The Edwardsville Intelligencer decides not to go with either candidate in the US Senate race:

But, like Kerry, (Barack Obama) doesn’t lay out any plans that might shed some light on his intentions.

He is middle of the road because he needs to be. It’s no secret Obama is being groomed for an eventual run at the White House.

Here is what he had to say on a Chicago radio station about gay marriage:

“I believe marriage is between a man and a woman, but I also detest the sort of bashing and vilifying of gays and lesbians.”

He addressed marriage and he addressed homosexuals, but he didn’t put the two together.

Not that it’s going to matter much.

Obama is going to win and win easily.

Keyes was rushed into the race and has been able to do little more than sling arrows at Obama. We know he stands for negative campaigning and he will be the first at the national level to try to tarnish Obama’s image.

But image and arrows aren’t enough and as a result, we cannot endorse either candidate in this race.

The paper also gave John Kerry one of the weakest endorsements I think I’ve ever seen in a presidential race.

Meanwhile, the Daily Vidette has a piece today on the other candidates running for Senate.

Although U.S. Senate candidates Barack Obama and Alan Keyes will face off tonight in the second debate of the race, there are two other candidates who will not be involved.

“They wouldn’t even let me in to watch [the first debate],” said Jerry Kohn, the Libertarian candidate for U.S. Senate, adding this shows “how unfair and unbalanced the system is in favor of the two major parties.”

The article is mostly a profile of Kohn, and the various write-in candidates are not mentioned. One of those write-ins, Mark Kuhnke, blasted out this e-mail yesterday:

I’m asking my supporters to dig deep into their email lists and address books. Do you have a friend in Flora, a gal in Galena, a cousin in Quincy? ( I could go on, but you get my drift.) Let anyone and everyone you can know about this campaign, and send them the website address, www.kuhnke4senate.com.

We are making inroads, and a few polls have listed me as 1 - 3 %. One radio poll in southern Illinois had me at 9%, but it was not a significan number. Thank you for all your help to this point, and I thank you in advance for your support in the upcoming 10 days. Enjoy the game - Go Cards!….Mark Kuhnke MD

Has anyone seen these polls that Kuhnke is talking about? There’s nothing on his website and Google News produces only a single story for “Mark Kuhnke.”

Finally, here’s the Quincy Herald Whig report on its 47th Senate District poll on the presidential and US Senate races that I wrote about today.

Obama has a commanding 53 percent to 17 percent lead over Keyes among voters in The Herald-Whig/WGEM poll. Obama has gained six points since an Oct. 3 poll and has 84 percent of the Democratic vote and 37 percent of the Republican vote.

Bush has a 51.5 percent to 35.4 percent lead over Kerry in a race that is considered a statistical dead heat nationally. Both candidates receive strong support in Western Illinois from their own party — 87 percent of Republicans surveyed stand by Bush and 85 percent of Democrats support Kerry.

Here’s my favorite part:

“It (wasn’t) right to bring in Alan Keyes from out of state,” Lori said.

Terri, a Mason County Republican, summed up her vote: “I’m not real thrilled, but I’ll vote for Keyes,” she said.

Those who support Keyes often mention his stances against abortion, against gay marriage and in favor of gun rights. Others said his campaign has been over the top on moral issues and short on substance for most Illinois voters.

“Keyes is awful,” said Diana, an independent voter from Mason County.