A few years ago the South Carolina primary was a pretty big deal, where John McCain got his comeuppance after threatening to overturn the GWB machine. I drove to Greenville to check out the atmosphere that day.
George W Bush had given a speech at BJU a week or two before to shore up his support in the Bible-banging community. A day or two later Bush remarked, That school is anti-Catholic
? As usual he was clueless until it was too late.
Alan Keyes had given a speech a couple days before the primary. After the gaffe by Bush, there was pressure to stand up to or denounce the ban on interracial dating, the bias against Catholics, etc. Keyes not being a player in the campaign, I found no coverage of his speech in the press, or on his website, after the fact. So I decided to look it up in the school newspaper.
The campus is made up of lots of blocky yellowish brick buildings – definitely feels like a relic of the late 50’s. I did feel slightly out of place - later I found I may have startled people because I was wearing jeans (forbidden for students) and my girlfriend was with me (such close fraternizing or even studying is also not acceptable). But everyone was quite polite.
Anyway, the student paper contained a brief couple paragraphs and a photo. It said his speech was well-received, and may have had a quote or two. But there was no hint whatsoever that Keyes was Catholic, or that he had challenged their complacency or bigotry about race or religion.
Thanks to
Sparky I was finally able to read it here, and I too would have liked to have been there to hear it.
