Hear, hear!
Posted on 07/24/2012 6:28:39 PM PDT by xzins
While many on the right fear that Constitution Party presidential candidate Virgil Goode might just draw enough votes in his native Virginia to tip the Old Dominion’s 14 electoral votes from Mitt Romney to Barack Obama, the former six-term congressman made it clear he doesn’t care.
Goode, in fact, feels that “in many ways, for conservatives, it might be better to have Obama as president next year rather than Romney.”
The 65-year-old Goode spoke to Human Events last week as he and his supporters were in the process of gathering the 10,000 signatures they need to submit before the Aug. 24 deadline to qualify for Virginia’s November ballot. Founded by Conservative Caucus chairman and venerable conservative leader Howard Phillips, the Constitution Party is so far on the ballot in 17 states. Right now, Goode told us, the party is making attempts to secure ballot positions in other key states such as Arkansas, Alabama, Iowa, Kentucky, and Pennsylvania — the home state of the Constitution Party’s vice presidential nominee Jim Clymer.
But what has clearly set off alarm bells among conservatives lately is the scenario of Goode making the ballot in Virginia — where he won the 5th District U.S. House seat as a Democrat, Independent, and Republican from 1996 until his narrow defeat in 2008. Polls show the state, which Obama narrowly carried over John McCain in 2008, seesawing between the president and his Republican opponent in 2012. A just-completed Quinnipiac Poll showed Obama and Romney tied among likely Virginia voters, with each getting 44 percent — down from Obama’s 47 to 42 percent edge in the same poll in June.
Of particular concern to Republicans is Goode’s strength in his home turf: the Danville-Charlottesville area that he represented in Congress and previously as state senator. Four years after he lost the closest House race, the former congressman remains popular in his former turf. In addition, his hard-line stance on immigration, strong emphasis on limited government and focus on following the U.S. Constitution seems more likely to woo Virginians who would otherwise vote for Romney than those inclined to Obama.
“If I’m on the ballot in Virginia, I could cost Obama a lot of votes — possibly as much as or even more than Romney,” Goode told us, repeating a line that many third party contenders have taken over the years. “There are a lot of life-long Democrats (in the Fifth District) who say they’ll hold their nose and vote for Obama. But as the fellow in the filling station up the road told me, ‘I’m a Democrat, but if you’re on the ballot, Virgil, I’m voting for you.’”
We recalled how much as it was widely interpreted that Obama’s victory by a plurality over John McCain in North Carolina in 2008 was due to votes for Libertarian Bob Barr. We then pointed out to Goode that, regardless of his interpretation, pundits and political analysts would almost certainly interpret a narrow Obama win in Virginia to a strong Goode showing and asked how he would feel then.
“In many ways, for conservatives, it might be better to have Obama as president next year rather than Romney,” replied Goode, explaining that “it would be tougher to get through Congress some bad things under Obama than it would under Romney.”
“Take one for the team? Not me brother!”
Recalling how the president announced earlier this year his order not to pursue deportation of illegal aliens who complete high school or join the military, Goode noted that “Romney wouldn’t come out against the short-term amnesty. He was just going with the wind. If Obama were president, Republicans in Congress would oppose him on things like this on principle and almost unanimously. But if Romney were president, he would probably get it through (Congress).
“Remember how (Republican presidential candidate Rick) Santorum explained his vote for the No Child Left Behind (federal education program under George W. Bush) by saying: ‘Sometimes you’ve got take one for the team.’ That’s the argument Romney would use with Republicans to get them to pass things they normally wouldn’t oppose.”
As a Democrat in Congress in the 1990s, Goode pointed out that he voted a strong right-to-life line despite the fact that the Democratic leadership was in the other camp on the abortion issue. As a Republican from 2002-08, he said, “I was urged to ‘take one for the team’ and vote for CAFTA (a free trade agreement). I didn’t think it was good for the country and I opposed it. Sometimes you have to show some backbone.”
As a Democrat, Goode in the House scored unusually high ratings of 84 percent and 83 pe cent with the American Conservative Union; as an independent and later a Republican, his ratings went higher and his lifetime ACU average in 96 percent.
In carrying the banner of the Constitution Party, Virgil Goode is again not “taking one for the team.” Whether he qualifies for the Virginia ballot Aug. 24 and how well he does in his home state will surely be watched there, as well as by Republicans nationwide.
Third party candidates: Cutting off your nose to spite your face.
Show me the link where Obama has denounced gay couples.
I will show you a zillion links where real people, middle class people, are suffering in this Obama economy. My own two kids are about to graduate from a university and they are worried about finding jobs. May be it does not affect computer geeks posting stuff to diminish GOP turnout.
Second place only counts in horse-racing...'tis a ridiculous conclusion to cite how second-place is somehow of import.
Fact: Neither Goode nor Romney will beat out Obama in Oregon. It won't matter electorally if Romney beats Goode in Oregon...he'll still finish a "loser" in Oregon!!! Therefore, the REAL conservatives on FR should be carrying over their pragmatic utilitarian political relativism that they've been practicing on behalf of Romney and apply it to Virgil Goode. Instead of talking smack about Goode -- for say, Oregon voters -- if they were TRUE conservatives, they'd want Oregon voters to send a message to the RINO GoP and push Goode ahead of Romney there...at least as a token message to the RINOs.
But the Romneybots betray their conservative principles. They don't push Goode in Oregon...why not?
Twice.
We adults will do the heavy lifting to defeat this pos wanna be dictator.
