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.
That’s funny!
” If you are happy to get 8-10% of the vote and want to insure that a known Socialist/Communist stays in office, do it.”
If you are happy to replace one Socialist with another gun grabbing Socialist....vote Romney.
Your reasons to hate Romney are just trivial—trivial compared to what four more years of a Lame Duck Zer0 would do to this nation. That would be a big deal, my FRiend.
Only the ones who either don't give a damn about their country or the ones who are too dull to understand the threat posed by four more years of the Kenyan.
It is a painfully obvious element of logic that one shouldn't let the great be the enemy of the good. I didn't get to take Heather Locklear to the prom but I love the woman I married. Third party proponents need to do some growing up or look into a move to Realville. This is serious; take it as such.
About mid-October, the Romney camp will publicize Virgil Goode’s record of arrest for indecent exposure that was, supposedly, expunged years ago.
I will.
I’m going with the endorsement of Limbaugh, Steyn, Palin, Cain, and Santorum.
Voting for Goode in a blue state is a smart move, especially when the alternative is staying home. It is a way to actually register your protest. Doing so in a contested state or a marginal red state is stupid.
Show me the link to his comments opposing military uniforms in gay pride parades, BoT.
I don’t doubt your patriotism, your concern, and I don’t resmirch your logic.
However, Goode is right: Santorum’s “take one for the team philosophy” will lead the GOP to silently go along when Romney wrongly steers the ship of state in his social liberal directions.
They will oppose it if it were Obama doing it.
For every true conservative in any third party, there is someone who is a nonconformist by nature and just wants to throw his weight around and pose as a political mover and shaker.
Both types have something in common, however, especially this time around: they have a pathological disconnect from reality. I refuse to believe they hate America. I’d rather think of them as seriously ill.
Goode is a magnet for votes that were not going to go to Romney under any circumstance.
It is sour grapes and pissing into the wind to whine about a constituency that those who go along with Romney as their nominee have calculated they don't need.
It is not as if these are people given to compromise, so expecting that they will suddenly change is pretty stupid. They have been up front and unwavering in their convictions for decades.
Goode has my vote. Romney and the GOP-E can go to hell!
Trivial???
Whatever crisis our nation may endure, what "god" will he call upon to enter into it?
I added: Say what? Obviously God hears the prayers of all people. But we know from reading the Bible that God seemingly responds more favorably to those He is in an actual relationship with...versus examples like Pharisaical religious legalists whom Jesus said were of their father, the devil (John 8).
Many, including Mormon leaders, claim that if we start considering the faith of a candidate, that it might "weaken the foundation" of our country.
You mean religionists might actually prefer having a POTUS in the White House who actually knows the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? Why, how shocking! Do we mean that if the Living LONE God was called upon during a Jack Bauer-like crisis by a POTUS who actually is in a vital relationship with Him...that is somehow problematic?
To hear some tell it, such a candidate would NEVER be preferred over voting for an atheist candidate on faith grounds! This, in turn, would supposedly "weaken the religious foundation" of our country? Really?
Let's not be guilty of 'begging the question' here: WHO is THE 'MORMON god' that Romney was praying to in the aftermath of the Aurora shootings?
Simply, put, Romney's "god" is a man who got the "god job"
Lds "apostle" Bruce R. McConkie:
"According to [Mormon] revelation...
...he is a...
personal Being
a holy and exalted Man
a glorified, resurrected Personage [news flash: The Mormon god they pray "Our Father" to died at some point before the Mormon Jesus became his son]
having a tangible body of flesh and bones [I guess the apostle John was wrong, eh, about God being Spirit -- see John 4:23-24]
an ANTHROPOMORPHIC ENTITY,
the personal Father of the spirits of all men [this last means there's a mom-god @ Kolob w/whom this God had sex with to yield your spirit before you came to earth]
Source: Mormon Doctrine, 1966, p. 250
I mean, come now: Who wants an anthropomorphic entity --a man-made religion about a man who made his godhood level by landing the "god job" -- whose divinity didn't precede His anthro aspects?
Mitt Romney is a direct descendent of Parley P. Pratt, a Mormon "apostle." Mitt Romney's ancestor taught:
"Gods, angels, and men are all of
one species,
one race,
one great family,
widely diffused among the planetary systems as colonies, kingdoms, nations, etc.
Source: The Key to the Science of Theology, 1978, p. 21
So what? Why should Romney be linked to what his ancestors taught? Well, because Romney himself provided such a linkage!
Mitt Romney, Dec, 2007, speaking @ the George Bush Presidential Library: "I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers – I will be true to them and to my beliefs
Mormon "theology" that essentially says the Mormon man-gods & man-angels bounce around the universe and thereby arrive on planet earth as essentially aliens. And Mitt "confesses" and "professes" this as the "faith...of my fathers - I will be true to them and to my beliefs."
