User:PeterAnthonyRU/sandbox/Jill Stein

Stein's decision to enter the presidential race stemmed from a mock election at Western Illinois University where she fared well,to her surprise. The mock election featured the Green ticket of Stein/Mesplay, Democratic ticket of Obama/Biden and Republican ticket of Romney/Ryan, with Stein capturing an impressive 27% of votes, Romney getting 33% and Obama getting 39%. Encouraged by this success, she decided to run to try to win. Before the election, Stein gave a brief presentation to the students - which suggests that alternative options will be chosen if amplified (Counterpunch). During an interview with Grist, Stein said "If I can quote Alice Walker, “The biggest way people give up power is by not knowing they have it to start with.” And that’s true, for the environmental movement, the student movement, the antiwar movement, health-care-as-a-human-right movement — you put us all together, we have the potential for a Tahrir Square type event, and [to] turn the White House into a Green House in November".

On criticizing Obama: A New York Times interview with Jill Stein in February 2012 expanded on her criticism of President Obama. When asked if the president is deserving of credit, Stein stated "As we found on issue after issue--the war, reappointing George Bush's secretary of defense, sticking to George Bush's timeline on Iraq, expanding the war, expanding the drone wars all over the place. And how about bringing Wall Street in, the guys who created the problem, among his first appointments. It was pretty clear right then that this was going to be business as usual on steroids. We're certainly not more secure, more equitable, more healthy or safer internationally, with what Obama has brought".

Activism: Stein gave a speech to an Occupy Wall Street gathering in Indianapolis on Super Bowl Sunday, in response to Indiana's governor Mitch Daniels signing a law making Indiana become the 23rd "right to work" state just days earlier. Stein has also supported workers in Wisconsin, who are protesting against Governor Scott Walker's recent decisions, praising their efforts as exemplary and suggesting the rest of the nation should be just as active in defending the rights of workers. -from PR interview

Positions: The New Green Deal includes an Economic Bill of Rights, pushing for full employment and a decent living wage. The document claims that everyone has the right to education, health care, housing, as well as the right to unionize. Citing FDR and Martin Luther King Jr. as early advocates of an Economic Bill of Rights, Stein claims the US needs an economy that serves people and recognizes their rights.

In an interview with The Center for Media and Democracy's PR Watch, Stein describes the Green New Deal as an economic program that is also "an environmental program and also a peace program. It's also a health program because we spend about a trillion dollars as taxpayers on a sick-care system, not a health-care system. To change the sick-care system to a health-care system, you want to have an infrastructure for health in your community, you also want of course a Medicare for all healthcare system, but even before getting there there's so much you can do to prevent illness to start with. Of the trillion dollars we spend every year, 75 percent of that is spent on chronic diseases that are preventable for half the cost. So I would just add as ancillaries to that; forgiving student debt and making public higher education free is a key part of this, and of course downsizing the military and bringing the troops home as well."