Keyes and Palin: Similar Token Picks to face Obama

Posted by Joe Rivett on 09.06.2008

Keyes was nominated to take on Obama in 2004 because of race. Palin was picked because of gender.


Back in 2004 when Obama was running for the Senate, it wasn't a guaranteed victory by any stretch of the imagination. At the time, he was facing off against Jack Ryan. However, after a sex scandal erupted, Ryan chose not to pursue the Senate seat and Obama was left without an opponent.

So what did the Republican Party do in Illinois? To counter Obama they recruited a black man from Maryland? That is right. If Alan Keyes were white there would have been no way in hell he would have been drafted to run. Nevertheless, Alan chose to run as a very Right-wing conservative with religion splattered all over his issues.

When Keyes' daughter came out of the closet, instead of not commenting on her sexual interest in women, Keyes stated that he couldn't approve of that which destroys the soul. What a great understanding father…

Keyes originally ran for Senate of the great state of Maryland in 1992 managed by Bill Kristol. He campaign floundered when it would found out that he paid himself 100,000 dollars out of campaign contributions which is technically legal but not very moral. Here is what the Maryland Republican Party Chair had to say: "When he decided to use campaign funds for his salary, that discouraged a lot of Republicans, and even Maryland voters." How did Keyes respond? "That money was for working eight to twelve hour days ... it was not a welfare check."

Working in the Reagan administration, he opposed sanctions on South Africa making him not very fond of the black community.

Despite this baggage and never winning an elected office, Keyes was picked to fill in for the Obama race even though he never lived in Illinois. Why was he picked? I think it is pretty obvious and in the end, it was patronizing to bring in a guy strictly because he was black. So how did Keyes do? He lost 70 to 27 percent.

Fast-forward to today. McCain feels his only hope of winning the election is to have dissatisfied Hillary supporters vote for him. In the sexist mind of either his or his advisors, they figured they should appoint a woman to the VP ticket. There weren't a whole lot to choose from. Besides Palin he could have gone with the Hawaii governor or Kay Bailey Hutchinson but maybe they weren't interested. Instead of picking the best candidate to replace him if something unfortunate were to happen, McCain put politics above his country.

Tom Ridge would have been a much better choice. He successfully ran the big state of Pennsylvania and was reelected. He served as chair of the newly created Homeland Security Department. McCain would have sent a signal that he takes the security of this nation serious. It would have also been smarter politically and put Pennsylvania in play. Maybe Hillary supporters would have flocked to a pro-choice/security first VP candidate.

But instead of Ridge we get someone who was picked because she is a woman and she is pro-life. Every Hillary supporter I have spoken with including my wife is even angrier at McCain's choice then if he just picked a well-qualified male. Just like Keyes, Palin has skeletons in her closet. She is going to have to answer to corruption charges, banning library books and helping Ted Stevens obtain pork for her.

As I previously stated, you don't need experience to be a VP. But McCain's entire campaign is predicated on experience and country first. This is nothing more than a sexist novelty pick that in the end is only going to hurt his campaign. It may energize the right-wing wackos but they weren't voting for Obama anyway. As an independent, it pushed me heavily toward Obama because while I don't know much about Obama, he showed better judgment with his VP pick.