Keyes or Barthwell to go against Obama
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| Wed, 08-04-2004 - 7:39am |
Ok, I hate to knock my party, but to say that race was not a motivating factor in choosing Keyes and Barthwell ( both of whom are Black ) to go against Obama (who is black as well) is just not that believable to me. I could be being too hard on them, but it is quite interesting. I think Obama has a good chance here. What do you all think?
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040804/D848BCMG0.html
Two Finalists Named for Ill. GOP Ballot
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Aug 4, 6:11 AM (ET)
By MAURA KELLY LANNAN
CHICAGO (AP) - After weeks of searching for a U.S. Senate candidate, Illinois Republicans have narrowed their choice to two black politicians, a development that seemingly assures Illinois will produce the fifth black U.S. senator in history.
State party chairwoman Judy Baar Topinka said Republican leaders would interview Alan Keyes, a two-time presidential candidate, and Andrea Grubb Barthwell, a former deputy drug czar in the Bush administration, on Wednesday and then choose one to take on Barack Obama, a black state senator from Chicago and Democratic rising star.
"I believe it would be unprecedented that two African-Americans face one another for a seat in the United States Senate," said Jim Nowlan, a senior fellow at the University of Illinois Institute of Government and Public Affairs and a former Republican state lawmaker.
GOP leaders picked Keyes and Barthwell after a daylong meeting Tuesday where they met with an eclectic group of more than a dozen potential candidates and settled on the ones they thought could best articulate the issues.
Republicans, who have struggled to find a replacement candidate since Jack Ryan dropped out over embarrassing allegations in his divorce records, said race wasn't their motivating factor in choosing Keyes and Barthwell.
"These two were selected because of their strengths, not because of their color," said state Sen. Dave Syverson, a member of the Republican State Central Committee. "Voters are smarter than that. That clearly wasn't the intent."
Keyes couldn't make it to Chicago because of a scheduling conflict, but Syverson talked to the committee on Keyes' behalf. By delaying the decision until Wednesday, the committee gave Keyes time to get to Chicago for a personal interview. Syverson said Keyes did not want to talk to reporters Tuesday night, and he could not immediately be reached for comment.
Barthwell said she did not think the committee made her a finalist because she is black.
"I don't think that this committee is playing any kind of race card here," she said. "I think they have looked at the candidates and the strengths they can bring to it and how they position themselves on the issues."
Keyes and Barthwell are relative political unknowns in Illinois.
Barthwell, a physician from suburban Chicago, was deputy director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy from 2002 until last month, when she quit to explore the Senate run.
Keyes ran unsuccessfully for U.S. Senate twice from his home state of Maryland and sought the Republican presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000. He has never lived in Illinois but under state law would only have to take up residence by Election Day, Nov. 2.
Republicans have suffered a string of disappointments since Ryan dropped his Senate campaign. Party leaders repeatedly tried and failed to enlist a big-name candidate to run for the seat of retiring GOP Sen. Peter Fitzgerald - former governors, state senators and Chicago Bears great Mike Ditka have all declined.
Whoever is chosen now will have just three months to raise cash and campaign against Obama, who has captured national media attention, raised more than $10 million, and was tapped to give the keynote speech at the Democratic National Convention.
Miffy - Co-CL For The Politics Today Board
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To your point about race playing an issue. No doubt about it. Tbe Repbulican party here in Illinois is imploding, big time. They have to be looking for someone that can at least look as though they have a chance against Obama. Listening to commentary locally, and reading letters to the editor, it would seem that most think that Obama has the Senate seat in the bag. There is a Liberaterian and an Independent running against Obama, I've seen one short article about them, more about how they aren't getting any press than what they stand for.
I'm from Illinois, too!
Miffy - Co-CL For The Politics Today Board
I had a great article about Obama. It was talking about how he is the new "IN" guy, and his book he had written a few years ago, is flying off the store shelves. No matter who runs against Obama in November, I think Obama has a straight shot.
Here is a differnt story though...
http://www.suntimes.com/output/elect/cst-nws-obama04.html
Obama just can't help but shine
URBANA -- Something completely impulsive swept over 19-year-old Noah Isserman Wednesday after he and his high school buddies heard Democrat Barack Obama tell a standing-room-only crowd why he wants to be Illinois' next U.S. senator.
The teens decided the moment called for a group hug -- and that's exactly what they heaped upon the surprised but accommodating state senator after his speech at the University of Illinois Student Union.
