A presidential candidate who actually returns his own phone calls and campaigned in Farmville?

A would-be resident of The White House who refuses any contribution over $200?

No, this is not President Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, though wouldn't it be nice to answer the phone and say, 'Hello, Mr. President. Thanks for returning the call.'

Virgil Goode has the proverbial snowball's chance at a Fourth of July barbecue in Miami but you've got to give him credit for accepting the challenge to stand up for his political beliefs, regardless of whether you embrace those neoconservative values or not. He is going to run from here to Election Day, just like the president and his Republican challenger; Mr. Goode has the constitution to accept the nomination of the Constitution Party and will race just as far as President Obama and Mr. Romney, even though January will find his mail still being delivered to Rocky Mount.

In many ways, Mr. Goode feels like a local candidate. We've all known him so long-first as a member of the General Assembly and then as our member of Congress from the Fifth District-that he seems like one of us. So it is going to be interesting to see his name on the presidential ballot in Virginia, as it will be, he believes, on the ballots in 39 other states. Local boy makes good.

Of course Mr. Goode is tilting at windmills. Great, big, gargantuan windmills. He is Don Quixote with a Southside drawl so pronounced you don't need caller ID on your phone. But tilting at windmills is one of our most endearing, and hopefully enduring, human qualities.

When Mr. Goode came to town he likely gave the people of this community their only chance of meeting a presidential candidate in Farmville who has been nominated and whose name will be on November's ballot. If he met any school children, he no doubt left a lasting positive impression-wow, I met someone running for president-which is always a good ripple to leave in your wake.

There is no adventure, and no genuine achievement in attempting to achieve only those things in life that are certain. Mr. Goode will cross the finish line in November. That is something of which to be proud. We all have such finish lines, or can have, out there on our own horizons.

Tilting at windmills is most often defined as pursuing an unrealistic, impractical or impossible goal. To dream the impossible dream. Too many impossible dreams have come true for humanity to stop dreaming them now. Banish the impossible dreams and the nightmares have way too much room.

-JKW-