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First Read is an analysis of the day's political news, from the NBC News political unit. First Read is updated throughout the day, so check back often.

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Domenico Montanaro, NBC News Political Reporter



Enter Alan Keyes

Posted: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 11:17 AM by Mark Murray

From NBC's Mark Murray
JOHNSTON, IA -- There is one additional Republican presidential candidate who will be on the stage here at the GOP Des Moines Register/Iowa Public Television debate this afternoon: Alan Keyes.

This will be the first major debate this cycle featuring the former presidential candidate and ambassador, who most recently faced off against Barack Obama in the 2004 Illinois Senate race (even though he actually hails from Maryland). Keyes did participate in the Tavis Smiley-moderated GOP debate in September, which the top Republican candidates skipped.

Why is Keyes debating, while Kucinich and Gravel are not at tomorrow's Democratic debate? According to Iowa Public Television spokeswoman Jennifer Glover Konfrst, Keyes met the criteria to participate; Kucinich and Gravel did not.

The criteria include: 1) an FEC statement of candidacy; 2) having an Iowa campaign staffer and Iowa campaign office as of October 1; and 3) registering at least at 1% in the October Des Moines Register poll.

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Alan Keyes is a true statemen worthy of the office of Presidency.  
It's outrageous that Kucinich is being excluded from the debate simply because his campaign is run out of a staffer's home instead of out of an office.  I've called the Des Moines Register to complain.  If you'd like to do the same, call the Register at 1-800-247-5346.
Since the Republicans very nearly bore me to tears, I didn't watch.  The only thing that Alan Keyes is proof of is that any race can have a loon.  I am gratified that Keyes brings that diversity to Republican loonism, being left with the distinct impression that it was soley a white attribute seemed racist to me.  Oh yes, I'm white and I'm in no way a Republican, as a disclaimer.

This bunch is a sad reflection of what Republicans have become, too bad for them.
Desperate:

There are lots of intelligent and interesting loons out there. Al Franken and Robert Byrd come to mind.  Even Osama Bin Laden and Kim Jong Il are generally regarded as highly intelligent and interesting. (No direct comparisons were intended there.)

I didn't call you a racist or even imply that you are one and I was sincere in stating that you didn't intend any slight to African Americans.  

What you said, however, could be taken that way by some. But I didn't say that and your power to read thoughts is a bit dim today.

I did indeed mean to imply that your apparent view that Keyes is a plant to somehow show fake diversity in the Republican party is an insult to people who take diversity and racism seriously, Democrat and Republican alike.

You are the one who introduced the race issue and though I believe you are sincere and not racist, your theory either deliberately or inadvertently implies racist motives for the Keyes appearance on the part of the Republican Hate Monger Party, of which I am a member.  The truth of that is in the record you yourself left in your post.

I freely admit I did not watch the debate but have heard excerpts on the radio.  Keyes is a loon. I have seen him in action many times before going back years and years.  Nevertheless, he is intelligent and interesting.  

So is Cynthia McKinney (intelligent,interesting and a loon) and we would probably all agree it would be nuts for her to show up at the Democrat debate, but if she did what would it say if she was the only black woman on the stage?  Well, like your view, it really would say nothing.

I'm not taking anything back, Desperate.  Besides, you set the bar in an earlier post when you, for all intents and purposes said I, being a Republican party member, am a Hate Monger.

How dare you make a random assumption about me? Even though you were right about the Republican part,  the rest is a hateful generalization about a lot of good people and fellow citizens. And it's far more blatant than anything I said that you interpreted incorrectly.

Honestly, I have no idea what your first rambling post (where you asked if you struck a nerve) was saying. You certainly took my parody of one of your earlier posts in a whole new direction.

The debate about whose nerve is struck would certainly appear to be an open one.
So Richard thinks Alan Keyes just happened to show up in the debate on his own accord.  That, suudenly, in a whimsy of conscience, he decided it was hight-time he got into the GOP debate before all those liberals involved got crazy ideas about proposing rational ideas for immigration reform.  I guess Tom Tancredo wasn't crazy enough.

Sorry, Tichard, as he has done before, Alan Keyes showed up at the GOP's beck and call, to add a little color to its all-male, all-white roster of candidates.  Just like he had to be recruited to run for Senate against Obama.   But I guess carpetbagging is OK only if you're a Republican.
John Doe:

I disagree with your racist speculation.  