Lds "apostle" John Widtsoe originally published in 1915 called Rational Theology.
Widtsoe in that book slandered God, reducing him to be of slime and then mortal origins:
"God and man are of the same race..." (Widtsoe, p. 61)
I disagree. I don’t question your concern at all.
However, it is not stupidity. Some vote their principles and believe that the lesser of 2 evils is still evil.
Moronic. Perot gave Clinton the presidency. <<
Duh!...and some here took the bait!
if we were smart...we’d send tons of money to Jesse Jackson to run....
Moronic. Perot gave Clinton the presidency. <<
Duh!...and some here took the bait!
if we were smart...we’d send tons of money to Jesse Jackson to run....
Trivial???
Mitt Romney, Dec, 2007, speaking @ the George Bush Presidential Library: "I believe in my Mormon faith and I endeavor to live by it. My faith is the faith of my fathers – I will be true to them and to my beliefs.
This is out-and-out elevating idolatry in this country to supreme levels -- to sanction such an idol with a vote/endorsement; whereas, the Bible indicates God will not yield in winking at competing rival 'gods':
* "...make no mention of the name of other gods..." (Exodus 23:13)
* "...neither shalt thou worship any strange god." (Psalm 81:9)
* "Then they shall answer. Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord their God, and worshipped other gods, and served them." (Jeremiah 22:9)
Bingo!
And Goode won't do much damage to Romney's liberal base.
And just how will they go about opposing it? We're already at the point where we have no recourse. We can't protest to Congress--Obama just walks right around them whenever his fairy little feet feel like it. This has happened many times. Are you aware of all the times he has done this? If we have no Congress we have no voice.
Back to the streets again, as we did in the Clinton years? It's much more serious this time, by a power of infinity.
Trivial???
It wouldn't matter what Romney would -- or wouldn't -- initiate from the White House of his own accord. Romney has already sworn a vow to consecrate ALL of his resources to "Zion" (the Mormon church). Given the track record, passion, and inclination for political overreach by Mormon general authorities, who knows when a Mormon "prophet" will enter as a "martinet" of sorts and provide some rigid orders -- pulling Romney strings to honor his vow-swearing of resources to "Zion" (the Mormon church)?
This is no Kennedy-Pope parallel because Kennedy never vowed to consecrate all he had to the Catholic church -- and no track record of quotes from Popes from recent generations can be composed to match these quotes below from Mormon general authorities...Please keep in mind that except for the first three statements below, ALL of them were made by Lds leaders between the 1960s and 1980s...and even the third statement was being reprinted in official publications ranging from 1984 in a book -->July 7, 2011 in the Lds church-owned Deseret News!
| Lds Leader | Chronological 'Prophet' or Fundamental # (or Other Title) | Overlap Areas: Could the President of the U.S. become a 'puppet' to an Lds 'Prophet?' (The Lds Prophets -- in their own words) | |
| John Taylor | Lds 'Prophet' #3 | “The Almighty has established this kingdom with order and laws and every thing pertaining thereto…[so] that when the nations shall be convulsed, we may stand forth as saviours…and finally redeem a ruined world, not only in a religious but in a political point of view.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 9, p. 342, April 13, 1862) | |
| John Taylor | Lds 'Prophet' #3 | The LDS Church -- in 2001 -- thought it well to pull this quote from John Taylor to emphasize it: "The Lord...is desirous to show us how to save ourselves, how to bless ourselves temporally and spiritually, intellectually, morally, physically, POLITICALLY..." (Lds Church owned Deseret News, Nov. 19, 1865, p. 2, as quoted in Teachings of Presidents of the Church: John Taylor (2001, p. 178). Also from p. 178: "The idea of strictly religious feelings with us, and nothing else, is out of the question...Our religion is more comprehensive than that of the world...it embraces all the interests of humanity in every conceivable phrase..." (Original source: The Gospel Kingdom, 1943, p. 168) | |
| Orson Hyde | President of the Lds Quorum of the 12 Apostles for 28 years (1847-1875) | “What the world calls ‘Mormonism’ will rule every nation...God has decreed it, and his own right arm will accomplish it. This will make the heathen rage.” (Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p. 53) | |
