ERRIMACK, N.H. - From an Iowa mosh pit to a New Hampshire Lincoln Day brunch, Alan Keyes has spread his message of personal responsibility, lower taxes, gun-ownership rights and abhorrence of abortion during this primary season.
And while polls suggest he may wind up the fourth-place finisher in today's Republican presidential primary, New Hampshire has loaned Keyes a national platform from which to make his case.
''The message needs to be gotten to the people,'' said Kathleen Burger of Chesterfield, who had come to Merrimack yesterday to hear Keyes. ''And he is a most eloquent means of getting it out.''
Keyes, a former UN ambassador and talk-show host, spoke yesterday on the Don Imus radio show live from the Lebanon, N.H., Opera House, then addressed a luncheon in Merrimack, spoke on WMUR-TV and attended a party with supporters.
''We must return to the concept that it is the citizens' responsibility to lead,'' Keyes said yesterday. ''The citizens' responsibility to decide...the citizens' responsibility to stand in the breach and do what is necessary to secure the integrity of our society.''
By Keyes's reckoning, beating Steve Forbes, who runs third in most polls, would constitute success. At the least, he needs to come ''within a reasonable distance'' of Forbes. And, he said, he fully intends to carry his message to South Carolina before that state's Feb. 19 primary.
''As long as there are folks willing to work,'' he said of his campaign, ''we'll continue to present what I think is the right choice to the American people.''
But while many voters said they like Keyes's message, and are left invigorated by his oratory, they also may shy from marking an ''X'' next to his name.
''You know, it's between him and John McCain,'' said Greg D'Arbonne, an independent voter from Brookline, a town near the Massachusetts border. ''Mr. Keyes probably won't win, but I see some of the same type of ideals in McCain.''
Burger plans to vote for Forbes.
Keyes offered a tongue-lashing yesterday to Republicans who would vote for Texas Governor George W. Bush simply because they perceive him as the ''winner.''
''I call them lemmings,'' Keyes said yesterday. ''Remember lemmings? They're that animal that periodically gets overtaken by a desire to commit suicide, and they all gather together in big bunches and march off the cliff together. I think that Bush supporters are lemmings. They're the same lemmings who handed us Bob Dole last time and marched us off the cliff of defeat.
''And Bush has exactly the same characteristics. A decent guy. Not as effective as others at articulating the issues, but what the heck? He's got a big name.''
The right man for that job, he says, is Alan Keyes.
''I think if people look honestly at the debates...and just ask themselves who is the most effective spokesman in terms of articulating the sort of moral challenge that has to be met in this country, I think the answer has been obvious for quite some time. ... So why not choose the right tool for the job?''
