For some of my comments I ask forgiveness in advance and begin with the fact that I am standing under my heavy platform, yet not standing on Mr. Tamminen's.  Somewhere close though.

As I thank him, I also excuse my tongue, stuck, permanently in the side of my cheek with my mouth wide open for too long.  To not say something would be remise.  As well as all Mr. Tamminen's solid proposals there is a duty of each individual, running or not.  So hopefully with no offense intended I contribute:

I would go greener and leaner!  I think Mr. Tamminen has good ideas but lets look as closely as he does and try to find the best solution.  

We can have an economy built on building more, and more.  And "We the People" can subsidize more research into alternative fuels, green building, corn, or bowel movements:  All lucrative and worth while.

But, government spending is more than subsidies and investments.  Where does all that money come from anyway?  Where does it go?  I'm not against spending but spending more never helped to solve my financial problems.

Give me a day off, without pay, and see where I volunteer:  I will be volunteering for freedom from my economy.  Plus, there are people wanting to work more than 40 hours per week.  Odd?  Yes!  But…that is America.  Work hard, play hard.  I get it.  And I like it.

Give me the job of making the rules and seeing that they (oil companies, eventually corn farmers, solar and wind energy providers, green companies) get regulated.  Business will love it.  Maybe I can even start a business that helps explain regulation to laymen!

But what about the so called values?  Do contribute to our economy.  Make it what you want.  It can be efficient and clean.  Useful and lean.

My best "shot":

Buildings and roofs built from bullet proof glass?  With solar panels behind them and gutters that catch, direct and store all that water!  It sounds radical but is it really crazy?  We will have solved the two or three biggest problems facing the U.S.  Terrorism, water shortages, and energy sources, as well as creating short term production and job creation (Business likey), community even?    Direct current (DC) energy could be freely available if our sidewalks and walls were made with this concoction.  That means freely availabe, if not simply free, electricity for phones, computers…and cars?

If you want to build, build me a safe place.  I'm tired of oil in my asphalt, oil in my water, and oil in my car, too.  Give me a bike and a solar panel.  Maybe a train to ride and a car to show off a little.  

Our Veterans will need employment, as well as those who are looking for jobs designing and creating.  Build us cities made from strong glass, clear and stable like we want our selves to be.  Like our government would like to be able to be, and like our children will want to see.  Don't build in another factory.  I believe.

Candidates can have, and usually do have good intentions.  Smart, doable policies and proposals.  But it is up to the individual people that make up this country, and world, to decide how money will be spent, and life, lived in the future.  Post Bush, in 1/20/09  we will be in a new time.  And from now on, on September 1st, I will celebrate the freedom that was known before terrorism, after terrorism.  I will thank my mind for the freedom to protect and adapt.  I will assess the dangers that face US and everyone as I do for myself.  We must celebrate life and beauty and freedom.  Cherish it, don't bury it.  Look at it and learn from it.  

It is a brave new world and One not to be played with.  So take it back, and then let it go, by understanding the problems to the solutions.  

And look closely at the world you want to build, because it will be the world you construct that you will live and die in.

Here's to newness, my grandmother's favorite part of the United States Constitution: A peaceful transition from one leader to the next.

I'd vote for you based on these points (if I lived in the USA), but you've got one rather naive plank in your platform.  Hydrogen is NOT an energy source.  And with the amount of coal-based electricity in the US, converting diesel engines to hydrogen would be a step backward.  Search Grist for recent articles on coal mining and you'll see it's not just about the emissions.  

Instead of converting all diesel engines to emerging, expensive, not ready for prime time technologies, ask an engineer about ways to clean up existing technologies.  Start by replacing every diesel engine older than about 1995 with a new diesel engine.  

And while you're at it, replace gasoline engines with diesel.  Why would you want to do that?  Because with significantly better fuel economy from diesel, you produce less CO2 per mile than a gasoline engine.  

Having said that, there is a place for biodiesel, even with its current expense.  As sulfur gets removed from regular diesel fuel, the lubricity of the fuel is diminished.  Biodiesel is an effective lubricant, so it can be combined with petro diesel the same way that ethanol is combined with gasoline.

With intelligent engineering, petro diesel can be every bit as environmentally sound as biodiesel.  Let hydrogen wait until the coal-fired power plants are gone, and until storage problems have been solved (hydrazine cells are a step in the right direction, but are still problematic).

