, a ruling by California’s Secretary of State and a judge gave the coveted ballot spot to the Keyes’ faction. It is a good bet that the AIP’s legal woes are just beginning as its two factions fight it out.
In this busy political year for Alan Keyes, he has run for three party nominations and won one. He has announced an independent candidacy. In addition, he has started his own political party.
Yet this story still has a couple of twists. The AIP is segregationist George Wallace’s 1968 party. It is a little ironic that in 2008 the last remnant of that movement nominates a black man. Perhaps that is an indication just how far this country has come.
That brings up the last twist to the bizarre case of Alan Keyes – Barack Obama. In 2002, the Illinois Republican Party carpetbagged Alan Keyes from Maryland to run for a Senate seat no other Republican wanted to waste the effort on. Yes, Barack Obama defeated Alan Keyes in his election to the U.S. Senate. It is a appropriate that in the same election where one man stands at the edge of achieving the highest political office in the land, the other is the political equivalent of an abortion.
(from Foolocracy.com)
This entry was posted on Saturday, November 1st, 2008 and is filed under 2008 Election, 3rd Party. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
November 1st, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Alan Keyes was sent into the 2004 Senate race with 86 days to go. Obama was already assured the win. Because of his political prowess? Nah! He somehow had the divorce records opened through the media of his competition.
Alan whipped Obama in the debates, paticularly when it it came to Obama’s stance against the Born Alive Infant Protection Act (which Obama opposed). You see Obama wants any woman to get her dead baby, even if it survives the abortion. Then it can die in the linen closet.
Alan Keyes may not have won the 2004 race, but he can still hold his head high. The same can not (and will not) be said of BHO.
November 5th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Like Abraham Lincoln, I hope that Alan Keyes doesn’t give up!
November 10th, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Like Harold Stassen, I hope that Alan Keyes doesn’t give up!