Alan Keyes: For President, Or Attention?

National Review Online: Amabassador's Iowa Campaign Exists Only In His Mind

(National Review Online)  This column was written by Byron York.

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After the Des Moines Register Republican presidential debate ended here Wednesday afternoon, Susan Patterson Plank, the paper’s vice president of marketing, was a little defensive. Reporters wanted to know how Alan Keyes, the former ambassador running a nearly nonexistent campaign, qualified for the debate. Standing beside the established Republican candidates on the stage at the Iowa Public Television headquarters, Keyes used his considerable rhetorical skills to wander all over the lot, deliver sermons, avoid questions, grow increasingly irritable, and in general lead viewers to ask what in the hell he was doing on stage.

So how did it happen? “We have to have criteria,” Patterson Plank told me. “It’s always easy after the fact to say should we have tweaked them here or there, but reading them up front, they looked like very solid criteria, and we still believe that they are.”

The criteria for admission to the debate, according to the Register, were that a candidate must have filed papers with the Federal Election Commission; that he must have publicly announced his candidacy; that he have a campaign office in Iowa as of October 1; that he have at least one full-time paid staff member in Iowa; and that he score at least one percent support in the Register’s October poll.

Keyes has indeed filed the required papers. He did announce, in September, that he is a candidate. And he scored two percent support in the Register’s October poll, although he showed zero percent support in the same poll in November. As far as having a campaign office and at least one full-time paid staffer, well, that’s where things get a little fuzzy. And that, it turns out, is a bit of a sore spot for the candidate, who came to the media Spin Room to confront anyone who had the slightest doubt that he belonged up there with the other candidates.

As Keyes made his way through the jam of reporters and cameramen, I said to him, “Ambassador, some people are a little confused about what you’ve been doing to campaign in Iowa for the last couple of months. So could you tell us what you’ve been doing in Iowa - “

“I’ve been running a national campaign that’s based on a different principle than you’ll understand,” Keyes began.

“But here in Iowa?”

“Hold it. Can I explain the principle? Because you don’t get to define the process of politics in this country. You only think you do. The people define it. My campaign is based on the notion that we reach out to people all over this country. We ask them to sign a pledge at my website, alankeyes.com. It’s called the “Pledge for America’s Revival.” And in that pledge every person who signs it says they are going to find five other people at least to join our army of political revival. And everywhere a person signs a pledge - and I have told them this - they are the campaign. You have invented this notion that campaigns are yard signs and appearances and stuff. You don’t have the right to say what it is. A campaign is people reaching people. It is conducted not by politicians and not by the media, but by the people themselves.”

That was a rather long way of saying Keyes hasn’t done much of anything in Iowa. At that point, Keyes looked over his shoulder to Tom Hoefling, an Iowa Republican who was accompanying him. “How many people do we have now in Iowa?” he asked.

“I can’t give you a number,” Hoefling said. “We have thousands.”

“But in terms of the pledges?” Keyes said.

“I don’t know - a couple hundred,” Hoefling answered.

In fact, alankeyes.com lists the number of people, by state, who have signed the pledge. And in Iowa, the number is…49. In New Hampshire, 18 people have signed the pledge. In South Carolina, 44 have signed. Nationwide, according to the website, a total of 2,678 people have signed the pledge.

The Register poll in October surveyed 405 likely Republican caucus goers. Keyes could have gotten two percent of that by having eight people say they supported him. Through the marvels of statistics, it might be that the Register managed to hit eight of the 49 people who had signed Keyes’ pledge. Voila! Keyes took his place on the stage.

But nobody knew those numbers in the Spin Room, and Hoefling’s mention of a “couple hundred” only served to confuse things.

“You have a couple hundred paid staff in Iowa?” a reporter asked.

“No, it’s not paid staff,” Keyes said. “Are you listening or not?”

“It’s a question. How many paid staff in Iowa?”

Keyes had had enough of such details. “You are working, I guess, for the elites who want us to believe that campaigns are about money,” he told the reporter.

“Do you not wish to answer the question?”

“No, I want you to understand that you don’t have the right to dictate our political process. It belongs to the people, not to you. And money doesn’t buy votes.”

I jumped in again. “Ambassador, I’m going to ask you one more time. Have you personally been doing campaign events here in Iowa in the last few months?”

“I have had several campaign events here in Iowa, but I will not define those events as you do,” he said.

“In the last few months?”

“I don’t define those events as you do. And I don’t think you have any right whatsoever to establish yourselves as the arbiter of what constitutes an event. I will do that in a way that reflects the best needs and purposes of the people who are working with me. Because as I see it, every time somebody comes forward and takes the pledge, that’s an Iowa event.”

That puts Keyes at 49 and counting.

