Originally published on Forbes.com Oct. 3rd, 2012
Studying the tax section of the Green Party’s platform inspired me to give Presidential Candidate Jill Stein’s tax returns the same treatment I have given those of serveral other candidates. I was rather surprised to find that her returns were not readily available on her campaign website. She had made an issue out of releasing tax returns when she ran for Governor of Massachusetts in 2010. She had released her 2009 return to some reporters, but if they were ever available on the web, they no longer are. I contacted her campaign and they indicated that release of returns was being considered.
The unreleased returns inflamed my imagination. Fuel was added to the fire by the thinness of available biographical material. Situations like this bring out my inner novelist. I could take what little I could find about Jill Stein and speculate about what embarrassments there might be in her tax returns. Saner and more assertive heads prevailed. My good friend, Jonathan Schwartz, of Interlock Media suggested that I interview Doctor Stein. Largely through his efforts and those of his crew, we actually pulled it off.
In preparation I looked at quite a few interviews and further studied the Green Party Platform. I found many of the interviews very unsatisfying. They did not tell me anything I could not have found somewhere else. I determined that I would try for something different. In my interview I addressed the tax return issue with Dr. Stein (They are coming.), got further into her background and closely questioned her about a number of items on the Green Party Platform. She managed to work in most of what you will hear in other interviews abut the Green New Deal and the like, but she was quite responsive even to questions she had not anticipated. I doubt that there will be many of my readers who want to invest an hour in watching the whole interview, but if you want to here is your chance.
The interview will be broken up into a number of convenient clips that I will post on with some discussion of the particular topics. The posts will be spread over the next week or so as time permits.
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