The Bill Richardson Watch, 4/4/2007

[bigtree]

from THE NEW MEXICAN: http://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/59697.html

April 4, 2007

Richardson wins the Final Four race on the Internet, taking down Al Gore, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in the online "Presidential March Madness" voter game. The contest had heavy participation from Colorado and Ohio.
http://www.progressnowaction.org/page/community/post/al/C2qJ


Richardson beat Obama by almost 20% in the last round in the contest, sponsored by Colorado-based ProgressNowAction.
http://www.progressnowaction.org/


Bill Richardson is off to North Korea, part of a mission to find out what happen to soldiers missing since the Korean War. This time, he's negotiating with President Bush's blessing. More than 8,000 servicemen are listing as missing from the Korean war.
http://wbztv.com/politics/politicsnational_story_093164612.html


Can't say he's not planning ahead. Here's Bill Richardson's plans for his first days as president, as revealed in a Q and A session after a talk at The Johns Hopkins Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) last Wednesday:
http://www.sais-jhu.edu/pubaffairs/media_events/Media_Advisories/MA2007/richardson032107.html

”The first day in office, as President, I would get out of Iraq.


The second day, I would announce a plan for America's energy independence.”


No word on whether he'd rest the seventh day.

A pdf of his prepared remarks for the SAIS talk are here. You can also listen to audio of the speech at this link, where you can here the above quote a little over halfway through the clip.
http://www.sais-jhu.edu/pubaffairs/PDF/nuclear911.pdf
http://www.sais-jhu.edu/mp3_player/richardson032807.htm


Al Eisele, an editor-at-large of The Hill, uses Richardson's SAIS talk as a starting point to write about the gov's positions on nuclear armaments, energy independence and diversity.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/al-eisele/bill-richardson-not-a-ro_b_44507.html


The Six Million Dollar Man: Richardson's money-raising prowess is gaining applause in blog entries like this one from the Hotline. At first glance, $6 million pales to Hillary Clinton's $26 million, but Richardson's tally puts him at the top of the second tier. He also has only spent $5 million, so he's running an efficient campaign, according to the Hotline. The blog Centrisity observes the Hotline post and is particularly impressed with the reader feedback and support Richardson gains on Hotline.
http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/04/richardson_rais.html
http://centrisity.blogspot.com/2007/04/richardson-makes-his-move.html


http://journals.democraticunderground.com/bigtree

[Blue_In_AK]

1. Thank you, BigTree

I appreciate these updates as Richardson is currently my favorite candidate. I'm glad to see he's doing well.

If he isn't our candidate, I could easily picture him as Secretary of State. We're going to need his diplomatic skills.

[UrbScotty]

6. I was thinking VP (nt)

[mitchtv]

2. Although undecided, Richardson is

in my top two. Thanks for the update. Viva la Raza

[ms liberty]

3. K&R - thanks, bigtree - I like Richardson...

He signed the medicinal marijuana bill in NM, AFTER he started running for POTUS. That takes some courage, IMO.

[skipos]

16. Me too. nt

[SharonRB]

4. Thanks!

Gore is my #1 pick, but if he doesn't run, I'm leaning heavily toward Richardson. I think he's far more qualified than any of the three frontrunners. I think he could be the dark horse if Gore doesn't run. I hope he's able to stay in for the long haul. I really think that once people learn more about him, his numbers will start to go up. He really needs to get more coverage from the press somehow.

[truedelphi]

14. Just watched him tonight in a re-run on Jon Stewart

He is one impressive dude!

[Rydz777]

5. Gore

President Gore is not in the race. If he were, the results of the poll would have been different. Having said that, I am a big admirer of Bill Richardson. His credentials cover every base. He is wise in the ways of foreign policy, and he has managed both a state government and a federal bureaucracy. He is bilingual (unlike Bush who is inarticulate in two languages) and he would not only solidify the Hispanic vote into the Democratic column but would sweep the western and mountain states. What is there not to like?

[Blue_In_AK]

7. I agree.

I've said here before that I think he's probably the only Democrat running who could take Alaska. Not that we have all that much influence or electoral votes, but still....

[SteveM]

8. Don't forget: he is the strongest supporter of 2A (nt)

[bigtree]

10. as are most of the folks in his state

[wryter2000]

9. I was Richardson

I don't think there's any way he'll win the nomination, though. :(

A friend in NM has Richardson's health insurance for low-income folks. It may have saved her life. It's for sure helped her to treat something before it got major.

