FROM THE ‘WHY BOTHER’ DEPARTMENT

The registration freaks at the Chicago Tribune, who won’t even give you one free story, are reporting that Democrat Barack Obama has a 41-point lead (65%/24%, with 12% undecided) over carpetbaggerdistinguished politician Alan Keyes in the Illinois Senate race. Most troubling is the fact that half of Republicans surveyed said they disapproved of Keyes’ candidacy. And it sounds like Keyes’ support is squishy at best:

Conservatives said they recruited the outspoken Keyes as someone who could eloquently make the case that Obama, a Democratic state senator from Hyde Park, was too liberal to represent the state. But the poll showed that more than half of voters said they mostly agreed with Obama’s stance on issues, while less than one in five said they agreed with Keyes.

Even voters who described themselves as fairly conservative preferred Obama to Keyes by a margin of 49 percent to 40 percent.

Keyes is, of course, rather a bit out on the right, and the thought that the GOP considered him a good candidate to challenge the admittedly liberal Obama is troubling. As I’ve said here, the advantageous move in a two-party race is to stand just on the inside of your opponent politically. The Democrats left the middle unguarded with Obama; the GOP dropped the ball by handing out their nomination as a reward, proving that they really learned nothing from the Democrats in the 80s. It’s great to see two African-American candidates in a Senate race, but this thing has the potential to become the political equivalent of Kansas State’s non-conference football schedule. I can’t believe the GOP would make such a bizarre move.