(See Wikipedia for more information on diesel.)

The Bailo Platform:

Plank # 1:

Do everything else the Bush Administration has been doing without changes.

4 more years!

BTW -- what's with all the Old School HTML tags -- I haven't used those since 1996!   What's next...will you bring back the <BLINK> tag ?!

If we use the technology we have, we could make 15
billion gallons of ethanol from the 250 million tons of municipal solid waste (MSW) we create each
and every year.

We could convert medical toxic wastes, industrial and industrial hazardous wastes, contaminated soils, oily sludges, plastics, used tires and batteries, construction waste and sewage to fuel or synthesis gas and an inert, unleachable glassy slag with nothing left to bury.  Instead of millions of tons per year, we are talking about billions of tons of these wastes.

Convert all wastes we make each and every year and we would not have to import foreign fuels.  This makes too much sense to do, I suppose.  Also
it wouldn't be politically practical as farmers would have to give up their subsidies.

The proven technology is plasma gasification, which approaches being a universal solvent by using temperatures hotter than the surface of the sun to convert materials to their basic elements, leaving nothing left to be buried.  Gee, wouldn't
that be grand for our environment.  No trash to biodegrade into methane, which is 23 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.  Also, we wouldn't have chemicals leaching from landfills, reaching out fingers of filth to contaminate our ground water.

The gas from plasma gasification can be used to make green electricity or ethanol.  If electricity
condensation of steam at a world-scale plant will produce 7,900,000 gallons of distilled water per day and from seawater.

Why don't we use what we have to solve our problems?  I suppose it's not politically profitable to do so.  Many special interests (read campaign contributors) would get hurt if the national administration and congress serve the public rather than special interests.

My platform calls for clean air, no war, and no republican'ts. Thats about it honestly.

Good luck.

Just that fidelity and faithfulness are good values to promote too.

...than Bush.

I'm afraid, though, that some of your points are a bit naive, meaning I doubt you'd make it in politics (this can be counted as a compliment if you like). However, I think your point 5 is a good idea, though it would be interesting to see which would be considered the lesser of two evils by government employees: working an extra day and not having to bother about anyone else, or getting a free day and having to spend it helping other people. Maybe I'm just cynical.

As I'm not from the U.S., I'd like to think the U.S. elections won't affect me, but I realise that's a hopeless thought. So, if I was eligible, I'd certainly vote for you, or at any rate for some of those policies, most importantly for the country to stop shovelling cash down drains, to get its nose out of other countries' affairs, and to use its world influence for something positive (such as cleaning up the air and the water?) rather than for encouraging wars.

 I agree with Terry.  Apologize to the Iraqi people, commit to US reparations, and start trying to extricate this country from being the world's policeman (and a rather brutal one at that).  Along those lines, endorse a UN sponsored regional peace conference to resolve the situations in both Iraq and Afghanistan.  (Some suggested proposals - a) a federated Republic of Iraq, with oil revenues distributed among the various provinces based solely on their population size; b) regional disarmament [including EVERYONE, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, India, Israel, Syria, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc.], coupled to a promise that all US [and Western European and other outside countries] forces will be permanently withdrawn from the entire region.)

 Totally revise US foreign policy as follows:  a) no more military aid to ANYONE; b) humanitarian and development aid to countries based on need through UN agencies, with no US strings attached; c) a new US policy favoring allowing every country the right of self-determination, based on popular plebescite, on what kind of government it wants; d)  no more US interference with any country's internal affairs; e) a commitment to take international disputes to the UN, rather than attempt unilateral action; f) agree to have the US participate in the World Court;  g) have the US ratify the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

  Announce a policy of phased demilitarization of the country.  Included in that would be the unilateral reduction in the size of the U.S. military to make it comparable to those of other major world powers.  Follow that up with a proposal for phased reductions, through internationally supervised treaties, in all countries' military forced.  Unilateral action by the U.S. to reduce nuclear stockpiles to a size comparable to that of Russian stockpiles, followed by phased and policed reductions in the stockpiles of all nuclear powers.

 Establish a national single-payer healthcare system, modeled loosely after the Canadian system.

 Establish public financing for all federal elections, along the lines of the systems already put in place in Maine and Arizona.  Propose a constitutional amendment allowing reasonable limitations on "independent" campaign expenditures in elections and providing for a one week campaign-free "cooling off" period just prior to the election.  Eliminate the Electoral College and replace it by a national popular vote for the presidency.

