I would agree. If you aren’t happy with the republican candidate, and you live in a state where Romney is a sure bet, or Obama is a sure bet, and there’s a serious 3rd-party candidate who you actually think is ready to be President, vote for them.
However, I do think that some people who call for the 3rd-party vote suggest supporting whatever candidate gets the nomination from the “conservative” party they choose, whether or not that candidate has any experience at all running anything.
For example, Virgil Goode is excellent, on at least some conservative issues (judge for yourself — see his website). But I’m not sure I’d want to take the chance of making him President, without knowing a lot more about what his skills at running large organizations are. Not sure being a congressman is enough.
But some of the other 3rd-party candidates don’t even have that. Not that you need an elected office first, but certainly we’d be looking for more than “ran the HOA, served on the PTA, or were the chair of a state republican party” (not sure if any of the candidates have any of those on the resume, just using them as examples).
Herman Cain had been the president and CEO of a fairly large company, and had a lot of public speaking experience. I argued that he wasn’t very qualified from an experience perspective, but I’d expect a 3rd-party candidate to at least have that type of experience.
I think the problem is that if you really have the leadership capability to run this country, you probably would end up being a major party candidate.
By 1999 he had the most conservative voting record of any House Democrat. He passionately opposed one of the Clinton White House's favorite projects, the bill to curb tobacco consumption: ''I'm not going to support legislation that bankrupts the companies, destroys the family farm and relegates land to a place where hope is a stranger and mercy will never reach!''Goode was one of 31 Democrats to vote for the Republicans' impeachment inquiry, and in December 1998 he voted for the impeachment of Clinton, evidently not a close issue for him. ''The party line says that lying under oath in a court proceeding is not an impeachable offense. I disagree with that.'' In 1999 he kept voting with Republicans on key issues--on gun control in June, on the tax cut in July, on the budget that passed in October. Republican leaders had kept in touch with him through Republican neighbor Bob Goodlatte, who frequently urged him to switch parties. In January 2000, Goode announced that he would no longer be a member of the Democratic Caucus and would run for re-election as an Independent. He said that he opposed Democrats' positions on spending and tobacco, and would attend meetings of the House Republican Conference and contribute to their campaign committee. Republicans promptly gave him a seat on the Appropriations Committee. In February, in Danville at the Piedmont Big Sale tobacco warehouse, he endorsed George W. Bush for president.