governor bill richardson of new mexico thinks he wants to be president of this country, and so he’s going exploring with his committee.
why not bill richardson for president?
i’m serious. i really am. he’s certainly got the right kind of experience for the job. besides being the governor of new mexico, his resume includes a stint as a former congressman, as well as a UN ambassador and an Energy Department secretary. that’s a quality mix of foreign and domestic policy experience. i will leave it to policy wonks smarter than myself to determine his effectiveness at said positions, but it’s not a bad place to start for a candidate. a factor certainly not lost on governor richardson is that he would also be a candidate who could get significant support from the same pool of voters that obama could possibly draw from. minorities would have several choices of who to support on the democratic side. he’s a relative unknown to most of america, and that will be a major hurdle to overcome with the three major players (hillary, barack obama, and john edwards).
another daunting challenge for him would be fundraising, especially in a competition with so many big dogs clamoring for every last bone. somehow i just don’t see how richardson can get enough money to make himself a contender.
governor richardson is a quality addition to the democratic presidential race, even with the obstacles he faces. only time will tell whether he has the charisma and the political savvy to take some ground from the frontrunners. i hope he does.
(i’m not endorsing any democrats and do not intend to…i just think they should take a serious look at this guy before rejecting him as their candidate.)
tags: ’08 election, bill richardson, democrats
Indeed Richardson is the most palatable ’08 Democrat, although I found him to be just another inept Clinton Administration official for his bungling of secrets at Los Alamos.
I’m not saying that the guy doesn’t have flaws, just that I think he would be an interesting choice for the Democrats. He will probably get tripped up by something in the long run, but Bill Richardson is a definite alternative to the frontrunners.