HOWEVER, if some ABO conservative who is supporting Romney only because he's been shoved down conservative throats gets to Oct 31 and sees Romney down 3+ points (approximately the MOE in a large sample such as right before the election) in the polls, then it makes sense for that guy not to WASTE his vote on Romney. Why vote for a liberal who is losing?
Instead, that ABO conservative would send a powerful message by voting for a real conservative, Goode, rather than waste a vote on a losing Romney.
By their own logic, the only reason they are voting for Romney is because he has a “better” chance than any 3rd party or write-in. If Romney is losing by a significant difference at election time, then it makes sense to NOT waste a vote, but instead to send a conservative, COUNTABLE message by voting for Goode.
The ABO’s can, of course, set their own threshold. Maybe they want to use 5+ points or 7+ points. If it's 7+, I guarantee that Romney is losing.
Why do you say Romney will lose?
My hunch is that, after next Tuesday's Texas primary, Romney will have sewn up the necessary votes to make him the successful GOP candidate. At that point, do not expect any "surprises" out of the nominating convention in August. Do not expect any back-room maneuvers to replace him on the ticket in the general election in November. (By the way, why do you expect a convention run by the GOP to intervene in, and change the verdict rendered by voters in the primaries? It is simply not going to happen.)
In any case, the good man Virgil Goode — the rock-ribbed conservative — hasn't got a chance of defeating Obama in the general election anyway. Short of divine intervention, of course.
Yet I expect our good Lord leaves this kind of electoral business to us, We the People.
You seem to want to cast a taint on the "ABO" crowd. That there is something deeply immoral about people trying to remove this tyrant — that would be Obama — from office.
I find myself located in the ABO company. This must make me a very bad person, on your view.
And yet, for me the bottom line is: I can no longer stand to live in a political society premised on outright, daily lies and spin of the real situation in which America finds herself nowadays, under Obama and the thugs that surround and enable him. If Obama does not want to deliberately destroy the country we know and love, you could have fooled me: His policies — which he constantly misrepresents (i.e., lies about) — are designed to do just that.
In conclusion, Obama is a serial, pathological liar. He is trying to create a "second reality" out of sheer rhetoric....
I'd vote for my cat before I'd ever vote for him. And I won't waste my vote on Virgil Goode — who hasn't got a snowball's chance in Hell of being elected President of the United States — just to send a "message" to the GOP "establishment."
Secure the well-being of the country first. Though you have demonized him and constructed an unrecognizeable caricature of the man — in my view from Massachusetts — Romney has the right stuff to at least stop the bleeding. Then we can deal with the feckless and seemingly increasingly unprincipled GOP establishment.
In short, if the boat is sinking, bail the boat first. A sunken boat only means drowned crew and passengers.... And that sort of thing is "forever."
FWIW JMHO.