On March 31, 2012, four Constitution Party candidates for President held a debate in Lansing, Michigan. The four candidates were Dr. Laurie Roth, Susan Ducey, former U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode, and former Savannah State football coach Robby Wells. The video is below; thanks to WKTV and the U.S. Taxpayers Party Michigan for making the video available on YouTube.
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Southern Dixiecrats are by now almost all Republican, especially in presidential elections.
You must also remember that Goode was a Democrat before he was a Republican. He may have more appeal to the southern Dixicrats than Baldwin.
I think Johnson will pull about 50/50 from Obama and Romney
Greens IMO will have a better than average year with Stein. That is better than McKinney or Cobb, maybe better than the ’96 Nader run.
I think Goode and Johnson will improve on LP and CP from 2004 and 2008, and either or both has the potential to set an overall record for their parties – although I’m not predicting that they will.
Between the three I don’t think they will have much impact on the Obama/Romney balance cumulatively. Nor do I think it would matter if they did. Between Obama and Romney, I can’t see down the well far enough to tell which is the greater evil or whether they both lead to the same molten hole.
Not sure yet whether AE will swing it one way or the other, or maybe even take the whole thing.
@21 Sad, but true massive head injuries have been known to cause brain damage !
@22 It would be interesting if Goode could grab some traction. The republicans could be in some serious trouble.
With Goode and Johnson both pulling some from the Republicans the Greens need to have a good year or this could be a landslide for Obama. Think what kind of message that will send. What a terrible thought to me having Obama and friends with free range for four more years. Hopefully with AE in the mix Obama will come in much under 50% which will stalemate him to some degree.
“That a New World Order is emerging is not in question. The only question is, What will freedom-loving Americans do about it? Of course, the first thing they have to do is admit that an emerging New World Order exists! Until conservatives, Christians, pastors, constitutionalists, and others who care about a sovereign, independent United States acknowledge the reality of an emerging New World Order, they will be incapable of opposing it. And right now, that is exactly what they are not doing.”
Chuck Baldwin – January 27, 2009 ChuckBaldwinLive.com
I think that some of the hardcore Gingrich/Santorum vote could go to Goode, but I don’t think he has the financial and organizational strength to really capitalize on it, and besides almost all of those people hate Obama more and will vote for Romney even though they don’t like him.
I’ve already addressed this before. That is beyond ludicrous. Even a 100% sales tax would not raise that much, even if people had the money to pay it. She obviously has some serious problems with arithmetic or reality if she believes this is true.
“Constitution Party Speaker – Marshall DeRosa”
Marshall DeRosa has occured to me as a potential high credibility more “modal” CP challenger to Goode.
I have no idea if he would be interested, and I’m not sure there is enough opposition to Goode to capitalize on as there was to Keyes anyway.
I could definitely see DeRosa in 2016. Or DeRosa for VP.
“Trent, how could Goode go after the anti-Mormon vote with Bradley as his VP?”
“go after” is a little strong. “position himself to benefit from” would probably be smarter. Do you think the average disaffected Republican could name who Baldwin’s running mate was?
You need to face it, Wells prob’ never heard of the CP until recently. He seems to me like someone who knows the Ds and Rs are corrupt and sees the danger and he has something to say and he’s saying it. The CP has some ballot status, an independent former ball coach has little money and no ballot status. More than likely that CP ballot status also drew Roth, Ducey, Mealer and Kennedy.
I don’t care for top down political parties. Sounds like you people are EXclusionaries not inclusion minded. The Party hacks decides for everyone else. Save your time and money friends, stay home. The Party “bosses” already have decided a man who supported and voted for the patriot act will be your nominee. Good luck with that…..
A point of interest is Dr. Roth says a 2% sales tax (with no rebate) would raise $10T + per year to solve the debt problem and most other problems. The FairTax has 30% as its magic figure. That’s a BIG diff ! Wonder which one is correct? I think Gary Johnson could make better ground overall and within the LP if he had Roth’s 2% plan instead of sleeping with the FairTax people @ 30% and universal welfare checks.
