Nice line in the NY Times!
In the noble tradition of the Marquis de Lafayette, the Seven Samurai, Mighty Mouse and Obi-Wan Kenobi, Alan Keyes is leaving home to go to the aid of a pitiable band of outgunned, hopeless supplicants: the Illinois Republican Party.
But on to the substance:
Like Mr. Obama, Mr. Keyes is black, and the winner will be only the third African-American in the Senate since Reconstruction. But the race now seems likely to turn the Republicans' big tent into something more like the Big Top: Smell the rank hypocrisy! (Mr. Keyes accused Hillary Clinton of being a carpetbagger in her 2000 Senate race.) See the ideological acrobats! (The state Republican chairwoman, who accuses Mr. Obama of being far out of the mainstream, is a moderate who supports abortion rights. Mr. Keyes condemns it in practically every case as "murder in the womb.")
While this page expressed hope that Mr. Obama would have an opponent this fall, Mr. Keyes is not exactly what we had in mind. He did meet the party's minimal qualifications - he has a well-known name and is willing to show up. And he is a polished public speaker. But if the only challenge for Mr. Obama is to appear more reasonable than his opponent - who believes the federal income tax is unconstitutional - the bar will not be very high.
