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Conservative grassroots movement pushing for Keyes presidency

Supporters of two-time Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes plan to attend the Iowa Republican Party's straw poll in Ames on Saturday in hopes of catapulting the former Reagan administration diplomat into another White House bid.



The draft-Keyes movement says it does not yet have the budget to pay $15,000 for the right to have a tent at the straw poll, but is paying $1,000 for a table with no decorations inside the Iowa State Center and another outside the building. It also intends to distribute 11,000 flyers.

Stephen Stone, CEO of the "We Need Alan Keyes for President Movement," says it is hard to gauge the number of Keyes supporters out there, but notes 1,200 have signed a petition to draft the fiery conservative.

"If you read the comments that these people make, you would realize those comments are worth hundreds, if not thousands, of just nominal supporters," Stone suggests. He explains that Keyes desires for his supporters to "plow the trail" for him this time. "You know, to lead out and show that there is enough support for him to credibly stand forth and be a candidate," says Stone. "Otherwise, he's standing back -- somewhat as Gingrich is doing, and supposedly Fred Thompson -- and just watching."

Stone believes that if Keyes decides to run, he would quickly rally the conservative base. Keyes, he states, "stands firmly on moral premises" -- and that, says the leader of the draft-Keyes movement, is what sets him apart from the other candidates.

"He views the whole gamut of political issues and choices and policies and laws, even, as moral issues," he says. "And he stands on the Declaration of Independence; none of the others do this -- he stands on the Declaration of Independence in defining his moral message, and he defines that moral message as involving God, because our rights come from God."

Stone also says if the mainstream media would publicize Alan Keyes like they do Barack Obama and Rudy Giuliani, he too would explode as a national figure.