September 21, 2004

How To Loose An Election This article on Alan Keyes is so hysterical that it reads like a Tom Tomorrow comic strip. I let you monkeys read it and post your comments.

I looked up some polls numbers for Keyes and found this quote.

But Keyes and his supporters say polls are inaccurate.
posted by Sullivan 20 years ago
  • Okay, I REALLY don't mean to nitpick but I see this more and more and it makes my teeth grind. Loose - Not fastened, restrained, or contained Lose - To be unsuccessful in retaining possession of; mislay. C'mon people!
  • You S(n)ooz you lo(o)se.
  • "Abortion and terrorism share a common root - a disregard for life." "The child who is willing to line up his toy soldiers and not merely admire them but swat them down and 'put them into the meat grinder' will be a great general." ...wait a minute.
  • Sullivan was using an archaic sense of 'loose':
    ‡5. To weaken the adhesion or attachment of; = LOOSEN v. 3; to make unstable or insecure in position. Also intr. for pass. Now only arch.
    13.. E.E Allit. P. B. 957 {Th}e rayn rueled doun..Gorde to gomorra {th}at {th}e grounde laused. 1375 BARBOUR Bruce VI. 253 A gret stane..That throu the gret anciente Was lowsyt, reddy for to fall. c1420 Chron. Vilod. st. 1117 {Th}en sye he how his fedris weron lewesode ychone. 1523 FITZHERB. Husb. §126 With the wyndynge of the edderynges thou dost leuse thy stakes and therfore they must nedes be..hardened agayne. 1526 Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 254 The hole frame of the ioyntes of his body dissolued and losed. 1530 PALSGR. 615/1, I lowse a tree or herbe from the roote. Ibid., Se howe the heate hath made these bordes to lowse asonder. c1550 LLOYD Treas. Health (? 1550) Hiij, A stroke or faul, wherby the ioyntes of the backe bone ar loused. 1611 BIBLE Ecclus. xxii, 16 As timbers girt and bound together in a building cannot be loosed with shaking. 1864 SWINBURNE Atalanta 1062 The firm land have they loosed and shaken.
    Source: Oxford English Dictionary, II ed., 1989
  • Keyes is in the advance guard of the Republican trajectory, taking his cues from the presidential campaign and going one step further. He's gleefully acknowledging that, unlike his opponent, he's not gonna say a goddamn thing that makes sense throughout the campaign. Yep, that'll make a loser of Obama, all right.
  • Sooooz, thank you for pointing that out. But he likened Democratic opponent Barack Obama to a "terrorist" because Obama, a state senator, voted against a legislative proposal pushed by abortion foes, sources said. I think Keyes is confused by Obama's name. Yes, it sounds like a terrorist name, but he's NOT a terrorist!
  • Sooooz, thank you for pointing that out. F8xy hates my liberal use of spelling. ;)
  • What a leuser. Keyes, I mean.
  • Maybe he could try out for the next Winter Olympics. In the luge.
  • Alan Keyes mp3s from his campaign site. I loved how Keyes compared to people that are pro-choice were the same people that opposed civil rights. I am listening to Keyes say that it is (was) unlawful for the Ten Commandments to be taken out of the Alabama courthouse. Keyes don't know shit about law.
  • I think i'm dyslexic...i read that as "How to lose an erection!"
  • Although you can't really tell it from these quotes, Keyes is a genuinely brilliant man. I remember watching him in the Republican presidential candidates debate in 2000, and he easily came across as the candidate with the most brains, passion, and speaking ability. His ability to reason from basic premises is staggering. The only problem, of course, is that those basic premises are (to a moderate Democrat like me) nuts. Unlike Keyes, for example, I don't think that the inclusion of the phrase "endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights" in the Declaration of Independence implies that religion has an inherent place in our government. But Keyes makes as good a case for it as you can make. So when you see these quotes from him, keep in mind that there's is probably a wholly well-reasoned argument leading up to them, but it's only the crazy-sounding conclusions that are being quoted in the paper. There's a difference between "This man has a worldview that is utterly different from mine" and "This man is insane."
  • I think i'm dyslexic...i read that as "How to lose an erection!" Alan Keyes' speeches work for that, too.
  • Okay, ideology aside, who votes for this man? Honestly, who really thinks that this walking pud could honestly succeed at anything resembling leadership? Does ideology mean so much that you're willing to welcome Senator Comic Relief to run things? Only 54% see him as unfavorable?
  • Fresh Air recently interviewed Keyes. As jacobw points out, he's brilliant and completely whacko, all at the same time. Not many people can pull that off.
  • he's brilliant and completely whacko, all at the same time. Not many people can pull that off. Nixon could.