When you're a small party candidate for president, you learn to roll with things: Like walking more than a mile to give your speech, then having the burly singer from the metal band that preceded you on stage tug his safety mat from under your shoe while you're talking.

"That's the least of it,"

, the

's candidate for president, said afterward, laughing. "It kind of comes with the job description."

Two fellows named Obama and Romney aren't courting Oregon voters in person this year. But Stein, a 62-year-old Massachusetts physician hit Portland this weekend, including a speech today at

, a pro-marijuana, pro-hemp festival at Kelley Point Park.

Stein pitched green jobs, renewable energy, student debt relief and marijuana legalization to derail the violent illegal drug trade -- Oregon's

, on November's ballot, would legalize use for adults, regulate and tax it, and lift restrictions on using industrial hemp in clothing and other products.

"Poor people are being thrown into prison for the recreational use of a substance that is not dangerous," Stein told the crowd, "and that is a crime."

At this point, Stein's on the ballot in Oregon and 36 other states.

Her

includes creating 25 million jobs in the public and private sectors, increasing grants and loans for green business and small business, and restoring the Glass-Steagall separation of commercial banks from "speculative" investment banks.

Her recent whistle stops included the Democratic convention last week -- she hung with protestors -- and a half-hour New York session with public broadcasting's Bill Moyers.

After Stein's short afternoon speech today -- the next band was setting up behind her -- the Harvard Medical School graduate and mother of two grown boys elaborated on her campaign and its planks.

On the two major parties:

The Republican's basic stance, Stein says, "is that the rich people are not rich enough." The Democrats have a more compelling narrative, she says, but their convention was "an orgy of influence peddling and a series of lobbyist parties that were the convention behind the convention."

On President Obama:

The president has matched or outdistanced Republicans on Wall Street bailouts, secretive free trade agreements, natural gas fracking, "attacks" on Medicare and Social Security and a lack of action on climate change.

On cutting debts and deficits

:

Among her solutions: Stop getting into wars, cut defense spending by half, implement a transaction tax on Wall Street, move to a "Medicare-for-all" system but cut insurance bureaucracy costs along the way.

On her electoral ambitions:

Turning the White House into the "Green House" would be nice. "But we can win the day by advancing solutions the public is actually clamoring for."

On taking votes liberal votes away Obama

:

"I'm going to feel bad if Romney wins. I'm going to feel equally bad if Obama wins."

Hempstalk attendees interviewed after Stein's Saturday speech said they were impressed. Portlander Pam Freimuith, 57, said she'll check out Stein's web site for details. But she's wary: "It just seems like when (politicians) get in office, they're somebody's puppet."

Stein heads to Corvallis tomorrow, then on to Cleveland and Minneapolis.

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