September 1, 1999

More than 3000 Republican delegates from Alabama counties gathered this past weekend for the state's first presidential straw poll. Of the nine GOP candidates, only Alan Keyes and Orrin Hatch attended, and these delegates rewarded them for their effort. Keyes, winning with 29% of the vote, Hatch was second with 27%. GOP frontrunner George W. Bush with was third with 25%. The rest of the field was in single digits, with Gary Bauer finishing fourth, followed by Elizabeth Dole and Steve Forbes.

Joining us now--President candidate, former Ambassador Alan Keyes. What accounts for your win?

Alan Keyes: Well, I think it's a combination of things. The views I represent, I think, are very popular with conservatives in the South. And I also think, of course, it helped to show some respect for the grassroots people who spent months putting together this straw poll and who took it very seriously. There were choices that were made on the county level and things of this kind. It was an effort on the part of the folks in Alabama to have an influence on the process so their grassroots people would not be left out. And I thought it was important to show respect for that and did. So, I think the combination was important. We have good grassroots strength in Alabama in terms of the message of moral priority that I represent. And I also think it says something significant about the "New South," about the fact that a black Republican candidate goes into the heart of the deep South. The notion that just by showing up you win an election I think does a great disservice to the truth--in that it would have to be an indication of some enormous and fundamental changes in the heart and condition of America that I don't think many people want to acknowledge. But I see it all the time, that folks now are focused on views, they're focused on, "Does this person reflect my heart?" And a lot of the racial baggage which, unfortunately, is still held against people in the south turns out to be a thing of the past.

BS: The Ames, Iowa, straw poll--where did you finish?

AK: We got 1100 votes, I think--I forget where that put me in the field, 7th or something like that. But of course that was a bought-and-sold straw poll. In this straw poll, you were having people from the grassroots, chosen by folks of the grassroots. No money, no tickets bought, no things that could be influenced and bought and sold. So this was not an auction block straw poll, which was defined by money. It was an actual reflection of what people feel at the grassroots in Alabama.

BS: From Iowa defeat, to Alabama victory. Justification for your candidacy?

AK: Well no, the justification for my candidacy is in the issues that I represent. And those issues which have to do the fact that we are in the midst of the greatest moral crisis this country has ever seen. It is in fact affecting us in ways that destroy our institutions as we have seen with the presidency, that affect what goes on in our schools, as we see in tragedies like Columbine. I think a lot of Americans are waking up to the fact that we are going to lose our liberty and system of self-government if we don't address the issues like abortion and other issues that are poisoning our moral conscience.

BS: Alan Keyes, on that point--abortion. One of your opponents, Arizona Senator John McCain, says that he is now for overturning Roe v. Wade. I see you're smiling. Is Senator McCain hurting the pro-life cause?

AK: Really I'm smiling because politics these days is, for a lot of these guys, about telling people what they want to hear. You get in front of one audience and you say you won't overturn, you get in front of another and say you will, because the only thing that matters is that you do what your pollsters and your focus group people tell you will win votes. I think that is a wrong and corrupting way to approach our politics. It's the way everybody else does it. I refuse to do it that way. I simply go before people speaking the truth as best I can see it, and think it through--and if folks can support me on that basis, fine. If they don't, then I'll lose. But, as I said in Alabama over the weekend, I would rather get elected to nothing than stand for nothing.

BS: Are you also in effect saying, in effect saying, saying that Governor Bush, Senator McCain, Elizabeth Dole are gutless on the issue of abortion?

AK: I haven't said anything of the kind. I wouldn't say "gutless." I think they're just expedient-minded politicians. They are doing whatever they think will get them power. They are not doing what is required by principle, what is required by a conscientious effort to present to the American people the issues that we really need to address if we are to survive in freedom. That's what I think our politics should be about. For these people, it is just about money and power--and I think folks who support them get exactly what they deserve.

BS: There seems to be a preoccupation with the top three in the field, the crowded field of Republican candidates. Lamar Alexander has dropped out. Might you drop out?

AK: Well, I'm only preoccupied with trying to present to the folks at the Republican grassroots what I believe reflects their real heart and principles. The kinds of things that were put in the Republican platform last time which Bob Dole says he hadn't even bothered to read. I think it's about time we had a Republican presidential candidate who not only reads, but believes in the things that the Republican Party says that it represents before the American people. I think it's time to stop dealing with these expedient-minded, tell-them-what-they-want-to-hear politicians, and instead start standing before the people and speaking to the issues from your heart--and letting folks make up their minds based on what you actually believe.

BS: You are respected as a party strategist. If Governor Bush gets your party's presidential nomination, who should be his running mate?

AK: Well I don't speculate on things like that. We haven't had a single actual caucus or primary in this country. The fact that people are pre-empting the vote of our people, trying to act like media folks or moneybags, should be deciding the election. The people of this country should decide who the nominee is going to be--and before they have spoken, I don't see any reason to talk as if I know who's going to win.

BS: Who's doing this pre-empting?

AK: Well, I think it's quite clear. No vote has been taken.

BS: Names.

AK: You just sat here just now talking to me as if George W. Bush is the winner. What has he won?

BS: I said "if." But who are these people preempting? Give our viewers . . . (crosstalk) who are doing the preempting?

AK: I think it's clearly the strategy of the Bush campaign to create an impression that the combination of money and media attention can take the place of actual votes in primaries and caucuses, and therefore, telling the country that, "Well, he's won already, don't bother with anybody else," that is a way of trying to act as if the actual election doesn't matter. And if the people at the grassroots are willing to be herded this way, sad to say, we will have turned our elections into a media-manipulated, money-manipulation sham. And that will destroy our system of self-government. I think it's very dangerous what they're doing.

BS: Mr. Alan Keyes, thanks for joining us on Inside Politics.

AK: Good to be with you

BS: Good to have you, and good to see you in person.