Google video: Chuck Baldwin Accepts Nomination of the Constitution Party 2008
I have quoted or linked to Chuck Baldwin's columns, which I generally enjoy, but I think the Constitution Party has made a mistake. Alan Keyes would have made a better candidate in the year of Barack Obama than a white southern preacher will. The Constitution Party wan't going to win no matter who they nominated; this year it's all about media exposure. "Major political party nominates black former Ambassador for President" is news; "Constitution Party nominates white fundy preacher for President" is not news. True, Keyes lost to Obama in Illinois, and the media doesn't like Keyes' message any more than Baldwin's, but the CP is now going to be written off as "the good ol' boy party."
Here's a video of Alan Keyes produced by Mike Ferguson at Missouri Viewpoints just after he lost the nomination:
Keyes, a former Ambassador to the United Nations, apparently got dumped by the Constitution Party in part because he still supports the United Nations in some way. (I'm only reading between the lines in the video; haven't read any other accounts of the CP convention procedings.) I think Keyes makes a good point in this interview: that America cannot be "isolationist" -- something the CP probably tends to be.
I've criticized Alan Keyes for his egotism, and in the video above he starts off with a lot of me-centered whining about not getting the nomination. But he's a better orator than Chuck Baldwin, even though some people call him "rude."
Pledge for America's Revival :: AlanKeyes.com
I like a lot of things Chuck Baldwin says, but given a choice between Baldwin and Bob Barr, I think I might go with Barr even though Barr (so far as I know) makes no claim to be a Christian or a defender of America as a Christian nation. I like the pro-Christian rhetoric of the Constitution Party. But Baldwin's (and the CP's) position on immigration is unChristian and unConstitutional, with emphasis on the "unChristian" part. And because Baldwin explicitly campaigns as a Christian and a pastor, this makes his position on immigration more offensive to me -- I don't want non-Christians to conclude that Christians are anti-immigrant and pro-INS, and I would rather support a "secular" candidate like Bob Barr than a candidate who might give the wrong impression because he openly acknowledges his Christian commitments. But I'll have to think more about this decision between now and November.
(I'm sorry; the INS [Immigration and Naturalization Service, aka "la migra"] is now part of Homeland Security, and is called the "USCIS.)
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