The Young Turks

My name is Michael Cortney and I am running for the office of US President. My web site is still a work in progress, but feel free to check it out at Cortney08.com, or, you can go to http://www.myspace.com/mcor tney08.

I believe that the middle class is disappearing because Corporate America controls our politicians, forcing campaign costs sky high, not to mention they and their interests own the media. Politicians now spend more time looking for campaign contributions than they do governing. They make promises to the hands that feed them, and then use their handlers and analysts to play the rest of us. It’s not logically possible to accept millions of dollars from special interests groups and not have to pay the piper. I am tired of being played! Your want someone in the white house who cares about the middle class, cares about the poor. You need to take a serious look at my candidacy, as someone who grew up poor and then worked 7 yrs as a non-union electrician, and 20+ years as a union electrician. I know how important unions are to the middle class. Like most Americans, I am worried about social security. I’m worried that someday the pension I spent years building will be gone, or not good enough to survive on when I truly need it. I worry that the health care my employer has provided me with will be nonexistent or too expensive once I retire. If you want someone who represents the average American, put an average American from the working class in the White House.

To achieve my ultimate goal, I have to be better than the two party candidates who are also running. I have great obstacles to overcome and I have no illusions about the difficulty of the task at hand. I don’t have a complete college education, but George Bush and his Ivy League degree is a perfect example of how obtaining (or buying) a fancy diploma doesn’t make you smart. I’m educated enough to know that the Western occupiers of an Arab country  would not be greeted with flowers, so I already know more about Middle Eastern history than the entire Bush administration. I also know that peace in the Middle East begins with justice for the Palestinian people. A good president knows he doesn’t know everything and surrounds his self with knowledgeable people of character, and he listens. People will attack me because I don’t have a political background. Personally, I consider that a blessing. You only have to look at our representatives in Washington after last November’s elections. I thought America’s voice was pretty clear. Iraq is a mess! We were lied to! We made a mistake! Let’s get our boys harms way and do what we can to clean up our mess… But no - the President’s future legacy and our representatives’ fear for their political careers trump the lives of the young men and women fighting in Iraq. My message to cooperate America… “Your taxes are going up”. Someone has to pay for the debt we’ve accrued with China, and someone needs to pay for the war – which if I’m elected president, won’t be our children. If you’re a corporation, your tax breaks will come through being a good American company. Paying a living wage and providing your employees with health insurance. Corporations that go out of this country to avoid taxes will no longer get away it. I will use tariffs to force countries to pay their people a good wage and manage descent hours. I will go after China to use fair trade practices. Long story short: corporate America is not going be knocking on my door to give me campaign money. My only chance is if I can connect with working Americans and start showing up in the polls, then maybe I can work tv and radio talk shows, not to mention the internet. Who knows - I may be able to do this on a short budget. I would like my campaign financed by average Americans.. that’s who I want to be beholden to. I can make us a better country and I would like your support.