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Bill Richardson: Candidate (?) with portfolioThough overshadowed by Hillary and Barack, the New Mexico Governor's chances at the Dem nod are not so slim
Is William Richardson (Lopez) on the campaign trail? While Hillary Rodham Clinton’s and Barack Obama’s chances at the presidential nod will be debated in bars, at dinner tables and in the blogosphere nation-wide, if tradition holds, the mantle of bringing the country back from perdition will fall, not on an early frontrunner, but on a stalking--if not dark horse--candidate. Bill Richardson, Governor of New Mexico with an impressive portfolio of creds both national and international, a rep as an affable, reasonable guy, centrist politics, and a Mexican mother, could very well be, when the smoke clears from what promises to be a steamy primary season, the Dems’ designee in 2008. A speech he gave in the nation’s capital in early December focusing on immigration all but positioned Richardson at the starting gate. His flat denunciation of the Bush administration’s proposed, and preposterous, wall on the border between the US and Mexico has rung round the country like a shot out of a canon, rallying Democrats and right-thinking Americans while raising speculation that this was the governor’s grand entrance into the race. Fox News claimed at that time that Richardson said he’s running, while his spokespeople said no. Or at least not yet. At his inaugural, on January 2, Richardson, coaxed, said he’d make a decision by the end of the month. Should he declare, Richardson will be able to pull out of that portfolio evidence that he’s not about to let all of his homeland’s (Richardson-Lopez was raised in Mexico City) huddled masses through opened floodgates, maintaining a tough love stand on the undocumented, one that shows his centrist stripes vividly. He would tighten requirements for citizenship, for example, and has called out the National Guard to patrol the (New) Mexico border. These measures are mitigated by proposals to grant the undocumented driver’s licenses and to double the number of annual work and family visas. Richardson’s got the bookmakers behind his candidacy. With a number of senators declaring or assured to do so, in the last 30 years, not one Democratic senator, but two governors, have been elected president. In addition, he represents a crucial swing state, one which squeaked George Bush through in 2004, besting Kerry there by only 5988 votes, and put Al Gore over the top in 2000 by an infinitesimal 366 ballots. And, being Hispanic, with both parties vying feverishly for the country’s sexiest vote, Bill Richardson (-Lopez) is very valuable currency, indeed. (It was suggested to Richardson that, to his political advantage, he follow the Hispanic custom of using both paternal and maternal surnames, but Richardson declined. Our inclusion of Lopez is merely facetious.) He may be mildly rankling some party members, but Richardson’s chiding of the Democrats, while at the same time taking broad swipes at Republicans, makes him look to the electorate like a man above partisanship. He faults the Democrats for taking the Latino vote for granted and calls to task the Republicans for “making a lot of noise” about Hispanic issues with no plan or intention to act. On the other hand, he has spoken proudly of his state’s having moved beyond ethnicity to more universal accomplishments, tossing a tasty morsel to his more nativist scrutinizers. On immigration, he has begun to prod the Democrats as well as Republicans to get serious about comprehensive reform. His creds in the international arena may well prove his greatest asset as a candidate, given the Bush Republicans’ monumental failures in diplomacy. Richardson has brokered the release of U.S. hostages and captured soldiers in the Sudan, Cuba, Iraq and North Korea, and was a roundly popular ambassador to the United Nations under Bill Clinton. Crucially, many claim that Richardson’s ambassadorial efforts in North Korea were defusing the nuclear posturing currently at perilous play between the Bush administration and North Korean bad-guy, Kim Jong II. On the domestic column of Richardson’s C.V. are touted his 7-term congressional residency, cabinet tenure as Energy Secretary, and a stint teaching at Harvard once the Democrats were swept from office, in 2000. Richardson handily won reelection to the New Mexico state house this past November. Were we living in decades past, he’d be singled out as a “real go-getter.” Right now, year end 2006, behind Clinton and Obama we find presidents manqués Al Gore and John Kerry; former senator and vice presidential candidate, John Edwards, also with a losing record and limited experience in the global arena; the right-thinking--but not for an unevolved electorate—Representative Dennis Kucinich; the long, and extremely problematic shot, Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman; plus a string of other hopefuls. Given the shortcomings of the aforementioned, and should Hillary and Obama fizzle or presciently decide, for Hillary, she’ll never win a popularity contest no matter how she shuffles her positions, and Barack, that he needs some time to dry out behind the ears, Bill Richardson-Lopez’s star might shine brightest of all lighting the trail from Iowa to California. For a comprehensive, if not puffy, piece on Richardson the man and the politician, see the Albuquerque Tribune feature story.
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Carol
Amoruso has had several vocational callings over the years. She's
taught young children, run volunteer programs for seniors, had a
catering business, designed clothes. Ultimately, she found that
nothing engaged and challenged her the way writing has. She's
written every day since childhood, professionally since 1990. Her
involvement in the arts, society and politics of Africa, the
Caribbean, and the Latin World have been the most inspiring and her
work concentrates on those areas. She travels extensively but lives
in New York City.