 Make combatting global warming the number one national priority.  That includes: a) establishing new gas mileage standards for all vehicles, with those standards to be ratchetted up on an annual basis; b)  establish a national institute of climate and energy research, with all research coming out of the institute freely available in the public domain.  Major research areas would include: alternative power sources, with an emphasis on renewable carbon-free sources, study of ways of removing greenhouse gases from the atmosphere, etc.;  c) establish a national carbon tax, with the proceeds to be used both to fund energy research and to assist in decreasing the societal disruption caused by reducing energy use

 Establish a National Institute of Environmental Research to study how American society is impacting the environment, how the US can have a smaller "environmental footprint" on the world, and what can be done to undo some of the environmental damage that has already been done.

 Agree to undo NAFTA and other "free trade" agreements, and replace them by trade agreements that require participating countries to respect uniform environmental, labor, and human rights standards.

I think that's enough for four years' worth.  I'm sure I could come up with some other ideas for a second term.

I'm voting for Terry! I heard him speak at a Union of Concerned Scientists event, and he would be GREAT! as our President. Terry Tamminen for President!  YES!

As a teacher and a taxpayer and a former highschool coach I am really becoming more upset with highschool sports, in particular those which have game schedules that require students to miss class. I thought are tax dollars were supposed to go to education. And yes, there is education in a sport regimen, but it should not conflict with the academic. As far as I know the US is the only
country that supports sports in the schools. Maybe our test scores would go up if students were
not missing classes due to sports. If a politico wanted to promise his voters a reduction in taxes, how much could be reduced by eliminating all of the sports in the schools. As part of a Green platform think of the savings in transportation just for sports.

oops, I didn't preview and saw my are/our error.

stuflash, I think you have a great platform, and I'd be willing to vote for it.  Here are a couple of suggestions to consider.
1.Institute IRV, (instant run-off voting), for all state and federal elections, so that all the political parties have a serious chance to participate.  Also, consider instituting some form of proportional representation.
2.Insist that the military, the Department of Homeland Security, and other government agencies comply with federal laws designed to protect public and environmental health.  At present, they can set these regulations aside with the wave of a hand, (or so it seems to me).  Protecting the country must include safeguarding its wild creatures and wild places.

Way to go Terry, you know I will vote for you roomie. Miss those days of WKA conferences. When you get into office, I'd be glad to help you out.

Bouty  

First off... whoever the person was that wrote the 4 more years with Bush... needs to have his or her head examined.

Secondly
Your platform, though I suspect quite tongue in cheek, is thought provoking. I doubt much of this would stand up, as much as I would love to actually have it work. I also have to agree with someone's comment about making Global warming a national priority. It amazes me that there are still people out there that keep saying that it doesn't exist. We must do something about it... before the problem spirals completely out of control. The earth will fix herself, but in doing so, it may completely destroy us.

On another note. I find that an extremely important point that we, as one of the most powerful nations in the world, should try and explore is the devastation of land and habitats. At one point in time humans were able to coexist with every other living thing on this planet, I only wish we could try to do that again...

But, overall, Terry your positions are like a breath of fresh air. I was beginning to think I was one of the only people who really thought that though if we have to change drastically it may be a bumpy time for a while, but the outcomes are incredible. We must evolve... technology is constantly advancing, why aren't we using it to try and save ourselves.

There are other and more expediant soloutions.  curtail discretionary driving (teens); ration gasoline; move to energy effecient mass trans.

The problem is political will with any soloution, and that assumes there is a soloution. It may well already be to late. angelsofwrath.com

"...gutters that catch, direct and store all that water!" The cities in Australia all have many homes equipped with storage tanks that catch rain water. It's used, primarily, for laundry and watering gardens and grass. Unfortunately Brisbane, and much of the rest of the country, is undergoing the most severe drought it has ever seen. Years of drought.
Bullet proof glass roofs? I'm not an architect, but I would guess the support for this kind of roof, plus the solar panels, would mean an entirely new kind of construction. And the cost would be astronomical.
I refer the other parts of your post to the late John F. Kennedy:
"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country".

I thought I might point out to you that Terry is an accomplished skin diver and well aware of the part our oceans play in this scenario. Get his book. You'll see it in there.