The American Spectator

The Spectacle Blog

Having run unsuccessfully for both the Republican and Constitution Party presidential nominations this year, nominated himself as the America's Independent Party presidential candidate, gotten his revenge on the Constitution Party by claiming its California state ballot line, and finally cracked 40,000 votes in the general election, some of us were curious as to what Alan Keyes would do for his next act.

Well, Dave Weigel found out so you don't have to. Keyes is trying to keep Barack Obama from receiving California's electoral votes until the president-elect has provided a birth certificate proving he was born in the United States. Of course, if Keyes was really serious about keeping Obama from becoming president the best thing he could have done was decided against his 2004 Senate race from Illinois.

As Weigel points out, Keyes is actually the sanest person actively involved in pushing this conspiracy theory. Phil Berg is a 9/11 truther, Andy Martin once ran for Congress (as a Democrat) in order "exterminate Jew power." More interesting is what has happened to Keyes. He was once an interesting conservative thinker, even if he lacked the people skills for electoral politics. But the Obama-Keyes Senate race seems to have been a sad turning point in the former Reagan administration official's career.

Confession/full disclosure: I voted for Keyes for president in the 1996 and 2000 Republican primaries.