Alan Keyes and the GOP Debate

For some reason, organizers of today's GOP debate in Iowa have invited Alan Keyes to join the other contenders. The only plausible reason for doing so is to up the event's entertainment value. Keyes just got into the race, hasn't campaigned at all, and is at zero in the polls. Plus, his disastrous U.S. Senate campaign against Barack Obama in 2004 destroyed any shred of credibility he had left. In short, he makes Mike Gravel look like a heavyweight contender. But with Keyes in the debate, I can't but help thinking that this work's to Mike Huckabee's advantage. An earlier, saner version of Keyes might have threatened to steal votes from Huckabee, but in this incarnation Keyes is most likely to keep raising social and moral issue and scolding the other candidates for their failure to uphold natural law and federalist principals. In such a situation, the non-Huckabee candidates will likely come off looking worse. On the other hand, Keyes is such a loose canon, who knows what he will do. With the writers' strike still on, this debate might be the best television all season.