I thought running Keyes against Obama was a farce.  

Your comments on immigration are a puzzling non sequitur.  

You do raise a good question about carpetbagging, however.  

Why would the reliably and overwhelmingly Democrat state of Illinois allow such a practice in their state politics?  Is their law modeled after the state of New York?

It may be legal, but carpetbagging in the negative sense you obviously intended is not OK with me for either party, both of which have done it.

By the way, it would have made far more sense to deviously plan on getting Condoleeza Rice eligible for debates, wouldn't it?

Alan Keyes is a great man who has accomplished more on his own than either Hillary or Barrack.  He was undersecretary of state for international organizations.  He was a part of our U. N. Team.  He was President of Citizens against Government waste.  President of North Carolina A & M.  He was founder of the Declaration Foundation.  

He is the epitome of statesmanship.

He makes more sense in one sentence than the entire Democrat field in one debate.
Alan Keyes is a brilliant constitutional scholar and an eloquent orator.  He is far more intelligent than anyone posting on this site.  He has a much right to his religious convictions as Mitt Romney does or JFK did.  Keyes is not a lunatic.  He is a well-educated Roman Catholic.  The thing many of you are most dogmatic about is that religious people must be kept out of politics. However, it is religious liberty that is one of the foundational principles of United States liberty.  The Constitution was in fact based upon....gulp, the Bible.  Doesn't anyone read anymore?
You all can laugh at Keyes, but he's the only one calling it straight. You libs will run this country into the ground with PC crap and the republicans don't have the guts to Live up to the Reagan model. Keyes is has our answer, though none of you have the steel to face the changes needed.

Just as Bush said six years ago, to a hail of cheers, "it will be a long hard road". You spineless cowards, our troops are winning and you talk about a pull out. Keyes supports our national harritage, and you all laugh.

Just remember FDR put the Japanese Citizens of this country in camps. The threat is just as real today.

Laugh to your own demise you fools.
That's ridiculous. Any candidate in the running should be able to debate. Kucinich is the only running candidate who supports restoring the US Constitution. The others just stand by while Bush shreds it.
Barrack Hussein Obama. Let's use all of the names.  Don't leave out Willard Mitt Romney, which of course sounds a lot like one of the kids in the short bus wearing a hockey helmet.
Alan Keyes shouldn't have been on that stage.  The requirements should have been a little different because there is no way that Alan Keyes could win.  He is conservative enough, but he was far too belligerant.  I guess if you wanted to have a woman on the stage that was that problematic, you could have had Ann Coulter who would have ripped everyone a new like Keyes tried to do.  
It's a real shame that Kucinich & Gravel are being pushed out of the Dem debates. It shows how much control the corps have over the Dem party. The Dem party is not a true opposition party anymore... which is why so many Liberals are jumping ship and joining the Ron Paul revolution.

Hillary, Obama, and Edwards just represent more of the same, unfortunately. Sure they will be better than Dubya or Giuliani, but is that enough? Shouldn't we expect more? These people are not for the non interventionist foreign policy nor the civil liberties that we must DEMAND as Americans. All the other issues are small potatoes compared to those 2 big ones, as far as I'm concerned (and many others, I believe.)
Richard in WS--you listed a number of black Republicans who have been *appointed*, yet you haven't named any who have been *elected*. What better way for the Bushies to pretend like they care than by selecting minority nominees? It's not like their Cabinet members have leeway to deviate from what the boss says anyway, so who cares what color the mouthpiece is? If they derive an advantage from Powell or Rice being SoS, they will gladly take it.

There are NO black Republicans in the 110th Congress. None. Not one. Why?

The number of African-Americans who self-identify as Republicans nationwide is under 5%. Why?

Nixon developed the Southern Strategy. Reagan kicked off his campaign in Philadelphia, MS. Junior refused to speak to the NAACP for years. Why?

The Republicans want to build a wall around The Land of the Free and The Home of the Brave from the Gulf of Mexico to Baja California. Why?

I think the answer ought to be clear.

Oh, but they've got Lt Gov Mike Steele, who pretended not to understand why Gov Ehrlich's speech at an all-white country club was a problem.

We report, you decide....
All of you missed what happened in both the rep. and dem. debates what happened was once again public television shows it's true colors a blatant attempt to fix the debates.


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