- After watching the tape, I have to say, if I were Obama, I would want out of the debates. Why would you want to be in the same room as Keyes? Calling you names and talking in his condescending voice.
- Keyes says that the debates don't exist to serve him. Whatever. Then he rambles about serving the people and how the people need to know how all 4 candidates stand. But Keyes/Obama "undecideds" have to be even more confused Kerry/Bush "undecideds." There is absolutely no way to not know where these candidates differ. The "undecideds" exist because there are Republicans who don't know whether to stay home or vote. But it's not because they don't know where the candidates stand.
- Keyes spends his time attacking Kerry on the War on Iraq. He made a quick comment about "the wisdom of hindsight" being easy and how "John Kerry and Barack Obama run around now..." Then, he switched to Kerry, perhaps remembering how Obama had foresight.
- As to terrorism and the war, Keyes is still confused about what Iraq was (integral part of the global infrastucture on terror). And then becomes very hostile, arguing that exit strategies are not appropriate: "What do we call somebody who when you get into a battle immediately starts thinking about how to get out of it. What do we call these people? You know what we call these people?" He says that an exit strategy is not a victory strategy. O.K., but I can buy that but Bush didn't seem to have a victory strategy either.
- Then, he goes with the "I have more experience than you" on the war. He claims that every night while on the National Security Council, he went to bed thinking about terrorism. I can't decide whether it's better or worse to go to bed with people thinking how to kill you, or to go to bed haunted by the possibility of a child. Either way, it's a fraught-filled existence for Alan Keyes.
- With all of Keyes' experience on terrorism and national security, I would have thought that he would have been called to testify before the 9/11 commission.
- He refused to answer the question of preemptive strikes for Iran or North Korea, arguing that it's a hypothetical question.
Like the debates, I'll save the domestic issues for another day...
