(Constitution Party/ex Republican) Virgil Goode campaigns for president against the odds
“Climb in — brush that junk off the seat,” presidential candidate Virgil Goode commands, sliding into his mobile man cave. Fast-food wrappers and empty bottles are strewn on his car’s floor mats. “Goode for President” pamphlets, Goode pencils and Goode campaign buttons lie amid boxes of campaign literature covering the back seat. He is alone today, like many days. He is his own driver, strategist, scheduler, press man. He appears to be the portrait of a candidate going nowhere.
Except he might matter hugely in this race. Today, he is in Virginia, ground zero for his quixotic crusade, a battleground state where polls say Barack Obama narrowly leads Mitt Romney. Here, Goode, a proud conservative, a former six-term Virginia congressman and now the Constitution Party’s presidential nominee, stands at a mere 2 percent in polls. But that 2 percent worries Republicans, who see Goode’s scant support as carrying the potential to deprive Mitt Romney of Virginia’s closely contested 13 electoral votes and perhaps the election.
Privately, some Republicans snipe that Goode, who is already on the ballot in two dozen states, is hungry for attention after losing his congressional seat in 2008; that he wants nothing more now than to be a high-profile spoiler who ruins Romney’s chances in much the way Ralph Nader siphoned Florida votes and contributed to Al Gore’s loss to George W. Bush in 2000. Some Republicans still hold out hope that Goode can be denied a place on the Virginia ballot, or that he will come to his senses and withdraw from the race in the name of Republican unity.
Goode’s response? Dream on.
full: http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/virgil-goode-campaigns-for-president-against-the-odds/2012/09/23/afc1243e-0412-11e2-8102-ebee9c66e190_singlePage.html
As pointed out at another P2012 thread, some Freepers <3 Goode.
Cenk Uygur covered how Goode got on the Virginia ballot and called Goode a potential spoiler:
In 2008, Goode notoriously had an anti Muslim TV ad:
Democrat Tom Perriello defeated Goode in the 2008 election for Virginia's 5th district (that includes Charlottesville, home of the Thomas Jefferson-founded University of Virginia) but was defeated next election by current representative Robert Hurt.