[kiskis1]

Sunday is the day targeted by GOP presidential candidate Ron Paul''s supporters for another fundraising push.



So, I''ll be sending my money in on Sunday for the simple reason Ron Paul is an honest man among charlatans and power seekers. And he gives me hope when it is in short supply.

It is also fun to think of what a Paul administration would do if the establishment allowed him to get that far.

Hope, truth and justice are in short supply in what is now the United States. When they are offered, they should be grabbed and protected like the rare treasures they have become. Ron Paul offers those things.

Certainly it is another David and Goliath struggle, and the Davids have rarely won since the original face-off. But, that is why we have hope.

[tibu987]

Gimme a break.
Keyes is in the same league as that judge who sued the dry cleaners for $50 million over his pants.
Both are in dire need of psychological help.
That either got as far as they have in life is scary.

[trohunt00]

Uh, just so you guys know. "Uncle Tom" is a minomer. uncle Tom in the book wasn''t a sellout. Somehow through the decades, he''s come to symbolize that, but it was the other slaves who sold him out. Kind of like " I could care less". What people really mean is "I COULDN''T care less", which actually means you''ve hit the rock bottom at caring. the first statement means that you have some care left in ya. Anywayyy Sorry for interrupting. However, Keyes is a wacko wasting his time, but it is admirable to see someone who really doesn''t care what people think of him. i mean her REALLY has to not care how silly he looks!

[rushlimpdrug]

Pleeeze,Keyes is poison and a waste of time, energy, and effort.

[quatrops]

Keyes "candidacy" is one of those oddball events that crops up in politics from time to time, but the point he was making in his exchanges with reporters was an extremely important one when analyzing political processes, and that point was, "WHO GETS TO DEFINE THE TERMS?"

That point was the life-blood of perhaps the most influential person in American politics over the past seven years, Karl Rove.

Rove was a master at "defining the terms" in almost any issue he touched. Opponents, Democrats, were the losers on issue after issue because Rove had framed, defined, those issues in such a way that logic and common sense made no difference. As much as I detested his politics and those of the people for whom he worked, I was always in awe of his mastery of that technique.

Example. Although Rove may not have been the first person to use the term "cut and run", it was under his tutelage that the term became synonamous with "withdrawel" in the eyes of op-ed pundits and the public. Once that became established, it was nearly impossible to approach a common sense, realistic withdrawel plan without appearing a "cut and run" coward. There are hundreds of other examples where one can see the masterful hand of Karl Rove at work.

Despite the arrogance with which Keyes made his point, it was a valid one. I suspect Rove resigned when he realized not even HE could define-away the failures and incompetence of the current administration.

[brianbwb-2009]

"Uncle Tom" Keyes deludes himself that he is pimping those Republicans who want to pretend they are not racists, so he gets to show his face at the table of the Fascists, and say a few ingratiating words, but still is only allowed to eat the leftover scraps of his "massas"

Sad.

[bud28dy]

Perennial political loser Keyes has once again forced his unpleasant personality on the people of America. This man knows that he has only one supporter -- himself -- but his delusions of eloquence and grandeur have somehow convinced him otherwise. Have you ever watched his mannerisms during a speech? He has the physical speechmaking qualities of Hitler -- no I''m not referring to his policies but his mannerisms. He speaks louder and louder then stops, crosses his arms and struts about the stage in kind of a jerky movement sort of way. I''m not kidding -- compare him to old Hitler clips and get a good laugh.

[okaussie]

Any African-American that is a Republican is a SELLOUT!! What have the Republicans done for the black community in the past 140 years? I suppose Alan would like to (in true conservative form) go back to the good ol'' days.....

[tylenol6]

I think Alan Keyes should run for president if he wants
to. I get so tired of hearing on the news and after the
debates ONLY the top 6 candidates. Well, it certainly telling everyone the media is choosing the candidate for
the american people. Both the democrats and republicans
are one of the same party. You cannot tell the difference. Vote Ron Paul.

[paris1969]

This is the guy that gave Obama his Senate seat ..

[neoconslayer]

borism rm: In the novel, Uncle Tom is a hero who sacrifices his life for his people. It is, however, very difficult to take Mr. Keyes seriously. His campaign against Obama for Senate seemed to me to be more about giving him a job, any job, even senate candidate, than about actually winning office.
Perhaps that is what he is doing now.

[tyjohn47]

Ya know, Harold Stassen used to run for the Republican nomination for President every four years too. He was taken about as seriously as Keyes is. Give it up Alan. Every party has is jesters, for sure but your own party doesn''t even want you in that role anymore.

[borismrm]

Alan Keyes need to sit his tired AS@ down. I wouldn''t vote for this uncle Tom if he was the only candidate. I would vote for the Grand Wizard of the KKK first!!