Thursday, December 20, 2007

Doubts About My Endorsement of Alan Keyes

I do have reservations about grassroots petitioning for Alan Keye's and I may even change my voting position. This based on some more thought about endorsing Alan Keyes. Some of the things he has said that were not true but he claimed they were. That's the way it is sometimes with people but it shouldn't be so. People with passion, feel the right way but are not right (and can be proven wrong). He needs to check his speech and facts. Some reasons why I have doubts:

1. In October, on Way of the Master radio, he said that Michael Medved was pro-choice and supports abortion rights (was pretty sure but not 100%), actually Medved said he doesn't support abortion (and isn't pro-choice). "Abortion's shades of gray"

2. He said on Hannity and Colmes that Mike Huckabee is good on social issues but practically a liberal on everything else. I know Huckabee is a conservative on other issues as I used to be a supporter of his more so... but maybe his record raises questions and Huckabee's justification don't satisfy him, but it's wrong to paint him as a liberal like that. You compare his policies on guns, the borders, Iraq war, and so on, Keyes is wrong, Huckabee is conservatively positioned. Huckabee may be more able to communicate to liberals better than most and may be more embraced by liberals because he is willing to look at compassionate solutions that may violate the conservative hard line (raising taxes in his state and giving benefits for some illegal immigrant children). He may be too weak as a conservative in some ways based on his long executive record perhaps but is he practically a liberal? I don't know, unless you take a snap shot of him that is not fair, in my opinion (see issues on mikehuckabee.com).

3. On Hannity and Colmes he said he is matching Ron Paul in the polls. I heard that Paul was 5% and Keye's was 3% recently. Actually I confirmed that in one poll he does match Paul but the poll data same is small and the margin of error eats into this number probably. On other polls Paul has more but those don't include Keyes in them. http://www.pollingreport.com/wh08rep.htm

4. Said in the debate against Obama about 3 years ago for the IL US Senate race, I thought he said that the black population was actually decreasing because of abortion. I looked it up and this wasn't true but maybe I heard him wrong. Compared to other races, they are not keeping pace, because of high abortion rates. Their birth rates are lower than whites and hispanics, so it's true that they will have less influence in the future because of abortion. This is a huge African American issue, which I agree with Alan about. Don't have a link to this yet.

A links to abortion statistics by race: http://www.worldmag.com/articles/10332
Quotes from a web site about the position in the debate: "Keyes was also adamant in his characterization of abortion as a "genocide" of black Americans, citing statistics alluding to a decline in the black population of the United States across generations as a result of abortion." from a unflatering Web site

5. Is a Roman Catholic but appeals to evangelical ideals. This is difficult for many evangelicals to accept perhaps as there are difference in the understanding of Salvation.

6. Also he is not popular in even conservative circles because of his approach and the focus he has. However he is respected by some important people (Levin and Hannity). For example, his behaviour in the last debate, he spoke our of turn and spoke out of anger and he claimed there was a conspiracy against him or the issues. I don't disagree with these claims and he got my attention but it has turned off others who otherwise would agree with him perhaps. Perhaps that's okay given his lack of ability to be on TV and has no funding for commercials. His unbridled passion, intellectual arguments, and many words may He also comes across as being extremely boastful or proud but I know his speech is backed by conviction, good understanding, and passion.

7. He can't possibly win any states and he's got in so late in the game, why waste a vote. Alternatively, I could start a prayer group to pray for revival and do other things like aggressive and effective forms of evangelism.


OK, so Alan isn't perfect but perhaps is the best by far. As Alan put it, if you vote for a winner you may be deceived by Satan to compromise for the sake of position or power. Voting on conscience is key (no pun intended).

1 comment:

A said...

I had no idea he was running, letting alone losing. All he is doing is attracting money from well-meaning supporters. While I am not suggesting Keyes is scamming the system, he is certainly not treating his supporters responsibly.

He is becoming almost like a conservative Jesse Jackson: more known for publicity than action.