…former ambassador and conservative activist Alan Keyes?

He’s actually planning to grace Missouri with a visit next weekend, where he is angling to be the Constitution Party candidate for president this year. He is slated to be at the party’s national convention in Kansas City.

Keyes is broadcasting a Pennsylvania press conference tonight on his Website; there he is expected to make all of these intentions clear. A preview: Keyes says he’s just tired of the GOP.

Keyes has spent this year and much of last being ignored by the media as a GOP presidential candidate. Then again, he is a veteran of ignored political campaigns; he captured three percent of the Republican primary vote nationwide in 1996, and again ran in 2000. He also was the GOP nominee for U.S. Senate in Maryland in 1988 and 1992, and did considerably better but was still beat handily.

Folks in our area likely best remember him from his campaign in 2004 for the vacant U.S. Senate seat in Illinois. Keyes was recruited as a last-ditch GOP fallguy against Barack Obama, after the primary winner, Jack Ryan, imploded in a divorce/sex scandal, and some other runners-up wanted to dodge the Obama train.

Keyes — as he did in Illinois — has traditionally championed a platform that appears to be more conservative than the GOP electorate in general. But he also has a bit of money and some limited star power. 

The historical highlights of his platform include staunch opposition for gay marriage and homosexuality (which reportedly led to a dust-up with his lesbian daughter Maya), support for a harsh crackdown on Palestinians by Israel, defense of Alabama/Ten Commandments Judge Roy Moore, and advocacy of state intervention in the Terri Schiavo case. His background: a PhD in government from Harvard and almost 20 years as a diplomat mostly under Ronald Reagan.

Keyes for his part has never really given up his quest to influence the national conservative debate. His website proudly bears a quote from Ronald Reagan at a 1988 fundraiser: “I’ve never known a more stout-hearted defender of a strong America than Alan Keyes.”

Below, I’ve posted the most watched video from Keyes’ YouTube channel.