You all need to remember Virgil Goode should be GOODe at this as he’s been a politician longer than Ron Paul. He was a longtime state senator from VA before running for the House. In fairness Wells as a coach has also spent a lot of time speaking to groups of people. So either will do a good job as a spokesman for the CP if nominated.
Constitution Party Speaker – Marshall DeRosa – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=va71bRHQ4tU&feature=related
Welcome to a new refreshing ANSWER: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_SobkISNrY&feature=player_embedded
Where do you fit on the political test?: http://www.constitutionpartymo.org/Political_Test.pdf
BTW – @12 good job p- using the ftball language – LOL – BRAVO
I like both Wells and Goode and I am looking forward to talking to both in person at the convention next week. Both have some baggage and both have some positives, we will have to see what happens at the convention. At the 2008 convention I went in looking for Keyes to impress and he disappointed me, so I voted for Baldwin. Lets see what happens this year. Hope you guys can make it. Also I emailed CSPAN and at this point they are not covering the convention, but I am trying to get them to.
@15 we have no idea. It was brief and lasted less then two weeks. You’ll have to ask Wells.
What was Wells doing in the Reform Party primary anyway? He seems like a natural fit with the CP.
Trent, how could Goode go after the anti-Mormon vote with Bradley as his VP?
I had my doubts about Wells after he left the Reform Party primary, but I changed my mind. He’s alright.
This race is somewhat reminiscent of the 2008 CP contest. Alan Keyes had jumped in and was viewed as the frontrunner based on his resume and being well known. Ultimately, Chuck Baldwin won the nom by a landslide because he communicated the platform better, and didn’t try to lecture the party on what was wrong with the platfrom. I see another upset this time around, with Wells winning narrowly.
Keyes pissed off the party leadership. Goode isn’t lecturing the party on what is wrong with the platform, he has the support of the leadership, is on the board himself and is astutely de-emphasizing areas where he disagrees with the platform.
The coach would have to get lucky by way of a major unexpected fumble by Goode, or he’ll have to run some kind of unexpected interception and run it back 99 yards.
Maybe the Goode fans should keep the victory celebration off the field until it’s official, but, well, ‘s all Goode.
How can you take someone serious when they believe that Obamacare requires an RFID chip implanted in every American? I mean, where do you they get this information? Get informed, and when it doubt, read the dang bill. Jeez people.
I suspect the coach will get the votes of the Georgia delegation…and no one else.
Laurie Roth will splash out with just a couple votes.
and Susan Ducey will get a token vote.
All three will run for VP. Wells might be a legit choice for VP, but I’d guess a party guy will win–like Scott Bradley of Utah.
@7 Troll Alert. Wait, no, maybe I’m giving you too much credit.
Let me explain why Virgil Goode is a shoo-in: Goode has been a CP member since 2010, Wells joined the party a few weeks ago; Goode seems to actually understand issues, Wells seems to be good at repeating talking points; Goode is a former Congressman who can give credibility to the party, Wells is a losing college football coach who might turn the party into a laughing-stock.
Perhaps some common folk may be easily bedazzled, but CP members are not dummies.
As of now, an upset isn’t in the cards. Virgil would really have to mess things up to lose this race.
I think it this race will come down to one thing: communication. Mr Wells can clearly communicate the CP Platform. Mr Goode, no matter how great his resume, still doesn’t match up to Mr Wells. In fact, I would expect Mr. Wells to be the frontrunner right now.
This race is somewhat reminiscent of the 2008 CP contest. Alan Keyes had jumped in and was viewed as the frontrunner based on his resume and being well known. Ultimately, Chuck Baldwin won the nom by a landslide because he communicated the platform better, and didn’t try to lecture the party on what was wrong with the platfrom. I see another upset this time around, with Wells winning narrowly.
Wells may have a shot at the VP position, but not as the CP’s prez. candidate
First I heard that about Wells. From what I understand Wells’ fiancee is black. So not much cred in trying to tar him as a racist. Most football coaches don’t have a racist bone in their bodies.
