At Hazleton event, Keyes announces bid for president
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
By L.A. TARONE


Staff Writer


Alan Keyes announced his intention to run for president at a Hazle Township lodge Tuesday night in front of a crowd of about 60 supporters. He also said he is dropping out of the Republican Party.


The conservative activist said he is considering seeking the nomination of the Constitution Party, though he’d run regardless of his party affiliation.


His hour-long address at Genetti Best Western Inn and Suites was interrupted numerous times by cheers and applause. Each time, he tried to quiet the crowd and continue.


Keyes, a Harvard-educated former Reagan Administration official, said his main goal in running is to restore "the sovereignty of the American people."


He had harsh words for the GOP’s eventual nominee Arizona Sen. John McCain, and the two Democratic front-runners, New York Sen. Hillary Clinton and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.


Keyes said he chose Hazleton to formally announce his run for the country’s highest office because of the attention it’s received for immigration. When he opened, he said it "feels good to be in Hazleton," adding "this part of the country is representative of the deep solid roots America has."


But Keyes also noted the strong immigrant heritage in the area, lauding "people who came here from different places to build a better life and discover the dignity of liberty, though they knew there would be those who sought to exploit them."


Video of Tuesday’s event was streamed live at Keyes’ Web site,
www.alankeyes.com.

In an hour-long speech sprinkled with humor, Keyes moved from issue to issue – illegal immigration, campaign finance reform, big government, federal involvement in education, the income tax system and more.


He decried the impact illegal immigration "has had on our social system, our schools, our hospitals, on our roads" but also the "larger crisis it manifests beyond the issue of illegal immigration"; that being, "what has become of our liberty, our republic, our government of the people, by the people and for the people."


"Those whom the people have elected have ignored them," Keyes roared. "The people are not being heard. The door has been slammed in the face of our concerns."


"The overwhelming majority has expressed the will for secure borders," Keyes said. "But they have been paid lip service, which has led to the destruction of our borders and the physical identity of the United States."


Keyes blasted the McCain/Feingold finance reform act as a governmental attempt to regulate how people communicate with each other over political issues "supposedly clean up politics."


He said people must realize "government is not the master but the servant." He blasted politicians who pander to groups, likening them to characters looking for protection money in gangster movies. Singling out Obama, he asked rhetorically, "Are you bitter because we haven’t taken good enough care of you?"


"Every official in this country does not swear to take care of you but to take care of our liberty," Keyes trumpeted.


Keyes is familiar with Obama. In 2004, he faced him in a race for the U.S. Senate in Illinois. Though he lives in Maryland, Keyes was "drafted" by the GOP after its original nominee, Jack Ryan, dropped out because of a sex scandal. He lost to Obama in a landslide.


He took numerous jabs at the three major party contenders, singling McCain out for being "dedicated to the destruction of this republic." He called the primary season a "manipulated system," adding the oft-heard ethos of voting for the lesser of two evils is "making evil your standard."


Calling himself a "life-long Republican," he said he’s abandoned the party because it no longer believes in what he saw as its founding principles, and had become "as bad as the Democrats."


"We have choices, but we have no choice," he said.


After the address, Keyes answered audience questions for another hour. The group Voice of the People USA arranged for him to appear here.


"I met (Keyes) in Iowa – he and (GOP candidate) Ron Paul were the only two who’d talk to us," the group’s leader, Dan Smeriglio, said. "I asked him if he’d come here, and he said, ‘Sure.’"


Keyes is a political veteran. He unsuccessfully ran for the GOP presidential nomination in 1996 and 2000. He also ran for the U.S. Senate in his home state of Maryland in 1988 and 1992, and lost.


Keyes first wound up in Washington working for the State Department. But he struck up a friendship with UN Ambassador Jeanne Kirkpatrick and in 1985 was appointed assistant secretary of state for international organizations, a position he held until 1987. He also served on the National Security Council.


The Constitution Party was formed in 1992 and advocates what it terms a Bible-based platform, which it claims reflects the original intent of the Founding Fathers.




tarone@standardspeaker.com
http://www.standardspeaker.com/index.ph ... 9&Itemid=2