I'd crawl over broke glass to vote for ANY Republican over Obama (even someone to the left of Romney like Huntsman) IF my vote mattered, but I've gotten quite cynical over the last decade as Illinois seems to always go RAT no matter what we do. Given the fact I'm in "Obama's home state" and I doubt the GOP will even TRY to win, I'd consider voting for Goode if the GOP nominated a real untrustworthy smileball. I voted for McCain 4 years ago simply because Palin was his running mate. While I can't say I regret that vote, nor can I say voting Republican for President accomplished anything (according to the official totals, during Obama-mania, McCain won 37% of the vote in my pct. without lifting a finger to campaign here, whereas Bill Brady "won" 33% of the vote in my pct. 2 years later while working his butt off to campaign in suburban Crook County against a Democrat NOBODY likes. Nah. Pay no attention to that oddity, there's no vote fraud here. Right.)
So if anyone is in a safe GOP state like Oklahoma or safe RAT state like California, I wouldn't cast judge if they vote for Goode over a RINO. Of course, I would never advocate doing so if you're in a hotly contested state like Colorado. Votes for third party conservatives do indeed risk handing the election to the RATs in those states, look no further than Bob Baar's vote total in N.C. (where he was the ONLY third party candidate on the ballot), compared to Obama's margin of victory in the state. Without Baar, that state's electoral votes would have gone to the Republican. And it was especially foolish for conservatives to vote for "Libertarian" Baar since he spent that campaign renouncing all the decent thing he did in Congress like passing the defense of marriage act.
Of course, that's a big "if", since we don't even know if the Constitution Party will nominate Goode yet. (I can see why he's running, being out of office he has nothing to lose. That's another one even worse than Santorum though-- I can't figure out how a RAT won his district since it's super conservative and Goode himself only won there by being a total DINO.). Also, I think the Keyes people still control the AIP in California. If the CP has any brains, I hope they're working out a truce there where the AIP will endorse Goode if he's the CP nominee. We'll see.
There was high Black and university kid (University of Virginia) turnout in Goode’s district which resulted in McCain winning it by only 3 points. Add in that the rat Perriello ran as a “conservative Democrat” the controversy over Goode and the Koran thing and some stupid nonsense about a Goode staffer having a minor acting role in some “gay-themed movie” called “Eden’s Curve” and there you have it, Goode was upset by an extremely small margin.
He could have walked back into the seat as a Republican but declined and instead flirted with running for it as an independent since the Republican nominee Robert Hurt had a less than stellar record. Ultimately he didn’t and Hurt unseated Perriello.
In 2004 and ‘08, I voted for Constitution Party presidential candidates. During both years, I thought that the republican nominees were too liberal, and I knew that the democrat nominees would easily win my state, Illinois. In 2012, Illinois is a swing state, and I don’t want to help split the anti-Obama vote, helping Obama win IL, with about 49% of the vote. I’ll vote for the republican nominee, and I hope that all swing state voters, who don’t support Obama, will do the same.