Questions about Bill Richardson

[Ignacio Upton]

I'm impressed with Richardson in terms of his resume on foreign policy. Being a Congressman and U.N. ambassador are definately pluses, in addition to having six years of experience as a Governor (it will be six by 2008.) However, I have some concerns about his candidacy in terms of "skeletons."

1. Was he involved in Los Alamos and Wen Ho Lee? THere was some controversy back in 2000 about his stint as Energy Secretary regarding that incident.

2. Lying about being drafting for a Major League Baseball team. How can he make sure that th MSM doesn't use this against him the way they used the internets and love canal against Gore in 2000?

3. If he runs, he'll technically be the first non-white candidate ever nominated by a major party. Yeah he has an Anglo last name, but he's also part Mexican, and while he'll do well in the southwest (a growing region in terms of population and electoral votes) there might be a large chunk of the electorate that won't vote for him because he's Mexican-American or "Chicano" due to illegal immigration being an issue. Where does he stand on immigration?

[AspenRose]

1. The quick version:

1. Yes, he was.
2. I doubt he can
3. He is very much in favor of border security but has also tried to establish economic ties with Mexico

I'll let someone else answer in more detail.

[mitchtv]

2. His father was Salvadorean. If i'm not mistaken

I don't know about the Mex. I forgot what he said on larry King

[AspenRose]

4. Nope his mom is from Mexico.

eom

[mitchtv]

15. final word

In his autobiography Between worlds <:> the making of an American life , p. 8 (and elsewhere), Gov. Richardson refers to himself as "the child of an American father and a Mexican mother". This is often distorted by journalists and others who refer to the Governor as "half-American, half-Mexican", when in fact the Governor's American-national father was born in Nicaragua, son of an American-born father and a Mexican mother, thus making Bill Richardson one-quarter American (specifically Massachusetts and Maine Yankee) and three-quarters Mexican.

http://www.wargs.com/political/richardson.html

[zeemike]

3. Bill Richardson started as my Representative in the house.

But he is not actually Mexican american but raised in a traditional hispanic family that has live in New Mexico sense the 17th century.
He actually looks more like and Native American but his father was an anglo.

[MaineDem]

14. He IS Mexican-American

His mother is (was?) Mexican and he lived in Mexico for his early life. His father worked for a major American bank in Mexico City. Richardson and his sister were actually born in LA because his father wanted them to be native-born Americans.

But he is a true Mexican-American.

[seasat]

5. No more problems than any of our potential candidates

and the potential Repug candidates.

I like Richardson. He would be among my top choices for our party.

1. Richardson took over DOE to because of allegations of security problems. Wen Ho Lee had been threatened with firing due to problems with his work back in '96 before Richardson took charge in '98. Where Richardson may have a problem is there are allegations that Richardson leaked Lee's name to the press. Lee was found innocent. The loss of information to the Chinese that was alleged was later determined to have only come from someone working for a contractor on production of nuclear weapons outside of DOE. Lee did grossly violate security protocols. The smear by the Repugs insinuating that Richardson's tenure somehow resulted in lax security is false but the allegation that he leaked the name of Lee to the press before the investigation was complete could come back and bite him if it is true.

His tenure at DOE is also good, IMHO, because it gives him experience in energy related areas and that will be a plus in the coming years.

2. Richardson didn't lie about being drafted. This is another Repug smear. It was on his paper work that he was drafted but he couldn't continue his baseball career due to an injury. It turns out that the paper work that listed him as being drafted was a misprint. Bill Richardson assumed it was true and repeated the story. He didn't find out about the misprint until recently when wingnuts ran smears against him because he is considering a run for president.

3. I think the immigration reform will go through under the next congress so it won't be an issue for Richardson. Richardson supports the mainstream Democratic platform that border security should be strengthened but that we also need a path to citizenship for the illegal immigrants already in this country.

Richardson will have to do like any candidate considering election. He'll have to address these potential smears and diffuse them before they are used by our opposition to define him. I think of several similar problems for potential candidate. We should select our candidates based on who has the greatest qualities we want in a president not on what potentially MSM may spin against them. However, how they handle these particular smears will tell whether they have the necessary qualities to run.

[TheFarseer]

13. how can you be drafted by Major League baseball

and not know about it? Don't the Yankees (or whoever) call you? They just wait for you to read about it in the paper? I don't know anything about this, but that sounds pretty odd.

[DrRang]

6. Richardson's doing some really good stuff on energy. He's

muscling through a program designed to cut New Mexico's carbon emissions to 90% of 2000 amounts by 2020, 25% of 2000 amounts by 2050. Sure, he's probably making it a high priority to make it the horse he wants to ride to Washington but, hey, we still benefit. The very right-wing Albuquerque Journal snipes at Richardson non-stop, but he still won re-election with 69% of the vote. (His Rep. opponent was a joke.)

Re the Los Alamos/Wen Ho Lee incident--at the time, Richardson was on the short list for Gore's VP, and there was a sense that the brouhaha was an effort to damage Richardson so badly he wouldn't make the cut. It worked. We got Lieberman.

I would support the guy. I think that the biggest issue going is energy/global warming/environmental collapse. The only two I see with a real understanding of the scope of the problem are Gore and Richardson. Richardson has the reputation of being a bully, but he also has an almost Clintonesque ability to relate to voters. And he's diplomatically brilliant.

[Comicstripper]

7. I think people are underestimating Bill Richardson

For real. He could easily wind up on the ticket in one spot or the other. I'm thinking probably the other, but you never know.

