Looking at the search for a candidate, one might think the whole state of Illinois was devoid of talent and the Illinois GOP needed to go to Michigan (Ted Nugent) or Maryland (Alan Keyes) to find someone.

However, the largely unreported story is that there was a perfectly good candidate available and he already lived in Illinois. In fact, he finished second in the primary.

So, why did the GOP choose the embarassing Alan Keyes over Jim Oberweis? Answer here.

The Illinois Senate race, between Keyes and Obama (I realize I might not have spelled either/or of those names correctly), serves to emphasize just how disparate are political persons, and puts to the pale just how similar people can be assumed to be, based upon race alone.

If they're proving anything -- these two particular candidates -- they are proving that they're both extreme personalities with little in common. As in, d'oh, there go the racial prejudicial standards that some use to draw assumptive conclusions about others.

About Keyes -- I read earlier yesterday that he said that "Christ wouldn't vote for Obama" based upon Obama's pro-abortion policies and crusades even and while I recognize that Keyes' pointed statement may sound absurdly extreme to some, he does have a very important point there. And that is, that supporting, promoting, even condoning or attempting to campaign based upon any of that where abortion is concerned, is very vile.

Thus, all the DNC is vile, if you can accept that...abortion is murder and there's little wiggle room, if any, to work around that, regardless of how many times you say you want to "protect a woman's right to chose," as does Obama and, um, Kerry. So, there goes Kerry's credibility as a Catholic, as a Christian. Among other things and reasons why.

Obama will win just because, unfortunately, he speaks well and looks nice. Keyes will maintain his Christian credibility, but Obama will win this particular Senate race because populism is appealing to many, particularly in and around Chicago.

Never underestimate the ability of the GOP to screw up a good thing, especialy on the state level. I'm from North Carolina... I know.

The big problem with the GOP's "pinch candidate" approach is that it stunts grassroots political activism. If you were a local GOP campaign worker, would you work harder for one of your own friends and neoghbors... or some glamour-shot from out of state who doesn't know anybody or care about any local issues? Also, what does the fact that the national office would run a loser like Keyes instead of a local tell you about how much the national-level GOP cares about local affairs?

Maybe GWB should fly in and do some high visibilty campaign phot ops with Keyes.

In the most recent exchange, Obama said he was not only going to defeat Keyes in November, he was going to give him a "spanking". Keyes response was that it was "the language of the master who, when he is displeased with the slave, gives him a whipping."

Nobody is mentioning that the reporter asked Keyes who Jesus would vote for; Keyes didn't offer the above out of the blue. Also not mentioned in the story is that the next question was whether Jesus would vote for Keyes, and Keyes declined to say that.

At least this whole affair has brought a potential GOP Babe of the Day to light.

j/k