"We really like this guy," the Urbana teen beamed afterward. "He's certainly creating a buzz and a feeling of hope that hasn't been around much lately, particularly for those who couldn't vote in 2000 and who for the past four years have not been terribly happy about the direction our country has been going. To see people stepping up and who seem straightforward is just refreshing."
This was one snapshot from the midpoint of Obama's ambitious five-day swing Downstate, where he was scheduled to hit 10 cities Tuesday in a hectic schedule that could only be met by his three-vehicle caravan roaring along the interstates at an 80-mph clip. His wife, Michelle, and their children trailed far behind since the speedometer of their rented motor home topped out at 50 mph.
At Obama's various stops since Saturday, he has been afforded celebrity status by Democrats and even some Republicans after his breakthrough keynote speech last week before the Democratic National Convention and his appearances on national news programs like "Meet the Press."
On schoolyards and in musty-smelling town halls, voters are comparing him to their pastor, marveling at his good looks, transferring change from their pockets into his hand -- he picked up $2 that way Tuesday -- and urging him on to greener political pastures even before he has earned his promotion from the Illinois Statehouse to the U.S. Senate.
"Barack is even better than John Kennedy," said retired schoolteacher Jane Spires, a Democrat from Decatur who watched Obama speak Monday in Clinton. "He just smacks of sincerity. I feel like he's a real person. I like the fact he isn't blaming everything on the Republicans. I like the fact he's a person who seems to be trying to bring America together, not be divisive. And I like how he talks in a normal tone of voice, not shouting and screaming."
Despite such heady talk, Obama appeared intent wherever he went to leave the clear impression that all of the attention has not inflated his head like a beach ball, defining himself as a "workhorse not a showhorse."
Speaking to an audience at Lake Land Community College in Mattoon, Obama provoked laughter when he said his barnstorming tour was designed to "make sure that people know I haven't gone Hollywood on them."
"I know who's going to take care of me after all the hoopla and the hype passes. It's going to be the voters of Illinois. I want to spend time with you," he told that crowd. "That'll keep me grounded, along with my wife, who'll tease me and tell me my ears look really big on TV."
A political unknown just 18 months ago, Obama has created a movement, even within heavily Republican areas that favored George W. Bush four years ago and that Obama didn't carry in last spring's Democratic primary.
That was apparent when he showed up Tuesday in tiny Tuscola, a town 170 miles south of Chicago. Bush won Douglas County over Democrat Al Gore by a 60 percent to 40 percent margin in 2000. Obama's caravan was escorted into town by two flag-waving military vehicles of World War II vintage.
"You need to run for president in the next election," retired farmer Boyd Stenger told Obama as he extended his hand to the candidate following a speech the senator delivered to about 100 people in a town known for its broom corn and nearby Amish population.
Stenger, a 66-year-old resident of neighboring Arthur, voted for Bush nearly four years ago and said he has his mind made up on Obama after watching his televised speech last week. "I think he means what he says," Stenger said, standing in the shadow of the town's spire-like grain elevators.
Across the street, Annessa Norman took a break from her workout routine in a storefront gym, appearing mesmerized by Obama's charisma. Like Stenger, she voted for Bush in 2000. She said she is weighing whether to support the 42-year-old Obama.
"I was sitting here saying how cute he was," the 29-year-old Tuscola woman and hunting enthusiast laughed. "He's a younger guy, you know."
Of course, the pro-Obama sentiment visible from all sides of the political spectrum is helped by the GOP's failure so far to field a credible candidate who can sling arrows at Obama's left-of-center voting record and blunt the stunning amount of positive press he has gotten.
Despite not having an opponent, Obama dodged questions about whether he thinks there is any conceivable way he could lose this race during its remaining three months.
"You know, politics is just so strange," he told the Sun-Times in an interview shortly before visiting Neoga, a farming community that has never hosted anyone of Obama's political caliber. "Nobody could have foreseen the situation I'm in now. So don't jinx me."
Obama originally had penciled in an appearance Saturday at the gravesite of Norma Jean, an elephant that was buried decades ago when the circus came through the northwestern Illinois town of Oquawka and unexpectedly lost one of its star attractions.
Had Obama's visit not been scrapped because of time constraints, it would have served as an unusually apt metaphor for this campaign where -- for the moment -- the political party symbolized by the animal appears all but dead
Never say "never", right?
Miffy - Co-CL For The Politics Today Board
I guess you put some of it in perspective since you are from Maryland.
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Hmm, sounds like a bit of a hypocrite........
Mich
Miffy - Co-CL For The Politics Today Board
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