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SideburnsOfDoomtoday at 3:21 PM1 replyview on HN

> almost unheard of in the US for an elected politician to poll lower than 30%, it seems to be a floor

Alan Keyes apparently set the floor at 27%, which is not far below 30%

> Obama vs. Alan Keyes. ... Keyes was plainly, obviously, completely crazy. But 27% of the population of Illinois voted for him. They put party identification, personal prejudice, whatever ahead of rational judgement.

https://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/10/lunch-discussions-145-...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_United_States_Senate_elec...

And lizardman's Constant is 4% https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Lizardman%27s_Constant


Replies

BoggleOhYeahtoday at 5:07 PM

To drive that home, Alan Keyes got to 27% by

- running against a charismatic Obama

- being a last minute insert when Jack Ryan was caught in a sex scandal (who was already fighting an uphill battle with sharing a last name with the corrupt former governor)

- being a carpetbagger (he didn't live in Illinois at any point until running for senate)

- running as a hard-line social conservative in a state where the GOP is torn between appealing to suburban Chicago fiscal conservatives and downstate Illinois social conservatives

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