Did Joseph Smith write the winner's 2012 presidential platform?

so, that was kinda too easy. i mean, there is a ton i need to digest in that platform, but the fact that a prophet of God wrote a presidential platform. it seems like if you actually believed the guy was a prophet, you'd drop whatever you had and pick his up, right?

so, i'm going to do some study of this amazing document that i've only just now skimmed once. but there are some interesting articles already written about Joseph Smith's run.

here are some of the links i found most interesting. (i just googled ... there is more than one would think, since most don't know this happened... like me):

• this is the first hit when you search joseph smith presidential platform on lds.org: Joseph Smith: Campaign for President of the United States, by Aaron K. Garr Chair of BYU's History Dept
• By Common Consent pulled together this interesting list of policy statements on a page called: "Joseph Smith's Views"
• this links to an AMAZING document called "General Smith's Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government" i haven't done more than skimmed 2 pages and i'm floored. he is WAY into hyperbole and needed an editor like crazy, but if you get rid of the the fluff there is some really progressive politics.
• Mormon Heretic wrote on Mormon Matters an essay interpreting these documents into today's political environment.
• The Pew Forum discussed whether Mormonism and Politics were compatible back in 2007. I actually do remember reading this when it came out and thinking it was interesting prep to 2008. haha no one was paying attention then, but they seem to be paying attention now.
• Greg West of the LDS Church Examiner wrote: Liberal or conservative? Joseph Smith's 1844 presidential platform. He goes through extensively issue by issue and it is SERIOUSLY relevant for today!!!
• This is the Wiki on the 1844 election
• Joseph Smith’s Run for the Presidency in 1844, and its Implications for the 2012 Presidential Race -- Roger Launius
• James B. Allen, retired professor of history at BYU, will give a lecture tomorrow in the Library Auditorium on the topic, “Joseph Smith vs. John C. Calhoun: Presidential Politics and the States' Right Controversy.” Allen’s lecture is the third in a series of monthly lectures given at BYU on aspects of Joseph Smith’s life (comments on earlier lectures can be foundhere and here). The press release sheds some light on Allen’s thesis:

In broader terms, the lecture will discuss Joseph Smith's political views as well as his decision to run for President of the United States in 1844. “I will discuss the various possible reasons Joseph Smith decided to run for President but, more importantly, focus on the Constitutional issue of states’ rights,” says Allen. South Carolina Senator Calhoun was one of the government officials Smith met with during his 1840 visit to Washington, D.C. After explaining the plight of the Mormons who had lost so many rights and possessions in Missouri, Calhoun and others told him the federal government could not intervene in an issue involving states' rights, and thus help the saints.
In his lecture, Professor Allen will describe Joseph Smith's platform as presidential candidate and how his proposals resided within the mainstream of the period's political debates. The professor asserts that Smith's campaign anticipated the Fourteenth Amendment, ratified in 1868.

there is way way way more. turns out there are a host of professors out there debating and fighting over these questions. i say we have a mormon debate. i want to hear mormons debate the theology and then see how the candidates match up to the theology.

i'm hoping people will analyze this for realz. i will try, but i'm not a political scientist, so i don't really know how one does all that. i'm just going to try and distill it assuming that his point of view at its core, is correct. that it is based on correct principles.

thoughts?