Billiken crowd jeers Keyes, cheers Obama

Billiken crowd jeers Keyes, cheers Obama

Dissent heats up when GOP Senate hopeful makes appearance at South Side parade

By David Mendell
Tribune staff reporter
Published August 15, 2004

If U.S. Senate candidate Alan Keyes had any notions of capturing the hearts and minds of Chicago's black electorate, the annual Bud Billiken Day Parade on Saturday proved that this task will be nothing short of daunting for the Republican.

Keyes, the conservative political figure from Maryland who entered the Senate race last week after GOP nominee Jack Ryan withdrew his candidacy, made his first trip Saturday into the heart of Chicago's black community. Keyes, an African-American, was greeted with a resounding chorus of jeers and boos that bordered on outright hostility.

"Go back to Maryland!" and "Down with Keyes!" were the most common refrains.

The 75-year-old Billiken parade, which ran south along Martin Luther King Drive from Pershing Road to 55th Street, is touted as the largest African-American parade in the country and the biggest in Chicago. Besides baton twirlers, cowboys on horseback and colorful floats, politicians seeking black votes are wise not to forgo the gathering on the South Side.

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http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chicago/chi-0408150393aug15,1,5211767.story?coll=chi-newslocalchicago-hed

Bush needs to campaign with Keyes to help him out and to prove that the Republicans really care about black voters. :)

A very clever man suggested this to Bush, and I agree with him.

:toast::bounce::bounce::bounce::party::bounce::bounce::bounce::toast::dem:

Or "suspends" his campaign in October.

Yes! The nerve of Keyes to try to rain on Obama's parade.

I hope he realized how welcome he is in Chicago.

else!

snips~
Another man briefly grabbed Keyes' arm and advised Keyes, "Take your back to Maryland."

Indeed, through all the mayhem, Keyes kept a smile on his face. Always a fiery speaker, he even stopped on occasion to preach to his naysayers.

"Why are you representing hate?" he asked, wagging a finger at a throng of people dressed in Obama T-shirts who were jeering him.end snips~

Look who's talkin'? Preacher of hate!

Man, Keyes is just barkin mad, ain't he? Loonier than a stray hopped up on catnip.

nothing more. It deflects the truth about the true hate in the GOP. It may be hypocrisy, but its primarily a tactic. Understand it for what it is.

... to vote for senators.

Why would anybody ever listen to anything he said?

stink eye!

then I think of winter, and suddenly I don't miss it so much.

now?:)

Maybe he should quit his day job?

go on a duets tour!

Let's see Duhbya drag Keyes into the Senate on his invincible coattails! It can't miss!

"Do you endorse Alan Keyes for the U.S. Senate?"

And, there was probably a color related adjective before "ass" in the sentence that was not quoted.

....this is actually kind of embarassing...