[Ignacio Upton]

9. Honestly, I might vote for him

I like Bayh too, but he's too conservative and vacilating on some issues (ie. he voted for the Bankruptcy Bill and supports the "everyone thought Iraq had WMD's" talking-point.) While Richardson is also a member of the DLC, I see him more in the Mark Warner mold than someone like Bayh. Also, if Edwards or Obama get the nomination, then running Richardson as VP would be an asset (although I'm not if that's a good idea if Obama is the nominee, because I don't think America is ready for an all-minority ticket yet.) If the GOP nominates someone like McCain or Brownback or Huckabee (the three Republican candidates who, IMHO, have the best shot at getting the nomination) then running RIchardson as the nominee could help, because he looks like a pragmatic centrist (he has the creds in his record as a tax cutter) versus someone who will put slobering over Bush as a top priority, and two people who are bat-shit crazy and believe that the world will end in the next few years.

[paulk]

17. I agree...

even about the "other". He puts the mountain west in play.

[Blue_In_AK]

8. I don't know a whole lot about him

but when I've heard him speak, I've liked what I heard.

[Fleshdancer]

10. Is he really running?

Drudge has a screen shot of a statement on a local NM news station that reads:

"The Governor is not running for President...it's just flat not true. They're (Fox) trying a stunt or something." - Paul Shipley, Governor's Office.

:shrug:

If this was just a "drudge exclusive" I wouldn't believe it but the screen cap from the local news has me confused.

[Ignacio Upton]

11. He's considering it, but Fox is bullshitting

He won't announce until January at the earliest.

[OzarkDem]

12. His record as Energy Secy in the Clinton admin was poor

He didn't really accomplish much of anything and could have done so much more to advance energy policy. He screwed up the Wen Ho Lee situation by leaking his name to reporters.

Based on his record in that job I had the impression at the time of him being somewhat lazy, willing to curry favor with people of influence and make a good name for himself to advance his career. He never struck me as someone who had vision, energy or a commitment to anything other than advancing himself. There were so many minor screw ups in his tenure at Energy that it seemed he didn't really pay much attention to the job.

I'm sure he's a nice person and, when he gets motivated, does a good job. He just doesn't seem to be consistent.

[NMDemDist2]

18. he's not much of a public speaker either

snooze city IMO

[skipos]

16. He needs to get on a treadmill asap

We haven't had a chubby president since Taft about a 100 years ago. I couldn't care less what the guy looks like, but LOTS of Americans vote for stupid reasons, and something tells me his current weight will negatively effect his candidacy. I'd love to be wrong about this.

[Imagevision]

19. Ricardson today says building a wall to secure US. from Mexico is a waste of $$$

Senor Richardson says the US. must simply double the man power currently watching the borders, only 3,000 illegal's come across daily -- So in other words, if we double the guard situation we can expect only 1500,00 to sneek in daily to the US.

Governor Richardson doesn't seem to be too bright but he told me to tell all of my friends that he will be running for the president job in January. I told him so is Obama and he clearly stated that he was unaware of this?!!
(dude seems slow!)

[Karenca]

20. Why did he refuse to support the NM recount for

Kerry/Edwards in 2004?

That, and that alone stands out in my mind whenever I hear his name mentioned.

[orleans]

21. he can "run away" as far as i'm concerned

there were problems with the votes in new mexico in 2004 & he wouldn't let a recount go forward.

"Parallel problems have now surfaced in New Mexico, where a bitter recount battle is also being waged. At a public hearing in Columbus convened by Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), senior Democrat on the US House Judiciary Committee, Rev. Jesse Jackson testified that Sen. Kerry was informed in a phone conversation that optical scan machines were being used in New Mexico to steal votes. New Mexico allegedly went to Bush by some 7,000 votes in an election with widespread charges of manipulation and fraud, especially in heavily Hispanic precincts. According to Jackson, Kerry said he know that every single New Mexico precinct fitted with optical scan machines went for Bush, demographically a virtual impossibility.

" But New Mexico's Democratic Gov. Bill Richardson has refused to cooperate with Green Party and Audit the Vote activists demanding a recount, acceding to decisions that could raise the price for a recount to well over a million dollars. Despite its huge leftover war chest, the Democratic Party has not come forward to help push New Mexico's recount, which many believe could give the state to Kerry. As of now, no recount has even begun, with the issue still mired in the courts over the question of finances.
http://www.freepress.org/departments/display/19/2004/1057

he was in total denial and we all paid the price

"Ohio’s Republican Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell and New Mexico’s Democratic Governor Bill Richardson are two elected officials who seem to care little for the laws governing elections or the people who put them in office. Both Ohio and New Mexico had more than their share of problems on Election Day—problems with electronic voting machines, problems with provisional and absentee ballots and, in Ohio, numerous allegations of racially-based voter suppression and intimidation. That’s why Green Party presidential candidate David Cobb has demanded a recount in these two states.

"You’d think that public servants—responsible for administering elections and sworn to uphold the law—would want to get to the bottom of these allegations.

"You’d be wrong.

"While much attention has been focused on Mr. Blackwell, as the Katharine Harris clone of 2004, Governor Richardson has also done his utmost to delay and obstruct the initiation of a duly requested recount in New Mexico. The fate of the New Mexico recount is now up in the air after that state’s Supreme Court declined to force Richardson and the state canvassing board to follow New Mexico law and get the recount started immediately.

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/1223-11.htm

now he has signed legislation for voter verified paper ballots. that is good, but doesn't make up for what he didn't do for us in 2004

i guess i'm just a bitch--but i don't forgive him