Wells does come across as a good candidate. Don’t know why he’s running for POTUS in his first race. seems state senate or US rep would be better to start with, but anywho the CP wouldn’t go wrong making him the P or VP nominee in ’12. Well has been campaigning on several college campus including Notre Dame.
Goode should get some media, but you know how that goes as the CP and their Platform doesn’t have many friends in the major media. It’s good that the CP has a larger field this year. Media will be better this year hopefully.
Roth scares me a little. Don’t think she should be the one nearest the nuclear button if you know what I mean. Someone needs to get her to read the Platform again. I’m not sure she understands the CP foreign policy !
Should be a good year for the CP no matter who gets the nomination. Let’s face it Romney isn’t the conservatives hero. There is much room open for the CP to pull votes from the Republicans and Independents.
Will C-SPAN or anyone be televising the convention?
Red, I don’t expect us to agree on this issue given our differing political beliefs. However, I’m trying to evaluate Wells from a pure horserace perspective. I think some of his prospective voters may be turned off by his actions at Savannah State. I don’t expect it to make a big difference at the convention, but I do think the delegates may be concerned about his potential appeal to non-Constitution Party voters. I think my presentation of Wells’ firing as a “disgrace” is accurate; whether it should have been that is up for debate, but getting fired from your job under those circumstances is pretty bad.
The moderator keeps mispronouncing Goode’s last name. It is not ‘Good’ it is ‘Gooed’.
Jeremy, why do you keep saying Wells was “disgraced?” I looked into the issue when he first announced for the CP and my understanding is that the historically black university (I assume the alumni, players, +/- the administration) objected to his efforts to recruit some white players. Nowhere did I read that he “refused” to recruit black players which would be an incredibly stupid thing to do if true. His lawsuit was settled. That doesn’t mean he was in the right because the university might have just settled it to make it go away, but it also doesn’t mean he was in the wrong.
I believe you have a bias toward believing accusations of racism. You need to come up with more details or quit assuming the worst and using defamatory language.
Now my thoughts on the debate:
Laurie Roth and Susan Ducey disqualified themselves in the first ten minutes of the debate, because their foreign policy viewpoints don’t mesh with the CP’s base. Ducey distinguished herself as an articulate and measured communicator and can be useful to the Party, but the delegates won’t vote for a neocon foreign policy candidate under any circumstances. Roth is a nutjob — not because I disagree with her views, a black-hat-style nutjob who looked like she was going to throttle someone.
That leaves Goode and Wells, and I think people are going to be surprised with how competitive a matchup that is. Goode handled himself well at the debate; he is a good speaker and his views matched well with those of the delegates. I thought he did a good job with the foreign policy questions — he distinguished himself from Roth and Ducey and made it clear that he’s not a neocon and that he wants to reduce America’s commitments abroad.
Still, I think it’ll be clear to anyone who watches the video that Wells is a substantially better communicator than Goode is. I’ve rarely seen such a clear-cut case of one candidate besting the field in a debate. Wells is charismatic and extremely good at articulating the party’s platform; he goes much farther than Goode in wanting to end all foreign commitments, including troop commitments and foreign aid; and his economic policy suggests enough affinity with Ron Paul’s views that he might be able to attract a few of the voters Chuck Baldwin won over in 2008.
So the CP is faced with a dilemma. On the stump, Wells is clearly, unmistakably better than Goode. In terms of background, Goode is clearly, unmistakably better than Wells. Goode has a distinguished record as a lawmaker and has some positive name recognition that goes along with that. Wells was disgraced at Savannah State, getting fired because he refused to recruit black students into the football program (even when that choice made his team terrible), and then suing the school for reverse racism. There’s also some reasonable question as to whether his views are sincere; two months ago he was kicking around in the Kansas Reform Party, claiming to be a centrist.
And should the party establishment succeed in getting Goode as the nominee, they’ll likely have to do it all over again, with Wells facing Darrell Castle for the VP slot. This may be another situation like the LP’s race, where the establishment may be able to get their candidate over as the presidential nominee, but may have a harder time with the VP slot.