Presidential candidate Michael Oatman, who ran as a Democrat in 2008, is now seeking the Green Party's nomination for the presidency. You can see his campaign video from 2008 above, learn more about him here or read his platform below:

Please allow me to introduce myself; my name is Michael Oatman and I am seeking nomination as a candidate for the office of President of these United States of America from the Green Party, seeing as how the Democratic Party has chosen not to participate this year.

I am submitting my Candidate Nomination Paper via the Tucson Weekly for the Arizona Presidential Preference Election to be held on the 28th day of February 2012.

Now, I would like to tell you a little about my platform. Actually, unlike just about every candidate who is currently running for president, I would like to describe fully (to a practical extent) the platform upon which I will be running for the office of President of these United States of America. For more complete information, you may view my website, currently at http://MichaelOatman.wordpress.com/ where you may also participate by asking questions and leaving comments.

We all have heard the push-button issues about which the current candidates have made their televised sound bites: the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; universal health care; reduced deficit, and particularly debt; middle class job sector improvement; a federal executive trashing the Bill of Rights and the Constitution; the border and migration issues; the failing housing market and economy; and many more. Then, there are the usual suspects like gun control, abortion and gay marriage. In a moment, I will address all of these issues. What is truly amazing and mostly depressing is that I have not changed the above wording in this paragraph since four years ago.

However, I think it is important for all of us to step back and look at the whole of things, “the big picture” so to speak. These issues, while debating and discussing them is extremely important when finding a solution, they have tended to do more harm to the peoples of this country, at least in their attitudes toward one another. We can see that we are becoming increasingly intolerant to what we consider “the other side”, when usually there are many shades of grey.

I think that the Peoples of the several States of these united States of America ought to truly and finally set aside their differences and do come together in order to be completely themselves. It would be a marvelous day when we can all say that we fully know who we are, and who each other are, and have understanding and show respect for this; this which is not exactly the current state of affairs.

With that said, I would like to say a little about myself. I consider myself to be, first and foremost, a logician. My profession is a computer scientist, or an “IT Guy”. The way I approach problem solving is with the goal of *actually solving the problem* rather than giving lip service to some group or a sound bite or two to the media. When the latter is done by politicians, the goal is not to necessarily *do* anything about the issue, but rather simply to quell the populace, or a particular group; to spin the media so that the issue becomes a “non-issue” is the immediate goal of this rationale. I employ no such rationale.

Having hosted and produced a television show entitled “Illegal Knowledge” on the local public access stations, Access Tucson (http://access.tucson.org/), whose tagline is “Everything we should have known, but were never supposed to find out”, and the issues in this season, season two, have ranged from the Question of the Middle East, to 9/11 Revisited, to Media and Corporatism, to A Discussion of Non-Valuation, and even featured an Election Special with Proposition 200 author John Kromko as guest, I am keenly aware of the subtleties of the global events happening today, and I will not hesitate to bring that knowledge to my Administration.

Let us now go onward and discuss various specific issues relating to topics of today. I am and will be always open to input from the People of this Nation, and I currently will make my email address available for this purpose; it is oatman [at] geocities [dot] com and all who wish may write to me there, or to Post Office Box 304, in Tucson, Arizona, 85702, for those of you who prefer snail mail (parcels will not be accepted). If anyone emails me with generally important issues, they will also be answered on my blog at WordPress (http://MichaelOatman.wordpress.com/). I will first state that I am generally, although not without exception, socially left-leaning and fiscally conservative.

In the arenas of jobs, the debt, our banking system and government intrusion, I would like to side fully with the bulk of the People who are disaffected as a result of this as well as the past two administrations’ policies. We must support the People who support this Nation, and we can do that by providing green jobs for every person capable of working, tax heavily corporations who wish to outsource jobs overseas (if not prevent it outright), reduce defecits and debt by completely reforming the banking system and the Federal Reserve, and keep the government from otherwise meddling in People’s affairs. More on exactly how to accomplish this will appear on my blog in the near future.

In issues of federal and executive importance, I strongly believe in the efficacy of our Constitution and give myself as a strict constructionist if not an originalist; that is I will use the executive to interpret the Constitution in its original meaning, with emphasis given to the Articles and Amendments themselves. This means I will roll back all domestic spying, NDAA, limitations on internet use (I’m against SOPA/PIPA and for Net Neutrality), and the myriad of other executive abuses perpetrated by the Bush administration as well (and it seems as much or more) by the Obama administration, I will work to end the deficit *AND* debt, partially by bringing to and end by political means the war Afghanistan (and wherever else by the end of Obama’s term), all while maintaining good relations with nations which are needed for us to prevent any terrorist acts.

I will write much more on these and many issues later, but for now I will ask all of you this: where would you like to see this Nation be in five years? Please visit http://MichaelOatman.wordpress.com/ and share your thoughts with myself and others today!

I look forward to representing We the People of these United States of America in the next general election in 2012.

This is now the time to register (Green Party) to vote and, most certainly, to vote for me, Michael Oatman, on election day, Tuesday 28 November 2012, and I thank you well in advance for your vote that day.