Alan Keyes Update

I have since listened to a radio interview of Alan Keyes, and also researched Fred Thompson more. I will create a separate post on Thompson, as it warrants a more in depth focus.

Regarding Alan Keye's position on Immigration, I can now vouch for him being a consistent and strong supporter of the Immigration policy. I'm going to write a more complete view of Alan Keyes than I intended. And it will sound harsh at the end, but honestly, this is my assessment of him, and I have followed him a long time.

Response to Reader Comments on Alan Keyes

I stand by my statement on why Hunter stands above the others in regards to China, I found only a minor reference to China at Keyes campaign website. An article from 2001 is impressive in terms of foresight, but I would like to see some evidence of Keyes having a concrete plan of dealing with the problem of China before adjusting my analysis.

The NAFTA comment I will not adjust until I have something concrete about Keyes and NAFTA. I couldn't find a position in text (sorry, can't watch videos right now) regarding NAFTA. I'm sorry, I don't like to read between the lines when it comes to making definite assertions about what a candidate truly stands for policy discussions. (Reading between the lines is useful for providing avenues for additional research for discrepancies. Like "Candidate X said Y in such a way it makes me think he is covering up something in area Z." So then I research area Z and see what I find.)

I referred to "Fair Tax" in the very specific sense, and my understanding is that only Mike Huckabee and Duncan Hunter have signed a sheet saying they support it. I agree that Alan Keyes supports a national sales tax, but the "Fair Tax" is a specific / particular instance of a national sales tax plan. Logically, it would be like me saying Mike H and Duncan H like Granny Smith Apples, and Alan Keyes likes Apples. The contention of the commenter is that therefore I must include Alan Keyes as liking Granny Smith Apples. Please note that I do not have an opinion on the "Fair Tax" instance of the national sales tax plan (except that calling it a 23% sales tax is misleading, it is really a 30% sales tax in any standard consumer's eyes) and therefore it didn't affect my ranking.

In conclusion
Alan Keyes is a decent candidate, the only other candidate besides Duncan Hunter** with large amounts of integrity. He is right on a number of issues (especially pro-life), but he has a BIG Achilles heel: He is (or appears) ungracious and proud.

In the interview today, he stated that he is the only principled candidate that has run on issues and been consistent on them, and that is why he ran. When he made the decision to run, Tancredo was still in the race, and of course Duncan Hunter was. In the interview today, by Jan Mickelson, he was given the opportunity to clarify his statements about all the candidates being phonies and running on agendas they have no history on, and he did not. For tier 1, I certainly can see that, but not if you include Duncan Hunter in the list.

Likewise, I saw the failing in his 2004 run against Barack Obama, where he started making weird statements, like Blacks (or African Americans[AA] if you prefer) that are ancestors of those who were brought as slaves should be exempt from the Income Tax , but not Blacks(or AA) whose ancestors were not slaves (e.g. Barack Obama). He also came across as having a disdain for liberals to such an extent that he seemed to lose self-control. In my opinion he lost against Barack not because Barack was better, but because Barack played up his calm demeanor, and the media hilighted the lack of demeanor for Keyes. Unfortunately, Barack was able to push his buttons.

This Achilles heel is not enough to rule him out as a valid candidate (and indeed, as a revolutionary, he'd be amazing!!), after all, he is eloquent and can explain the conservative thinking in a great number of issues [as long as his emotions don't get the better of him], and certainly conservatives have learned that it is important since having someone like Bush who can't articulate pro-life / pro-marriage issues if his life dependend on it. Keyes does not have the fatal flaw of being dishonest. But his fatal flaw is a big hazard, especially for someone who seems proud and therefore not likely to learn to overcome the weakness in national debates. Still, if Duncan Hunter excels in the areas that Keyes does and does not exhibit that fatal flaw, all the better reason to pick Duncan Hunter!!

Alan Keyes updated ranking:

Candidate\Criteria	Pro-Life	Honesty	Safety	Taxes	Work w/ Others	Comm	Immigration	Social Programs
Keyes	A+	A+	B	B	D-	B	A	A

Updated GPA for Keyes: 3.29, which puts him in 2nd place, after Duncan Hunter at 3.79

**Ron Paul had his lack of integrity shown in a recent Meet the Press interview, Russert cleaned his clock by showing that he has a double standard on pork for his district versus a lean and "constitutional" government for the US. Given that this is the key area he is running on, this is pretty fundamental. I've learned about Fred Thompson over the last week and no longer can cite him as honest, and must agree with Keyes that Thompson is a phony.