What ever the result may be from this election, you and your ilk lose the right to bitch for ever more.
What a bunch of petulant selfish teenager types you are.
It won't be good for THIS conservative! I shudder to think what an 'unbridled by the need for re-election' Obama would do to this country.
I want to see him defeated and humiliated, and as many as can be defeated, his Democrat buds in the Senate and House along with him.
If Obama is guaranteed a win in Oregon, stay home or go to the polls and leave the top slot blank to “send a message”.
Telegrams work too.
AND that is why WE must make sure that oboma fails in November. Commies never give up and they never sleep. We must start thinking like the boots on the ground that we are, and win this war, before it is too late. And if oboma wins in November, it WILL be too late for us.
I totally agree with you. The righteous are once again pounding away at Romney's religion. Like I've said previously, Mormonism is of NO threat to me. oboma’s socialsit/communist/marxist/revolutinary/sharia law loving policies ARE the greatest threat to us all. I say to these bashers on this link, stop already with the bashing of Romney's religion...just own up to the fact that you're making excuses for why you will vote for oboma, and not Romney. And if Romney loses in November, own up to the fact that your “righteousness” won you and the rest of us a whole lot of hell under the jackboot of oboma the dictator. All we can do is say a prayer that these folks see the light before it's too late....and if not, they had better step aside as we will be going on to win the war without them.
Well, tell your candidate he had damned well better campaign and vote Conservative, and you won’t have anything to worry about. So far, Romney looks like Obama Light.
Pickett’s Charge: Onward, Freepers!!!
Step 1: Elect Romney in November, who is NOT a socialist/marxist/communist/revolutionary/sharia loving thug. Destroy oboma who IS a card-carrying socialist/marxist/communist/revolutionary/sharia law loving thug.
Step 3: Continue to be vigilant of Romney after the election and speak up and out when you disagree with his policies. Remember, Romney is not the choice of many, BUT he has the electoral votes and he IS the candidate choice against oboma.
Step 4: Once Romney is elected, we conservatives must come together and choose a conservative to elect in the 2016 elections. IF oboma is elected, we will NOT have another opportunity to vote for a candidate..dictator oboma will see to it that we lose the right to vote, like all good commie dictators do to their subjects in other commie countries. Count on it.
If you can't understand the strategy of how ultimately we conservatives and this country can win, your righteousness is blinding your vision. You may as well wave a white flag, and bow down on bended knee to dictator oboma. Put your standards aside for now, and think in terms of SURVIVAL by removing oboma first, and voting in Romney. THEN, we can select a conservative candidate who will win the 2016 elections. It is a step by step process. Like I said, if you fail to see the strategy, you will lose, and We the People will lose our Constitution, our freedom and our liberty.
Dump the Socialist Willard and there will be no problem.
Anyone here know of any of Hillary Romney’s actions that have been reversed in Massachusetts?
Anyone have any evidence that Hillary Romney is now acknowledging his regrets for signing Extortion-Care in Massachusetts?
i don’t normally follow these threads, having long ago decided that i couldn’t vote for romney on moral grounds, but you’ve hit on a rational, constructive strategy for starting a conservative party that can grow in future elections. i believe that this must be done for the future of the country, since both the r and d parties are ultimately toxic to the republic as currently constituted.
a plausible way to start a major conservative party is to unite patriots around an un-inpeachable conservative candidate in the blue states (like ca) where it can have no effect on the outcome of this election, while serving to build a conservative party from the ground up and put a real fear of conservatives into the r-elite for the first time.
the problem is finding a conservative nucleus organization or candidate that can effectively campaign across the blue states. if freepers or other conservatives want to do this or are already doing this, sign me up.
"But it is the verdict of both history and Biblical theology that Joseph Smith's religion is a polytheistic nightmare of garbled doctrines draped with the garment of Christian terminology. This fact, if nothing else, brands it as a non-Christian cult system."
There are numerous religions who fall short of God's purpose for mankind. Dr. Martin describes the many cults that reveal the deceitful ways of man's pride of life--Mormonism is not the only one. Such says man is an incarnation of deity, just as Christ was, and denies evil. Such leads to moral relativism and denies moral absolutes. This is why we need to spread the good word of salvation for your fellow man as well as this nation.
The cult of Mormonism appeals to the cult of self deified man--Adam's sin. This is a very seductive thinking, as we know from Adam. The evil fruits of the sinful cult of self have been manifest in human tragedy since Adam fell from grace. Mormonism, like all other inadequate doors to God, fails to deal with one problem: the sinful self. It is for us to turn men away from the seduction of the cult of self to a God-filled door to salvation. Indeed there is the Medicine Wheel of eternal life. We must see the Rock of Christianity as the perfect rock, the perfect door because it redeems man of his sinful nature. Man's first and primary need is the need of God-given repentance towards God and sin. This need has been expressed since Adam. This is why I say God has made man to seek His glory. We are made for God's glory. And God will work in the hearts of those under the yoke of the kingdom of the cults to answer to call of Christ.
It would be a wonderful day indeed if Mitt Romney and his fellow LDSers would renounce Mormonism and follow Christ!
Yep. In the same boat here in the People’s Socialist Republic of Tax-inois.
Sucks.
Hear, hear!
If the pubbies had wanted to win, they should have run a candidate conservatives could support.
Virgil Goode is a trivial pretender. His reason for running is to pat himself on the back and stroke his own vanity. He has delusions of relevance
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