Copley weekend political columnist Doug Finke hits the nail on the head.

If you think the Republicans were nuts to select carpetbagging Alan Keyes as their U.S. Senate candidate, you’ll love a Daily Southtown newspaper poll from last week.

Like every other poll, this one showed Democrat Barack Obama with a huge lead over Keyes. However, this poll also asked people how they perceived the candidates, as extremist or mainstream or whatever. The results show that people think Keyes is some kind of extremist while they think Obama is more mainstream.

If you recall, one reason the GOP geniuses wanted Keyes as a candidate is they thought his conservative positions would underscore what an ultra liberal (their term) Obama is and scare away voters. Instead, like most everything else with this debacle, the reverse is true. Keyes is so far out there, people think Obama is a regular guy.

Has there ever been so seasoned a group of political operatives who were so wrong about a candidate as the Republicans were about Keyes?

The answer to that rhetorical question is obviously, “No.”