Objectively best qualified Dem candidate: Bill Richardson

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. Congressman: Legislative experience
2. UN Ambassador: Diplomatic experience/ Middle East expertise/ North Korea expertise
3. Head of the Dep't of Energy: Bureaucratic experience/ energy issues expertise
4. Governor of New Mexico: Executive experience/ Immigration issues expertise/ successfully running a 50%/50% split state with little backlash - expert in negotiating partisan divide

Now, I'm not saying that he's MY candidate, but as an objective matter of examining qualifications, Richardson is probably among the most qualified Presidential candidates in recent memory (eclipsed only, I would suggest, by Al Gore).

[Catch22Dem]

1. I think Richardson is a superbly qualified candidate

And I wish him well. Need to see how the field looks in about 12 months before I support anyone.

[SaveElmer]

2. Yeah I like Richardson...

Not my number 1 (or 2 or 3) choice...but would have no problem with him as the nominee!

[Pirate Smile]

3. I'm a little concerned re rumors I've just started to see mentioned.

Now Steve Clemons has posted this blog:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-clemons/a-question-for-bill-richa_b_39170.html

edit to add - This stuff bums me out but if it would be a problem, I want to deal with it now, instead of later.

[crispini]

5. Hum. That's not good.

Well, I don't have to pick my #2 choice until June or so ... we'll see who's in and who's out then.

[janx]

10. "I ask this not to demean or undermine Richardson."

Yeah...RIGHT. :rofl:

[Zensea]

12. This writer is not being completely up front

The real ax to grind the writer has is about Bolton.
But the first half of the article is innuendo & if you go to the link provided, it looks like there's a good chance this is all old news, already explained & that the people directly involved aren't worried about it.
Then what the writer really seems to be concerned about is the Bolton response.
So why bring up the initial stuff? I seriously doubt the writer cares that much about it but is just using it to set the stage so that the reader will be disposed to not like Richardson.
Interesting rhetorical technique.
Make of it what you will.

[Pirate Smile]

22. I hope it is nothing because his resume along with being a Governor

of a western state, hispanic, etc. make him appear to have great potential as a candidate.

[DrRang]

21. The "disrespectful to women" stuff started with a long front-page article

in the Sunday Albuquerque Journal, a paper so sold out to local corporate interests that it's a joke politically. They've been practically wetting their pants sniping at Richardson for years. Furious! Absolutely Furious! That a New Mexican would get so far above their holy commands as to run for president. Far as I know, no one's come up with any actual allegations re groping or pointing or whatever. I think Lt. Gov. Diane Denish probably tried to downplay the whole trumped-up hysteria, and of course that interpreted as trying to hide something.

Over 40 years ago, my father-in-law served in the NM legislature, and it had the reputation back then of being a sort of 2-month bachelor party. It's improved a lot, particularly since so many women are now legislatures, but there are still traces of the old culture.

As for the Bolton nomination, sounds like Clemons is just in a snit because Richardson was closer to the mark than he was.

As to the elections--yeah, hopefully legal actions with clarify that matter. Rebecca Vigil-Jiron is a total twit, and always has been. Thank god she's out of state government.

[blm]

4. Any experience against the corruption of US foreign policy the last 4 decades?

There's been serious corruption in our foeregn policy for many years. Few have come forward to question the actual government corruption, Covert actions that even led to 9-11 and to this Iraq war policy.

A foreign policy expert like Richardson must have spoken up at some point. No?

Why did he undermine the Dems on John Bolton appointment when he would have KNOWN that Bolton was also a player in IranContra crimes?

Why are so much of IranContra, BCCI and Iraqgate continuing issues that are still evident in our foreign policy today?

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2006/111106.html

And add this new article to the mix

http://atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/IA20Ak01.html

[Morgana LaFey]

26. Why did he stop the 2004 NM recount?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=364&topic_id=3159328&mesg_id=3159328

Read the whole thread, not just the OP.

[eridani]

29. Bingo!

If you like governors of small states west of the Mississippi, at least Vilsak used his blog to raise funds for Dem Secretary of State candidates who pledged to put a stop to this kind of thing.

[babylonsister]

6. Richardson has some explaining to do.

http://www.yesmagazine.org/article.asp?id=1511

snip//

The voting-industrial complex

New Mexico’s Secretary of State, Rebecca Vigil-Giron, seemed curiously uncurious about Hispanic and Native precincts where nearly one in ten voters couldn’t be bothered to choose a president.

Vigil-Giron, along with Governor Bill Richardson, not only stopped any attempt at a recount directly following the election, but demanded that all the machines be wiped clean. This not only concealed evidence of potential fraud but destroyed it. In 2006, New Mexico’s Supreme Court ruled the Secretary of State’s machine-cleaning job illegal — too late to change the outcome of the election, of course.

snip//

Governor Richardson, who ducked the issue for three years, and his Secretary of State, once openly hostile to reform, had to relent in the face of the public uprising. In February of 2006, Richardson signed a model law requiring that all voting in the state take place on new paper ballot machines, with verifiable tabulating systems. Richardson now claims the mantle of leader of the voting reform campaign.

