About the Candidate |
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Robert
E. "Bob" Kinford Born July 12,1954 Lives outside of Van Horn Texas with current (and last) Wife Cathleen "Catie" and five year old son Dakota Divorced twice, the second divorce in 1985 Military service- USAF 1974-1976 Honorable discharge Primary ( and current) occupation : Cowboy Salary 24,000 a year Secondary occupation: writer and self publisher Bob is the ultimate Washington outsider. Four days after graduating high school in 1972 at Jackson California, he was working as a wrangler for the Grand Teton Lodge Co. at Colter Bay Wyoming. Returning to California that fall he attended San Joaquin Delta jr. College taking classes in industrial wiring and electronics doing the "son thing" to please his father. The spring of 1973 he took, and passed the apprenticeship test for the IBEW (International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers). Walking into the union hall he realized that he was being untrue to himself, and that despite the low pay, he wanted to spend his life as a cowboy. That is a decision he has never regretted. Many Americans do not even realize a person can still work as a cowboy. Fewer still have any idea of what constitutes their job, or how it could prepare one for the office of the President of the United States of America. This occupation has allowed him to view life from such a totally different perspective that it is hard to imagine. Rather than having his mind cluttered up by all of the trappings of modern society, he has spent his life close to nature and observed and analyzed the rat race of modern society. Rather than have his thinking closed by the box of "conventional wisdom," his way of thinking open, free flowing and analytical. Spending much of his life in remote areas he has a strong respect for the environment, as well as both its fragility and just how resilient it is. He has to observe and analyze health of cattle and horses as well as pasture conditions. Since veterinarians don't usually make pasture calls, (especially when the pasture is a hundred miles from the nearest vet) he has to diagnose and treat them. As many of the drugs used in cattle are used in humans, this has given him a really different perspective as to where the problems really lie in our health care system. The observation and analytical aspects of his profession, combined with not being restrained by the DC Political Box, allows him to realize that the current methods to support business does nothing for the economy of the people. Although cowboys have a reputation as being wild, independent and forcing their way through things is as far from the truth as possible. There are times Bob will move up to a thousand head of steers by himself. You have to have a horse that is nearly mind melded to you and know how to communicate with those thousand steers to all go the direction you want. This takes patience and diplomacy to a primal level. Working in adverse conditions from sub-zero weather with wind chill factors near that of dry ice, to temperatures of over a 100 degrees he knows how to adapt and accomplish whatever task is thrown at him. When he decided he would write about his life, he taught himself how to use a computer, lay out books, and how to publish them. When his first distributor went bankrupt, he went up against the bank trustees to get his books back. Filing in small claims court, the Trustee attorneys tries to have the case thrown out, but the judge instead moved the case up to the next court. Once again the Trustees attempted to have the case thrown out, but due to Bob's out of the box angle the case was moved up to district court. Unfortunately, when the court date came up, Bob could not afford the 900 mile trip to court and lost the case. However this gave him experience in the legal system. You may find an article he wrote on the subject interesting. In 2003, Catie gave birth to their son Dakota, who was born eight weeks premature. This not only gave him more insight to the problems of our health care system, and just how much health insurance does not cover, it also drove the family into bankruptcy a year later. Filing himself, he has experienced the process from both ends of the spectrum and has seen first hand how the law works against the average person and in favor of big business. In spite of the obstacles he managed to have the bankruptcy discharged and keep the copyrights on his books, which give a look into the experiences which have made the candidate into who he is. While the other candidates have experience in Washington, Bob's experience is the experience of life. It is the experience of having to make decisions in emergency situations without faltering or panicking. It has been the experience of tightening up his belt and getting through the tough times. It has been the experience of self education and accomplishing things others think impossible in things from gentling "impossible to break" horses, to acting as his own attorney, to teaching himself how to lay out and publish books and design websites. If you are tired of prevaricating elocutionists pretending they have your interests at heart, and want real changes in government, then you want to support Bob in putting "we the people" back into the government! |
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