In doing some research before writing today's editorial, we discovered that what we wanted to say, had already been said far better than we could say it. We will therefore give place to commentaries by Dr Chuck Baldwin and John L. Perry.
If you have friends in Iowa, let me encourage you to forward these comments to them. The Iowa caucuses will tell us a great deal about how much control the main-line media will have throughout the 2000 election process.
These commentaries should not be taken as an endorsement of Alan Keyes by TCN. While we do agree with Dr Keyes on most of the issues, it is the policy of TCN to not endorse candidates, only issues. What we want to do in these commentaries is to point out that voters should not be swayed by the media hype or the false notion that we must vote for an "electable candidate." Our simple responsibility is to vote for the candidate that is right.
Those that the media have selected for us are not.
I ask the question because it was clear to me that Dr. Alan Keyes, a black man, walked off with the debate last night. It was not even close. His answers and statements reflected his intellectual brilliance, oratorical genius, moral purity and constitutional acumen. No one else on the panel touched him. So, why did the post-debate pundits totally ignore him? Why is the Republican rank-and-file ignoring him? If it is not the color of his skin, what is it?
If Alan Keyes were a liberal Democrat, the media would forever forget the name, Jesse Jackson. Keyes would be their darling. He would doubtless be the premier spokesman in the country for the black community. He might even be the next Vice President or President. But, Dr. Keyes is not a liberal Democrat. He is a conservative Republican. As such, he is given no consideration as a viable, legitimate candidate. Again, if it is not due to the color of his skin, what is it?
Dr. Keyes reveals the heart and passion of Patrick Henry, the mind and intellect of Jefferson, the courage and purity of Washington and the oratory of Webster. Yet, he struggles to muster 5% among Republican voters in most polls. How is this possible? I can't help but believe that if those same qualities were wrapped up in a white guy, George W. Bush would still be reading novels and mysteries back in Austin.
Next to Alan Keyes, Bush is a pygmy. But, Dubya is the presumptive favorite to walk away with the Republican nomination. How can this be? Unless Republicans, like Democrats, have bought into the notion that substance doesn't matter, this makes no sense. Unless, you take into account the race factor.
But wait! Isn't this the same party that just a few years ago was begging Gen. Colin Powell, a black guy, to enter the presidential race? Yes, it is. Poll after poll showed Gen. Powell as a favorite choice for president among Republican voters. This in spite of the fact that Colin Powell supports the legal killing of unborn babies, affirmative action, quotas and other liberal policies.
On second thought, maybe race isn't the issue after all. Perhaps, Republicans have become a carbon copy of Democrats where substance loses out to style; polls usurp principle and electability trumps dependability.
Please forgive us, Dr. Keyes.
[ Chuck Baldwin editorials are published Tuesdays, Wednesdays & Fridays on Gulf1.com and are sent via email to anyone who requests them. Send requests to cblist@gulf1.com ]
Iowa Republicans have an enviable opportunity to breathe new life into their imperiled party, at the same time helping rescue the lost country they love.
They can begin by ignoring the Siamese twins of political absurdity being pushed at them by an invading horde of Washington Beltway Visigoths. Those arrogant aliens from the wiser-than-thou press have little idea what Iowa is like and even less business telling Iowans how they have decided for them how they are going to vote for president.
. Absurdity No. 1
"The Republican Party has to elect a president this time."
No, it doesn't. Nor does the Democratic Party.
What the Republican Party does have to do - just as the Democratic Party does have to do - is nominate a candidate who can lead that party - and through it, the nation - out of the dismal swamp into which both have meandered.
If it nominates and elects, or doesn't elect, any other kind of candidate, it won't matter worth a hill of beans, and Republicans might as well let the other crowd accrue all the blame.
The choice that counts in this election is the right thing to do - not the sure thing.
. Absurdity No. 2
"The only candidate for the GOP nomination who can win is George W. Bush."
And why is that such an established truth?
Well, because, you see, Bush is the only one who reflects the vast middle ground.
That's not exactly the kindest thing to say about anyone.
Why should that be an essential ingredient for a GOP candidate?
Because Republicans all by themselves aren't numerous enough to elect a president.
Got that part right.
But by mimicking the wide middle, is that going to harvest enough non-Republican votes come November to elect a president?
The conventionally accepted wisdom is, "Absolutely yes!"
That's not wisdom. That's nonsense.
How so?
