I think it was Donna Shalala who said, "50% of all YPP readers are thinking of running for office, and the other half lie about it." I know someone reading this right now is thinking about taking up the mantle of someone somewhere and running for something in 2010. So here's my idea for you and your first press conference: tonight, get Philly Car Share pick-up truck and take all the yard signs you can get your hands on.

Have you looked around this city? It's absolutely blanketed with lawn signs, as it is every election, and as far as I know there isn't a campaign out there who takes responsibility for picking them up (well, okay, in '06 we would tear our opponents's signs down all campaign long, but that was a different set of motivations). But you could pick them up. You could be the candidate that thinks ahead and fills up your garage with OTHER campaigns' unneeded lawn signs.

Then, before your announcement party, get big stickers printed up, stickers the size of a lawn sign. Put them over the top of the old candidates' names and logos on all the lawnsigns you stole. You'll save a lot of plastic and metal that way, and you will use less energy in your printing process.

When you have your announcement party, you can say that you were the green candidate for reusing all those lawn signs. You'll probably save your campaign a ton of money, too, since you won't have to pay for those wiggy metal stakes or the labor of putting the lawn signs on them.

Don't thank me. Don't even credit me. Just steal this idea and save the city some space in the landfill. Every election is a litter fest, after all, but you could take the lead in making it a little cleaner!