| Heber J. Grant | Lds 'Prophet' #7 | "Elder Marion G. Romney recalled the counsel of President Heber J. Grant: 'My boy, you always keep your eye on the President of the Church, and if he ever tells you to do anything, and it is wrong, and you do it, the Lord will bless you for it.' Then with a twinkle in his eye, he said, 'But you don't need to worry. The Lord will never let his mouthpiece lead the people astray'" (in Conference Report, Oct. 1960, p. 78)." Cited in Official Lds publication Search the Commandments: Melchizedek Priesthood Personal Study Guide, p. 209 (1984) | |
| Harold B. Lee | Lds 'Prophet' #11 | ...President Harold B. Lee said: 'We must learn to give heed to the words and commandments that the Lord shall give through his prophet, '...as if from mine own mouth...(D&C 21:4-5)...You may not like what comes from the authority of the Church. It may contradict your political views. It may contradict your social views. It may interfere with some of your social life. But if you listen to these things, as if from the mouth of the Lord himself..." Cited in official Lds publication Remember Me: Relief Society Personal Study Guide I, p. 27 (1989) | |
| Spencer Kimball | Lds 'Prophet' #12 | "President Spencer W. Kimball said: '...We deal with many things which are thought to be not so spiritual; but all things are spiritual with the Lord, and he expects us to listen, and to obey..." (In Conference Report, Apr. 1977, p. 8; or Ensign, May 1977, p. 7) Cited in official Lds publication Come, Follow Me: Melchizedek Priesthood Personal Study Guide 1983, p.12 (1983) | |
| What about Marion G. Romney, cousin to Mitt's father? | Who was he in Lds hierarchy? (Title: 'President' - Top 3 of church as 2nd counselor to both #11 & #12 Lds 'prophets') | "Elder Neal A. Maxwell has said: 'Following the living prophets is something that must be done in all seasons and circumstances. We must be like President Marion G. Romney, who humbly said, '..I have never hesitated to follow the counsel of the Authorities of the Church even though it crossed my social, professional, and political life' (Conference Report, April 1941, p. 123). There are, or will be moments when prophetic declarations collide with our pride or our seeming personal interests...Do I believe in the living prophet even when he speaks on matters affecting me and my specialty directly? Or do I stop sustaining the prophet when his words fall in my territory? if the latter, the prophet is without honor in our country! (Things As They Really Are, p. 73). Cited in official Lds publication, Search the Commandments: Melchizedek Priesthood Personal Study Guide, pp. 275-276 (1984) | |
| Ezra Taft Benson | Lds 'Prophet' #13 | Benson speech given 2/26/80 @BYU. Summary: “…remember, if there is ever a conflict between earthly knowledge and the words of the prophet, you stand with the prophet…” (See excerpts re: 3 of 14 'fundamentals' below) Source: Fourteen Fundamentals in Following the Prophet | |
| Benson (cont'd) | Fundamental #5 | 5. The prophet is not required to have any particular earthly training or credentials to speak on any subject or act on any matter at any time. (My Q: Ya hear that Mitt Romney?) | |
| Benson (cont'd) | Fundamental #9 | 9. The prophet can receive revelation on any matter, temporal or spiritual. (My Q: Still listening, Mitt?) | |
| Benson (cont'd) | Fundamental #10 | 10. The prophet may advise on civic matters. (My Q: What say ye Mitt?) | |
| B.H. Roberts | LDS Historian and Seventy. Note: Roberts was an elected Democratic Congressman from Utah in 1898 -- but was NEVER seated by Congress because of grass roots uproar vs. Roberts, who took a THIRD simultaneous wife in the early 1890s. Grass roots America collected 7 MILLION signatures on 28 banners and presented them to Congress...in pre-mass media 1800s! | “[T]he kingdom of God... is to be a POLITICAL INSTITUTION THAT SHALL HOLD SWAY OVER ALL THE EARTH; TO WHICH ALL OTHER GOVERNMENTS WILL BE SUBORDINATE AND BY WHICH THEY WILL BE DOMINATED.” The Rise and Fall of Nauvoo, 1900, p. 180 | |
| Mitt Romney as POTUS??? | Aside from above prophetic impositions, why would Mitt not only honor what these 'prophets' have spoken, but what a future Lds 'prophet' may tell him to do? | The Law of Consecration Oath Mitt Romney has sworn in the Mormon temple (done before marriage/sealing in temple): "You and each of you covenant and promise before God, angels, and these witnesses at this altar, that you do accept the law of consecration as contained in this, the book of Doctrine and Covenants [he displays the book], in that you do consecrate yourselves, your time, talents, and EVERYTHING with which the Lord has blessed you, or WITH which he MAY bless you, to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for the building up of the kingdom of God on the earth and for the establishment of Zion." Source: What is an LDS Church/Mormon temple marriage/sealing? [Q: Please define 'Zion': The LDS PR Web site (lds.org) defines its primary meaning: "membership in the [LDS] church."] |
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