Good question. Here are the answers:
. Why is the vast middle so vast?
Because neither the Democratic nor Republican parties has offered the kind of inspiration and leadership that would cause a prudent man or woman to move out of that middle toward either opposing choice.
Good heavens, you'd have to be some kind of left-wing or right-wing nut not to stand pat in the middle, waiting and hoping and praying someone with a semblance of authentic leadership will come down the pike.
. Why does the middle persist in remaining so vast?
Because most Americans have good sense.
Little wonder the voter turn-out in this greatest of all democracies is so humiliatingly low.
Where there's no spark, there's no explosion.
Henry Ford figured that out a long time ago.
So did sensible people who live in Iowa.
. Then why is George W. Bush, who no one disputes is Mr. Middle, the "leading" Republican candidate in the Iowa caucuses?
Because that's the warped-mirror image the outside-of-Iowa news media have been shining back into Iowa for weeks and months.
The Beltway Butinskis hop onto national TV programs originating from Iowa - as if they were "reporting live from Lower Slobovia" - and snicker away any suggestion the contest is not already decided the way they've decided it should be decided.
They've come to Des Moines to inform every benighted Iowan: Bush wins,
Steve Forbes comes in second.
Bang! Next case.
Don't despair. Iowans are a perceptive breed. Why else would they be so loyal to Iowa?
. Then why is Bush such a "shoo-in?"
Because none of the "leading" candidates is offering anything more than the same old same-old.
Well, there are these tediously detailed differences here and there, in their tax policies and the like.
Those are differences without distinctions. Or is it distinctions without differences?
Whatever, they won't amount to that same hill of beans once the snow melts.
The real reason why real leadership has been so slow in being recognized in Iowa is because the outside-of-Iowa news media have decreed Alan Keyes is not an "electable" candidate.
Despite the best efforts of the Eastern elitist press to ignore Keyes into oblivion, Iowans have begun to take him seriously. He's coming up fast there and elsewhere in America.
Here is the one candidate who stands for unadulterated, 200-proof Republican policies.
The man might as well have been one of the Founding Fathers, he's such a throwback from Clintonism and the dogma that government is all-wise, all-powerful and the latest drug of choice.
. Then why doesn't the national news media see this?
Oh, they see it, all right, and it causes them acute constipation. Their occupational prejudice is laid bare: It has so happened that Alan Keyes is not white. Oh, my!
Now, the establishment media are asking themselves what they're going to do. Sure, Keyes is black, but . . . well, he can't really be black, can he?
He doesn't act black, not like they have decided blacks should act, or think, black.
So, if he doesn't act like their duck or think like what they think a duck should act or think like, then how can he possibly be black?
So, he's not their kind of duck. So, they're going to make him swim in the back of the pond.
That's rotten enough to do to anyone because of race, color or any of those other good things.
But what an insult it is to the good people of Iowa.
Here come the self-anointed Pooh-Bahs of the Washington Beltway, instructing the people who live and work and raise their families in Iowa on what they can think and decide.
The thing about Alan Keyes that makes him Alan Keyes - agree with him or not - is what he stands for, and how he articulates it.
Those Iowa Republicans who do not concur with Alan Keyes' definition of America and his vision of where it should be going have a moral duty, a constitutional requirement, to vote for one of the other Republican candidates.
Those who see in Alan Keyes what the Founding Fathers envisioned for this blessed land - who agree in their hearts and minds and souls that he speaks for what they dream for the next generations of Americans - have a clear-cut choice.
That is a luxury not always enjoyed in this land.
They can vote for Alan Keyes and, thus, for themselves and their progeny. Or they can vote for . . . heaven knows what those other fellows really stand for.
Iowans are realistic. They know they cannot necessarily elect the next president.
However, their unique Iowa caucuses, as the first actual voting in the 2000 nominating process, can plant a standard for all the ensuing primaries and the Republican nominating convention.
Iowans can do more than send a message that any candidate, any party can choose to ignore.
They can be the message that no one will dare ignore.
What a magnificent opportunity - to be in on the beginning of the historic turning around of one of the major political parties and of this great nation, itself.
Anyone can show up at the memorial service.
Really, it's all right to vote for Alan Keyes.
[ John L. Perry, a prize-winning newspaper editor and writer who served on White House staffs of two presidents, is Senior Editor and a regular columnist for NewsMax.com and Internet Vortex. ]