[seasat]

11. Here's another current article on Richardson

(Richardson outlines '08 platform, quells skeptics)

Another component of Richardson's platform is controlling the budget deficit. To reduce the deficit Richardson said that he would support a constitutional amendment that would balance the budget, allowing exceptions for war and recession. He also said he would combat wasteful government spending.

"Congress spent $250 million in Alaska on a bridge that went to nowhere. There were no people that the bridge was being built for. The idea was that you'd build a bridge and people would come, like the 'Field of Dreams.'"

Richardson highlighted his goal of sending every American to college or vocational school.

"We spend $600 billion in Iraq and I want the same response for education and health care." Richardson said.

I like that Bill Richardson is addressing budget issues. The debt is a ticking time bomb and has been ignored too long under Shrub Inc. It limits our response to nations that hold massive amounts of debt like China. The debt also costs us huge amounts in interest payments. That is money that could be used to fund health care, education, or research. He mentions that during times of recession, deficits would be allowed. My main opposition to a balanced budget amendment is that it limits such response. Most Folks that propose such an amendment ignore the need for Keynesian economic stimulus during economic down turns. Bill Richardson has the track record as governor to back up his statement that he would balance the budget.

[Gloria]

12. Sounds great. Except he's taking a couple hundred million bucks

and giving them to Richard Branson to try to fund a Spaceport. AND, adding another sales tax, the most regressive form of taxation, on only 3 counties, including my county, 45 miles from the location (in another county). Never mind that there are at least 13 other such projects, none of which forced taxpayer support. And we're talking about a poor state, where down south in our county there are colonias without sanitation or roads. All the bigwigs went down to Branson's place in the Caribbean to "discuss"--meanwhile, we have people here who are panicking at the thought of a raise in the bus fare because they can't make ends meet. PS--Branson claims to have lots of customers signed up at $200,000 a clip for 6 minutes of weightlessness...if he's so successful, why does he need MY money???

I can't stand Bill Richardson. The first thing he did was lower the taxes on the wealthy (sound familiar?) and didn't lift a finger to save a recount here in 2004. UGH!

[seasat]

13. It's a 0.25 cent sales tax and y'all get to vote on it.

Also a quarter of the revenue would go to local projects. In other words, it's 25 cents on every $100 spent. Here in Florida, the Repug legislature is trying to pass a bill that would put a 3% sales tax instead of property taxes for homestead properties (pending voter approval). We've got 2nd most regressive tax system in the country. I'd love to have your tax system.

Branson has already put 250 million of his own money into the Space port (LINK). He is not expected to be the only tenant. That is why the state is putting up 200 million of their own (not all in one year, though). It's like an airport. Delta may be the main carrier at a local airport but they are not required to cover the entire cost of it.

Richardson reduced the top rate in NM because the surrounding states had lower rates. Businesses that wanted to relocate to the South West were counting that against NM and some were instead going to Arizona or Texas which both had lower top income tax rates. Richardson also pushed elimination of taxes on groceries and medical services. The bottom income tax rate was lowered and an earned income credit was added for the working poor.

The 2004 recount was requested by the Green and Libertarian parties. The Democratic Party did not request a recount in NM. The reason is that there were a little less than 4000 under votes that were on countable paper ballots and looking at the data it showed that Kerry still wasn't likely to win NM even with a recount. The major problems were with electronic push button machines. They had a stupid setup where if the voter selected a party, the machine automatically selected all candidates in that party. If they voter then pushed a button for an individual candidate in that party, it deselected the candidate. If there was a way of checking the machines to determine when this happened, then a recount might have been worthwhile, but all re-polling the machines would do is give the same number.

NM's 5 electoral votes wouldn't make a difference either way with Kerry losing Ohio's 20 electoral votes. If Richardson did the recount in NM and it showed that Kerry still lost, it would have hurt Kerry's chances in challenging the vote in Ohio. Richardson and the Democratic Secretary of State required the Green and Libertarian parties to put up the full cost of the recount (about 1.4 million) in advance, the parties didn't want to come up with that money. The courts upheld the state until well after the electors had met.

[mmonk]

15. Richardson started seeking donations from me

back in the fall of this past year. At that time, I knew he was ready to run. I think in Richardson, you have another candidate that could win some states in the south. He is also a candidate that won't polarize the electorate or the democratic party internally. He is someone to watch.

[mzmolly]

17. I like his day 1 and day 2 agendas.

;)