[BushLiesDaily]

20. "demanded that all the machines be wiped clean"

That says it all right there. The man is unfit to become president.

[Orangepeel]

25. "Wiped clean" of what? Votes that weren't recorded?

I never understood this criticism. Nobody with any sense can deny that New Mexico's vote was fucked up in 2004. But the problem was that votes were lost by the machines. If the machines kept accurate records, there wouldn't be a problem and we wouldn't need a paper record. The machines didn't keep accurate records. Recounting them would have done the same thing that recounting in Florida in 2006 did. Nothing. You can't recount votes that disappeared.

Richardson gets a lot of shit for not supporting a recount effort strongly enough. And, if somebody wants to hold him responsible, that's his or her right.

But, I don't. I have a friend who works for the Democratic party in New Mexico who watched paper ballots being recounted until Thanksgiving and says that Richardson did what he could do. When nothing more could be done, he worked for the bill that fixed the problems.

Again, blame Richardson if you want (I know Palast does, although people I trust that were there don't understand why), but I think that Richardson has done more to fix voting problems in New Mexico than any other leader has done in any other state.

[IdaBriggs]

28. 80% registered Dems; 0 votes for Kerry. Everything wiped. He can rot. nt

[Bumblebee]

7. Edwards is still my first choice but it's kinda ironic

since I am so proud that our field is so truly diverse this time... I think it will really contrast very nicely with GOP where their only claim to diversity is that Romney is a Mormon (and therefore unnominatable...)

[Captain Hilts]

8. Agreed. I like Richardson a lot. nt

[Ninja Jordan]

9. Is Richardson the defacto frontrunner in Nevada?

[Jim Sagle]

11. Get real. Richardson is short, fat and funny looking.

Just we need in this new media age.

[alcibiades_mystery]

13. I said nothing about him being electable

I said he was the objectively best qualified of the available candidates. By this I mean that he has the highest volume of relevant experience for doing the substantial work of the job.

I didn't say he was electable. Learn to read.

[DrRang]

14. Actually, Richardson is about 6'2" and I'd guess he's lost about 30 pounds in

the last 18 months. He probably now has about the same BMI as say, Joh Tester or Brian Schweitzer. Do you think he's funny looking because he's Latino? Actually it sounds like you have an indelible mental image of some round little cartoon guy in a mariachi band. Do you think Arnold Scwartzenegger looks funny? Hell, how about Gee Dubya?

[alcibiades_mystery]

15. ROFL

[janx]

17. You haven't read many posts by Sagle, have you?

:rofl:

[alcibiades_mystery]

18. If they're all like the last one

I don't care to...:-)

[Jim Sagle]

19. Yes, w looks funny. So does Ahhhhhhhnold. And so does Richardson.

It's got nothing to do with him being Hispanic. He doesn't look Hispanic to me, he just looks like a round fat guy. When I learned he was Latino, I was surprised.

In any case, he looks to me like a cartoon character. It's not him, it's me.

Could I be wrong, in the sense that most other folks wouldn't have the same reaction? Sure. But I wouldn't bet money on it. Nor I would I bet the country.

Could he overcome his camera-challenged persona? Maybe. I listened to him at length a month or so ago and he impressed me as a guy who talks straight.

I'm not acting as a hatchet man or naysayer. I just am skeptical, that's all. If he's nominated, I'll back him 100%, just as I'll back anyone else who gets the nom.

[janx]

16. ...

:rofl:

[Ignacio Upton]

24. Well...

He can always used "9/11 changed everything" to justify his candidacy. In an era where national security experience matters, Richardson could play this to his advantage. At the very least, he could be Edwards' or Obama's Veep.

[Jim Sagle]

35. Sure...why not?

[Renew Deal]

31. Are each of those disqualifiers or all three?

Because all of our candidates would be disqualified by those standards.

[Jim Sagle]

34. It's not a "disqualifier", it's just my impression of his persona..

Feel free to disregard.

[thatsrightimirish]

23. One of the reasons why he is good is that

He was not in the Senate for the IWR vote. We might was well just avoid that. And he is currently not in the Senate which also avoids that headache.

[IdaBriggs]

27. Except for the treason re: auditing NM 04, he seems nice. nt

[Renew Deal]

30. I agree that Richardson has the best resume of any candidate

other than Gore. He is also a compelling politician and will get people's attention.

[OneBlueSky]

32. whoever the candidate, s/he must be willing to do two things . . .

1) be a populist, i.e. stand up for the people and our legitimate needs, and . . .

2) take on the corporations with vicious determination to bring them under control . . .

anything less in a candidate is useless, imo . . .

[TheDonkey]

33. There is more to running for president and BEING president than a nice resume

just like any job. Charisma, character, and other intangibles do matter even if we often want to ignore that.

Obviously Richardson has a power resume, he's a smart cookie and look forward to him working in the next democratic administration but not as President.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

36. Possibly, but I don't like Richardson himself.

He's taken far too many pot shots at Congressional Democrats for his own self-serving purposes. It really kills me, because I think other than that, he'd be a good candidate.

NB. I will support any Democrat in the general election.