Seated behind the borough council's U-shaped desk last Thursday night were three men with serious political aspirations. Rick Fleharty, Daniel Kingery and John Bootie all want to be elected POTUS - President Of The United States.

This is complicated by their inability to get on most state ballots, along with 50 odd (some very odd, such as New Jersey's Jonathon "The Impaler" Sharkey, of the Vampire, Witches and Pagan Party) other independent candidates. These candidates you've never heard of join some independents you have heard of - such as Ralph Nader and Bob Barr - who also have a tough time getting on the ballot.

The Libertarian Party candidate for Pennsylvania Attorney General, Marakay Rogers, a sidebar attraction at the presidential forum sponsored by Democracy Unplugged, slammed Pennsylvania for making it extremely hard to get an independent's name on the ballot. While the courts have shot down independents for fear of "ballot clutter," she said, California found room on its ballot for 94 gubernatorial candidates - from a bodybuilder-turned-actor to a porn star. Californians - often regarded as a bowl of fruit and nuts - got through it. Pennsylvania politicians, concluded Rogers, "must think Pennsylvanians are stupid."

Each candidate got five minutes to introduce himself, with questions to follow. The men didn't refer to themselves in conventional political terms, such as liberal or conservative. There weren't a lot of questions because, after eliminating the speakers (four), press (one) and organizer (one), there were only six people in the room. This is what happens when you don't have money, advance men or name recognition.

While necessary, it's neither easy nor fair to reduce what they said to a few words. Each has a Web site for you to explore.

The way I heard it, John Bootie, 53, a truck driver from Lancaster, is running to give his granddaughters the America of "values and morals" that he grew up in, and that he wishes for a return to the America of the '50s and '60s. I'm sure he meant '61 or '62, not the '60s in which we saw the assassination of a president, a presidential candidate and a civil-rights leader, and suffered rioting and domestic terrorism.

An independent businessman from Ponca City, Okla., in a gray Prince Valiant haircut, Rick Fleharty, 50, said that "the country is in a world of hurt" and that America has changed from a "we and us" country to "me and I." He would cure America's ills as president by banning imports and immigrants.

From Willcox, Ariz., and self-employed, Daniel Kingery, 47, has problems with the Constitution he swore to defend when he was a U.S. Marine. The foundation of America, he said, is the Declaration of Independence, and he would return to that document to help us dump Congress in order to let the people themselves serve as the legislative branch of government.

The deepest and most novel thinker of the three, Kingery keeps his campaign afloat by selling off personal goods. He swapped a CD player for tires for his 1986 Crown Victoria (with 183,000 miles) to get from New Orleans to Swarthmore. If necessary, the Ford will go and he'll travel west "by thumb" to volunteer with flood relief in Iowa, as he was doing in New Orleans, where I first met him last month.

Deep down, the three know they won't be elected POTUS.

I've got a better shot of marrying Christie Brinkley.

The difference is, they're taking their shot. *

E-mail stubyko@phillynews.com or call 215-854-5977. For recent columns:

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