Fifty-nine-year-old Democratic presidential candidate Bill Richardson has over the last 25 years proven himself to be a reliable leader serving not only seven terms as a congressman but also as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Secretary of Energy, and as a two-term governor of New Mexico.
Richardson is basing his long-shot bid for the Democratic presidential nomination not only on his thick curriculum vitae and mainstream political views, but also on his knack for the kind of personal campaigning that’s sacred to New Hampshire. He is hoping to perform so well in the New Hampshire polls that he will be able to change the consensus of political experts who have placed him as a second-tier candidate, lagging behind Clinton (33 percent) and Obama (25 percent). Nationwide, Richardson’s support is hovering at 3 percent, according to Pollster.com, which publishes an average of several polls. When it comes to so-called retail campaigning, however, Richardson may have an edge in New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary, which is set for Jan. 22.
Discussing how he might bridge the gap in the polls Richardson compared his strategy to that of Jimmy Carter’s 1976 campaign, when as a largely unknown persona outside of his home state of Georgia, he managed to win the presidential seat. During his campaign, Carter scored a victory, with 28.4 percent of the vote in the New Hampshire primary and then rode those coups to success in later primaries after virtually living in Iowa and New Hampshire for months. If Richardson were to win or make a surprisingly strong showing in Iowa and New Hampshire, it would set him up for a win in the possibly 20-state-plus sweepstakes on Super Tuesday, February 5.
On the major plus side for Richardson the debates show that Richardson has the strongest position on getting all of our troops out of Iraq. This is shown in the consistency between his statements at both the Democratic Presidential debate in Charleston, South Carolina, and then again in the YouTube debate on 7/23/2007. During both instances, Richardson declared his position regarding the Iraq War with the following comment: “we should bring all of the troops home in six months with no residual forces”. He then added that “the lives of our men and women are more important than George Bush’s legacy,” and that “this war is a quagmire. We have to get all of our troops out now. No more politics.”
However, with Congress still unable to pass legislation setting a strict timeline for the removal of troops from Iraq, Governor Richardson’s frustration was noted, on 7/24/2007, when he stated “We need to remove all American troops from Iraq by the end of the year.” Adding that not only do the American people want us out the Iraqi people want us out.” If both countries are in agreement then why are we still there?
While Richardson’s stand on Iraq is critical to his campaign it is not his only focus as was seen in the presidential debate where the strongest positive reaction came when Governor Richardson responded to a question about whether he would keep or do away with the Bush administration’s No Child Left behind program. To the question he without hesitation answered, “I would scrap it. It just does not work, the worst thing it does is take the funding away from nonperforming schools that need it the most and where it should be used as an incentive to increase teacher performance. He further emphasized that both science and math should be made priority subjects for our youths and qualified/motivated teachers rewarded with a wage that is worthy of their contribution to their field.
Other high points during the debate included Governor Richardson’s strategy for restoring U.S. government to a leadership role in the world by addressing the need to stop the genocide in Darfur, as well as, to how we can better respond to homeland emergencies such as Hurricane Katrina.
Richardson’s biggest challenge will be to raise an additional $30 million by year-end if he hopes to compete in the race with Clinton and Obama who have garnered more than $100 million each. Although Richardson has said that he expects to have enough money to compete effectively, the front-runners’ lopsided financial advantage is already obvious when you compare Edwards staff of 40 people in eight regional New Hampshire offices, to Richardson’s campaign staff of 14 with a single office in Manchester. To top the quagmire, however, is the difference that the candidates have invested in Missouri where the top contenders have already opened offices across the state while Richardson has yet to open one.
In the end it comes down to Richardson’s actually having the best resume for the job and his desire to use the office to bring our troops home which is the major priority of most Americans. It is also notable that Richardson’s sensible approach to the issues, his record and background along with his basic knowledge of the issues make him a viable candidate to be considered in the primaries. Besides, for those of us who cringe at the thought of Hillary becoming our next president, Richardson shines like a beacon from afar.
[tags]Bill Richardson, Democrat, Presidential hopeful, Democratic candidate, Iraq War, Clinton, Obama, Edwards, Carter, New Mexico, Governor Bill Richardson, No Child Left Behind[/tags]