Jesus Christ Pose

Somehow, we’ve all forgotten that Alan Keyes is still in the race, and his supporters are characteristically humble in their assessment of the campaign’s stakes:

When I talk to people of like mind who I think would be supportive of the presidential aspirations of Alan Keyes, their invariable response is “I’m familiar with Alan Keyes, I agree with everything he says. But, he can’t win.” In response to these objections, Dr. Keyes asks the question, “Who would you have voted for on the day of our Lord’s crucifixion: Jesus or Barabbas?”

Barabbas was the favorite, since he had the approval of the most influential portion of the population. But, which person has received the approval of history and, most importantly, which one had the approval of God?

I dunno. Par Lagerkvist wrote a pretty great little novel about Barabbas. So that’s something. But I’ll bet Jesus didn’t get 4500 votes in California; 2100 in Illinois; 350 in Minnesota; 900 in Missouri; 42 in North Dakota; and two non-Barabbas-voting clairvoyants in Montana. By my count, then, Alan Keyes is much more popular than Christ would have been on the day of his crucifixion. Also, Keyes totally kicked Tom Tancredo’s ass in Tennessee, but he got spanked pretty hard by Giuliani and Fred Thompson. All things considered, though, I’d say this was a pretty Super Tuesday for Alan Keyes.

(The NY Times and most other sites I’m watching tend to lump Keyes in with “Others,” which is just no fun at all. Fortunately, you can survey the results and feel the Keyesmentum here. And if any of our Kerrsville, Texas readers are searching about for lunch plans tomorrow, Keyes will be hanging out at the Best Western, where a $10 Italian buffet is in the works.)