Campaign Capsule

 

“Joe Schriner is bypassing the political Parcheesi played by big name politicians.” --reporter Nate Jenkins, Salina (KS) Journal newspaper.

 

“We’re just an average family who want to go to D.C. to do what we think is right,” said Schriner – Rock Springs (WY) News.

 

“A lot of what Joe says really would come across as good, common sense to many Americans. They would gladly have someone like him leading the country.” --Editor David Green, The Observer newspaper, Morenci, Michigan.

 

Joe stats:

• 20 years of extensive cross country research for the platform

• 5 successive runs for president

• research and campaign miles combined: 250,000

• featured in more than 1,000 newspapers

• featured in more than 300 regional network TV news and radio spots

• talks at such colleges as: Notre Dame, Xavier, University of Dayton…

• untold number of street corner, small town diner, county fair… stumping

 

Concerned Parent Runs for President

--Lancaster (Ohio) Eagle Gazette headline

 

In Joe’s words:

 

“My wife Liz and I are concerned Midwestern parents from Ohio. We’re concerned our kids, and everybody’s kids for that matter, are inheriting a country that’s getting more and more nuts. It’s a nation of looming climate change chaos, 55 million abortions, a $17 trillion National Debt, never ending war, city (and school) violence that’s going off the charts… I mean, we used to worry about our kids doing okay in English class. Now Liz and I are more worried about whether they’ll be shot to death in English Class.

 

Also for the longest time, we’ve had U.S. Presidents who have either gone to Yale or Harvard -- yet the problems kept getting worse! So instead of Yale or Harvard, we went to all of: America. There had to be people out there, not with yet more complicated formulas to solve the nation’s problems, but rather people with “common sense” ideas on how to solve the nation’s problems. And we found them.

 

Armed with their ideas, we set out on a different type of presidential campaign. And the following is a brief chronology of our story…”

 

the early years

 

In 1990, I embarked on an extensive “Listening Tour” of America. I listened to a wide variety of takes on practically every societal issue imaginable. What’s more, I looked at a wide array of common sense, local projects already in place to impact many of these issues.

 

I’m also a former small town journalist. I took a lot of notes on this journey.

 

This ‘first phase’ lasted eight years. We logged more than 100,000 miles.

 

The ‘we’ part?

 

I met my wife Liz on the road a few years into the traveling. Then the kids started coming. There were a few brief “layovers” during all this, but for the most part, we kept on the road.

 

In 1998, we settled in Ripley, Ohio (pop. 1,738).

In Ripley, we compiled the notes and shaped them into a preliminary American Peoples’ Platform. Because, well, almost all the ideas came from the American people.

After a year in Ripley of doing odd jobs, cutting our lawn, changing diapers and spending late nights on the platform… we headed out into America again. This time to run for president. Of the United States. Of America. Seriously.

 

I gave a Declaration Speech at the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia to kick things off on April 30, 1999 – and I have been running ever since.

 

At one point in the campaigning, I told the Jamestown Sun newspaper in upstate New York: “This is a serious attempt by an average citizen to run for president.”

 

And it is.

 

running again, and again, and…

 

To date, this is my fifth consecutive election cycle.

Our campaign vehicle(s) have been late model motor homes. With the family in tow, we’ve logged another 150,000 miles, or so, campaigning. (I, in fact, may have traveled more domestic road miles than any other American presidential candidate, ever!)

 

It’s been noted often in the press that I do all the things other presidential candidates do, only on a considerably smaller budget and with less fanfare.

 

“Over the years, we have been featured in more than 1,000 newspapers, from the LA Times to the Rising Sun Herald in rural Maryland (readership 800 on a good week). There have been close to 200 regional network (CBS, ABC, NBC… local affiliates) TV news spots, not to mention such local cable access shows as Hibbings, Minnesota’s ‘Voice of the People’ (viewership 200, tops).

 

And we’ve put up so many campaign flyers on town bulletin boards that, well, I can’t even tell you. Let it suffice to say, we’ve campaigned extensively in each state in the Continental U.S. about least three times, or more -- and have spent a fortune on thumb tacks.

 

This campaigning has also included talks at numerous colleges (from such big colleges as Notre Dame, Xavier, Dayton University… to such small colleges as Georgia’s La Grange College, North Carolina’s Greensboro College, Ohio’s Southern State Community College…) I’ve also talked at some high schools, civic venues, town squares, backyard gatherings… As I have stumped even more (like 100 times more) in small town diners, on street corners, at Little League baseball games – in between innings, of course.

And as we’ve continued to travel, we’ve continued to do the research as well. In fact, I’ve filled up a lot more notebooks.

 

continuing on…

 

Now running for president is, indeed, a good way to get a message out. And we have done that, in spades! What’s more, if someone(s) picks up on an idea and tries it in their own town, for instance, it’s as if I get part of a policy enacted long before I ever get to D.C. And who knows how far it ripples out from there.

 

But our campaign is not just about getting a message out. I’m also in it to: win. Then just think how much more effective this all would be.

 

See, we think this platform we have is, by far, the best. That is, it is the best when it comes to, not so much placating the adult voting populace, as it is the best for, well, making the nation (and the world) a lot saner and safer for all our children.

 

And yeah, the kids can’t vote. But they can look up at us adults through those innocent, young eyes and trust we’re doing the best thing for them.

 

Liz and I believe we are.

 

So, it’s on to the next town.

 

Note: This website is a reflection of the breadth of our research and campaigning. Since we didn’t have the national press following us from town to town, we tried to chronicle it all the best we could. We’ve had an ongoing blog all these years. There is a section of road maps that show our travel routes, with some text explaining some of the stops. There are a good number of road photos. And even the long position papers read, in part, like travelogues in regard to the various places in the country that we got the ideas.

 

Buckle up.

 

--Joe