Alan Keyes is writing the book on it.
Keyes says game plan is controversy
Declaring that his campaign strategy is dependent on controversy, Republican U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes told the state’s top GOP donors at a recent closed-door meeting that he plans to make “inflammatory” comments “every day, every week” until the election, according to several sources at the session.
The sources said Keyes explained that his campaign has been unfolding according to plan and likened it to a war in which lighting the “match” of controversy was needed to ignite grass-roots voters.
“This is a war we’re in,” one source recounted Keyes as saying. “The way you win wars is that you start fires that will consume the enemy.”
Keyes’ comments came during a 40-minute address to about 20 leading Republican fundraisers and donors Thursday at the posh Chicago Club. The sources asked not to be identified to prevent additional pre-election controversy within an already divided GOP.
At the session, the sources said, Keyes denied that he has engaged in name-calling in his campaign. But he likened Democratic opponent Barack Obama to a “terrorist” because Obama, a state senator, voted against a legislative proposal pushed by abortion foes, sources said.
Mounting a non-traditional campaign based heavily on theologically based moral teachings, Keyes predicted he could lock up one-quarter of the black vote by stressing his belief that Jesus would not vote for Obama based on the Democrat’s support for abortion rights, the sources said.
Keyes campaign officials had little to say about the remarks attributed to their candidate. William Pascoe, the campaign manager, said Keyes spoke to the group in private, and what he said should remain private.
I think the only thing left to wonder about in the Illinois Senate race is how many points will Obama beat Keyes by. 40? 60?