On Friday, Virginia Attorney General, Ken Cuccinelli, ruled
that presidential candidate Virgil Goode had enough valid signatures to qualify
for the commonwealth’s presidential ballot. Goode is running as the
Constitution Party’s presidential candidate this November.[1]
Over the course of Goode’s 36 years in public office, Goode
has spanned the political spectrum, once being a Democrat, an independent, and
a Republican[2]. Goode’s
base consists primarily of conservatives.
Goode is running on a platform of balancing our nation’s
budget faster than Mitt Romney plans to and stopping immigration until America’s
unemployment rate comes to 5%.
Thus, there has been concern inside Mitt Romney’s campaign that
Goode could “drain” otherwise certain votes away from the former governor of Massachusetts.
However, it is not at all clear that Goode will receive more than 1% of Virginia’s
votes, leaving Romney plenty of room to win the popular vote in Virginia.[3]
What should be just as worrisome to the Romney camp are the
hits that Goode will supply Romney’s campaign from the political right,
potentially alienating other conservative voters throughout the country from
Romney.
During the Republican Party primaries, Mitt Romney
acquiesced to a number of far-right political positions[4]
that he had previously rejected. But now that the general election is underway,
Romney has attempted to move closer to the political middle in order to win
over independent voters. Goode’s criticism from the political right could force
Romney to once again shift to the right.
If Romney loses the general election, or Virginia for that
matter, he has only himself to blame for the incredible political mistakes that
have been made so far during his campaign. Virgil Goode is the least of Romney’s
worries because Romney’s own worst enemy is himself.
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