I wasn't planning on posting this afternoon until I saw this. At some point, Keyes needs to realize he could have just hung up the phone on the Illinois GOP and stayed in Maryland. Instead, he went to Illinois to be (what they hoped) a good foot soldier and help build the party. Well-spoken, principled, a public figure and, let's face it, African American, Keyes was expected to do his party to make a respectable showing while maybe reaching a whole new group of voters.
Instead he went nuts. Instead of building the party, his erratic behavior cost him 40% of the base Republican vote in Illinois (according AP exit polls), and lost by 43% of the total vote. He didn't get 43%; 43% was Barack Obama's margin of victory. The only way Obama could have lost is if his name really was Bin Laden Osama. (I'm sure this joke has been used a lot.)
So, having been crushed, having gotten numbers that rival the Libertarian Party, Alan Keyes has refused to call to congratulate the winner. That's okay, because by the time election day came, Obama probably forgot all about his opponent. After all, he had more important things to do, like pick out his new US Senate stationary.
