Local Democrat Seeks to Unseat Obama

Bob Greene is ready to become the next president of the United States of America.

Greene, a former Palo Alto resident living in Mountain View, and a Democrat, is running in the New Hampshire Democratic Primary in January, the first presidential primary of the 2012 election season.

“Running for a campaign is exciting,” he said during a phone interview while on the campaign trail in Cambridge, Mass.

Despite the obvious challenge Greene faces in his attempt to unseat an incumbent president, he said he’s talking the campaign seriously. 43 Republicans and 14 democrats are also running, including incumbent Barrack Obama.

His pathway to victory is simple: we need to be using thorium, and lots of it.

“I want people to know how to spell it too,” he said about the relatively unknown element that can be used as fuel.

Yes, his whole platform is based on the need to use the resource of thorium, a naturally-occurring radioactive mineral that is both more plentiful and more potent than uranium.

“Everywhere uranium is bad, thorium is good,” Greene said. “It’s a real game changer. It affects almost everything else.”

Greene said the only reason why thorium isn’t widely known about or discussed is that it, unlike uranium, does not decay into plutonium. The U.S. government, after a famous ‘60s reactor experiment, simply decided “thorium was not very good for making nuclear bombs.”

According to the World Nuclear Association, thorium deposits are scattered worldwide. As of 2007 the WNA believes the United States to have the second largest thorium deposit, behind Australia. The United States Geologic Survey estimates the country’s reserve to be at 300,000 kilograms.

Thorium is an energy-dense mineral mostly occurs mostly in the western part of the U.S. Though it is often found as a stable has isotopes in small amounts in soils, and what Greene is calling for is its industrial large-scale refinement.

There’s enough thorium for 50 generations’ worth of energy, he said. Not only is it a way to replace uranium, but also a method of reducing oil dependence and replacing fossil fuels, making it a social, political and national security issue.

Thorium production was a U.S. invention and if we don’t invest immediately, “we’re stupid,” he said.

He’s accepting donations for his campaign, and says he'll need them carry on after New Hampshire, if not he’ll come home.

“You never know what the next day is going to bring,” he said about working the primary trail. “It’s a sort of wild ride.”

Greene said the main reason he’s running is that New Hampshire is different.

“I knew the barrier to entry was low,” Greene said. “It’s $1,000 to sign up.”

He contrasts the primary’s filing fee with that of South Carolina’s, which varies from $25,000 to $35,000 depending on when the candidate files.

His candidacy may not only lack expenses, but it also the bells and whistles of large campaigns — no high production value Youtube videos, no Twitter stream with disconcerted complaints and no Facebook feed with likable posts. Just this slim website.

Instead, Rohana K. Gunawardena, a Palo Alto resident, former neighbor and current supporter of Greene, said she found out about his candidacy in an email from Greene’s wife, Martha.

“This is pretty exciting,” Gunawardena said. “The fact that someone you know is running is a pretty big thing.”

Before Greene and his wife moved away to Palo Alto, Gunawardena said that she remembered him as “a really social and outgoing guy,” as someone that a lot of people know.

The thing she remembers most about Greene, though is that his dog, Louie, was locally known as "the Mayor of Hoover Park," a reference to how often he took the dog to the Palo Alto park.

"The dog was so friendly," she said.

Greene said he adopted Louie, a hound breed known as a “Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen,” from a shelter in Palo Alto.

He was an old dog,” Greene said. “He’s dead now. He was a great dog.”

Originally a resident of a Lowell, Mass., Greene grew up near the New Hampshire border, which along with his local connections, has helped him greatly in his campaign, he said. His sister lives in Nashua, NH, where he said he occasionally stays.

“It makes it easier,” He said. I know the area reasonably well.”

Despite this, Greene said what he is doing is difficult work. Greene endearingly describes his efforts as “rogue.”

“It’s hard being a lone ranger out here,” Greene said.

Greene, along with other New Hampshire candidates, will be attending Monday’s “Lesser-Known Presidential Candidates Forum” at the Saint Anselm College in Goffstown, NH that will be broadcast on CSPAN.

His focus is may solely be on thorium development, but said he is also writing position papers on other issues.

“I have no idea what the forum will be like,” Greene said.

“They’ll probably go on the website this weekend,” he said. “I’ve already decided I’ve written too much. I’ve got 22 pages so far.”

Despite the divergence, he said he’s pushing forward, hoping to raise funds to continue on.

“I’m trying to get stuff done and I’m trying to get attention on the issue (of Thorium),” he said. “This is what matters to me.”