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| Virgil Goode Jr Virginia Presidential Spolier |
Friday night on “The Rachel Maddow Show,” Rachel Maddow discussed how a little-known third party candidate could scuttle Gov. Mitt Romney (R-MA)’s electoral chances in the state of Virginia and thereby cost him the presidency.
At the outset of the segment, Maddow pointed out that according to some polls, the Democrats have gotten a slight bounce out of their convention, but reminded viewers that “National polls do not decide elections.” Elections are decided state by state according to the electoral college:
“It doesn’t matter how many votes Mitt Romney gets in California, he’s going to lose that state. It doesn’t matter how many votes President (Barack) Obama gets in Oklahoma, he’s going to lose Oklahoma, no matter what. It’s only the states that are in contention that really matter. They are the only ones that get fought over once the campaign has been joined in earnest.”
Virginia didn’t even have a Teapublican primary election this year. Getting on the ballot in Virginia requires meeting a fairly stringent set of requirements. Of the 6 candidates who ran in the GOP primary, only Mitt Romney and Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) were actually on the Virginia ballot.
One person who did make it on to the ballot for the general election in November, however, is the hard-right Constitution Party candidate and former Republican congressman Rep. Virgil Goode, Jr. (VA). Goode has been a Democrat and Republican, but in this election cycle has cast himself as an ultra-conservative alternative to Mitt Romney [AKA tea bagger].
Does Goode "Ralph Nader": Romney? Obviously this is the last thing that Romney wants to see on the ballot in Virginia. Goode stands a good chance of being the spoiler for Romney in the Commonwealth by siphoning away Teapublicans and other far-right voters, and thereby throwing the election by denying the former governor of the number of electoral votes by a wide margin. Even if Goode received just 2 percent or 3 percent of the vote in the general election, he could tip the scales in Virginia, where most surveys show Obama and Romney a few percentage points apart.
This is the scale tipper if you will [opposite of "suppress" the black vote] Let's see now, Goode a guy who couldn't retain his own Congressional seat believes he is a viable candidate for President? I love it, and it sounds good to me!
I am a firm believer that elections should be open, so no complaints here, just curiosity.
It's most certain that Goode is just a gnat-sized version of Ross Perot, an asterisk on the butt end of political trivia à la Lyndon LaRouche, the pimple on the posterior of the teapublican society, but if it causes the "magical underwear tour" a few heartaches and a loss in Virginia, go Virgil Goode!
Let's hope he does make a difference.
Virginia Attorney General Ken "remove the boob" Cuccinelli, a Romney supporter, is saying he will be "impartial" when deciding Goode's presidential fate, but yet we all know he is trying to have Goode taken off of the ballot in the fall, but whether he’ll be successful remains to be seen.
