Baldwin Wins Constitution Party Nomination

Chuck Baldwin of Florida, the Constitution Party's 2004 vice presidential nominee, has won the party's presidential nomination. Baldwin this morning defeated former ambassador Alan Keyes of Maryland by a wide margin. All 14 of Mississippi's delegates voted for Baldwin, as did all nine of Louisiana's.

In an address to the convention last night, Howard Phillips, the party's founder and three-time presidential nominee, attacked Keyes as a neoconservative, a warmonger, and an egomaniac and endorsed Baldwin for the nomination. James Clymer of Pennsylvania, the party's national chairman and 2004 nominee against Sen. Arlen Specter, followed Phillips and opined that it was not a good idea to criticize fellow party members (Keyes only recently left the Republican Party).

As soon as it was clear that Keyes would not win the nomination, the live feed of the convention disappeared from his website. Last time I looked at the site, his backers were blasting the Constitution Party.

The next big order of business is for the convention to nominate the candidate for vice president.

Third Party Watch has coverage of the convention, including extensive comments, here, here, here, here, and here.

Here's a biography of Chuck Baldwin.